Astro- Chapters,8,9,15,16

Which of the following is NOT a product of the first step in the p-p chain of nuclear fusion?

a form of helium

According to the formula E=mc2,

a little bit of mass can be converted into a substantial amount of energy

The Van Allen belt is

a region of trapped charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere

The largest part of the Earth is its

mantle

The lunar highlands are made mostly of rocks that

rose to the top as the Moon cooled from a molten state early in its history

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?

they do not have an atmosphere

The process of fusion that keeps our Sun shining begins with which building blocks?

two protons

Mercury is a small planet and therefore has trouble holding on to an atmosphere. How then do scientist account for the extremely thin atmosphere that was found around the planet in 1985?

the Sun's "wind" of particles is chipping atoms off the surface of Mercury

A friend (who does not have the new awareness which you have gained from this course) suggests that the mechanism that keeps the Sun shining as brightly as it does is the burning of coal. You brilliantly challenge his theory! Your challenge comes in several related steps; which of the following is one of those steps?

the dating of radioactive rocks show that the Earth and thus the Sun are billions of years old

Which of the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?

the difference in temperature between Mercury's daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planet in the solar system

Which of the following statements about antimatter is true ?

when a particle of matter and the corresponding particle of antimatter meet, they become pure energy

Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?

Deep inside craters in the regions near the Moon's poles

Solar wind particles can be captured by the Earth's magnetosphere. When these particles spiral down along the magnetic field into the atmosphere, they are responsible for:

aurorae (northern and southern lights)

In the Sun, when a positron and an electron collide, they will produce:

energy in the form of a gamma ray

Astronomers have some guesses about what is happening in the Sun's core, but they have NO evidence at all about what is going on there.

False

Astronomers now believe that all of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere was delivered to the Earth by comets that hit our planet after it cooled.

False

It takes very high temperature for nuclear fusion reactions to be able to occur in the core of a star. Our Sun has not yet reached such temperatures, but it will someday.

False

Our best current hypothesis for the origin of the Moon says that the Moon formed elsewhere and then was captured into orbit around the Earth.

False

Storms from the Sun can disturb communication with astronauts who are in the International Space Station, but they don't have any effect on technology on the surface of planet Earth.

False

The Earth's atmosphere was about 20% oxygen right from the beginning, and has not varied much over our planet's history.

False

The planet Mercury takes 88 days to orbit the Sun and also takes 88 days to rotate once on its axis.

False

When life first formed on Earth, our planet's atmosphere was pretty much the same as it is today.

False

Our Sun is in equilibrium between gravity and the pressure produced by fusion, so that, despite it being a ball of gas, it neither collapses nor expands.

TRUE

Which of the following statements about the rocks brought back from the Earth's Moon by the astronauts is TRUE?

The Moon rocks were puzzling, because they resemble rocks from the Earth's crust in many ways, but also have subtle differences

Which of the following statements about the Sun's photosphere is NOT TRUE?

The photosphere is significantly hotter than all the layers of the Sun beneath it (further inward)

A typical solar flare lasts for 5 to 10 minutes, and yet it can release a total amount of energy equivalent to that of a million hydrogen bombs.

True

Eruptive prominences on the Sun can grow to be much bigger than planet Earth.

True

One piece of evidence showing that Mercury must have a metallic core is that it has a weak magnetic field.

True

The Earth's atmosphere and oceans redistribute heat from the Sun so it goes from warmer to cooler areas. In the atmosphere we call the effects of that redistribution weather.

True

The first spacecraft to give us close-up views of Mercury's surface was Mariner 10.

True

The ozone layer, which protects us from much of the ultraviolet light of the Sun, only became possible about two billion years ago.

True

The temperatures inside the Sun are so great that the material is in the form of a plasma

True

The mountains on the Moon

are the result of giant impacts during the Moon's long history of being hit

One way in which the ozone layer is useful for life forms on the Earth's surface is that it

absorbs ultra-violet light, preventing much of it from reaching the surface

Astronomers now realize that flares, sunspots, and bright regions in the chromosphere of the Sun tend to occur in the same place and at the same time. The places in the Sun where all of these occur together are called

active regions

We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are:

ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon

Coronal Mass Ejections from the Sun have many serious effects on or near the Earth. Which of the following is NOT one of these effects?

causing huge cyclones around the equator of the Earth

The hotter region directly above the Sun's visible surface is called the

chromosphere

The hottest zone in the Sun is the

core

Which part of the Earth has the greatest density?

core

The ten million tons of particles that escape the Sun each year in the form of the solar wind get out mainly through regions called

coronal holes

Which of the following is NOT something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon?

discovering that the Moon has a great deal of water under its surface

As astronomers have learned more about the structure of the Sun, they have found that it

is made entirely of hot gas

Today we realize that the source of energy for the Sun is a process called

nuclear fusion

Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE?

on Earth, we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us

The region around the Earth where charged particles are trapped and spiral around is called:

the magnetosphere

In which region of the Earth's atmosphere have you spent most of your life?

the troposphere