Astronomy Final Exam
A little over 80% of the Moon's surface is covered by ___(a)___ while the remainder of the surface is covered by ___(b)___.
(a) Lunar Highlands, (b) Lunar Maria
What are the names of Jupiter's 4 largest moons?
(inner most) Io Europa Ganymede Callisto (outer most)
In 2006, Pluto was demoted from "planet" status to "dwarf planet" status. Select all of the following that are supporting arguments for this demotion.
-other bodies similar to Pluto began to be discovered in the solar system regularly -Pluto's orbit takes it into the Kuiper belt, a region filled with cometary bodies -Pluto's orbit has a much higher eccentricity than the eccentricities of all of the planets -Pluto's orbital inclination relative to the ecliptic plane (at 17* deg *) is much larger than all the planets orbital inclinations -Pluto's moon Charon is about half its own size
For every 1 time Ganymede orbits around Jupiter,Europa orbits Jupiter_______ times and Io orbits Jupiter _______ times.
2; 4
How many times will Mercury spin completely on its axis over the course of two Mercury years (two Mercury years = two of its orbits around the Sun)?
3 times
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines a planet as a body that must: 1) be in orbit around the Sun 2) have sufficient mass to form a spherical shape 3) clear out its orbital neighborhood Which of these does Pluto not comply with?
3) clear out its orbital neighborhood
From 1968 to 1972, the NASA-directed missions to Earth's Moon are referred to as the ______.
Apollo
Which of the four Galilean Moons does not have internal heat, and therefore, has been frozen dead since almost immediately after it was born?
Callisto
Which of the four Galilean Moons is NOT in the 4:2:1 orbital resonance around Jupiter?
Callisto
What two chemical elements (as in atoms, not molecules) are always found in any hydrocarbon?
Carbon and Hydrogen
Which spacecraft was the first to visit Saturn and stay in orbit about Saturn in order to study it, its moons, and its rings?
Cassini
Which part of the Earth has the greatest density?
Core
Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?
Deep inside craters in the regions near the Moon's poles
The satellite whose surface is characterized by a smooth icy crust with a complex network of cracks is _____.
Europa
Which of the following moons proves you don't need to be within the parent star's habitable zone to find liquid water (and potentially life)?
Europa
At the surface of Earth, liquid water freezes at 32°F. If we were able to raise the surface temperature of Mars to be 32°F (or slightly above), liquid water would be stable at the surface of Mars.
False
Earth, Venus, and Mars all have strong, global-scale magnetic fields.
False
Most moons in our Solar System formed with their parent planet.
False
Planet Mercury and Earth's Moon have similar densities and therefore also similar ratios of metals to silicates.
False
The Great Red Spot is a Low-Pressure System, just like the hurricanes are on Earth.
False
Today, the Moon has an atmosphere with about 0.007 bars of pressure at its surface.
False
What was the name of the probe that fell through Jupiter's atmosphere?
Galileo
Which spacecraft was the first to visit Jupiter and stay in orbit about Jupiter in order to study it and its moons?
Galileo
The four large moons of Jupiter were first discovered by _____.
Galileo with his early telescope
Which of the following Moons is the largest in the entire Solar System?
Ganymede
What was the name of the probe that fell through Titan's atmosphere?
Huygens
The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is _____.
Io
Which of the following is the most volcanically active body in the entire Solar System?
Io
What is responsible for making a portion of the Moon's surface appear to be 38 billion years old (according to crater counts), and also created the age difference between the Lunar Maria and the Lunar Highlands?
Late Heavy Bombardment
The spacecraft that sent back the most detailed radar images of Venus and showed us features as small as a football field is _____.
Magellan
Which of the following is not a Martian rover?
Magellan
Which planet has the largest volcano in the Solar System?
Mars
was the first human to ever step foot on the Moon, which occurred on July 20, 1969.
Neil Armstrong
The most abundant gas in Earth's present-day atmosphere is
Nitrogen (N₂)
The largest volcano on Mars is called _____.
Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)
Which of the following gases was not present in early Earth's atmosphere (early meaning just after formation around ~4.5 Billion years ago).
Oxygen (O₂)
Why does Mars have an overall reddish color when we see its surface from afar?
The material of Mars' surface contains a lot of iron oxide, the same chemistry that makes rusting metals look reddish
Which of the following moons has the thickest atmosphere?
Titan
Crater counts suggest that the Lunar Highlands are 38 billion years old.
True
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is the largest storm in the Solar System and it has been around for at least 150 years, possibly longer.
True
Planet Mercury has a weak magnetic field, but Earth's Moon does not.
True
There is evidence that liquid water may have been present on the surface of Mars in the past, likely when it had a thicker atmosphere.
True
Venus experienced a global-wide volcanic resurfacing event around 300-600 million years ago.
True
Which planet orbits the Sun "on its side" (i.e., its rotation axis is oriented almost perpendicular to the plane of its orbit)?
Uranus
The spacecraft that soft-landed successfully on the surface of Venus (and briefly sent back pictures while sitting in that destructive environment) were called _____.
Venera
Which planet was resurfaced by large-scale volcanic activity around 300-600 million years ago?
Venus
The only spacecraft to flyby and study all four of the Jovian planets was
Voyager 2
These days the theory of the Earth's Moon's origin that best fits with the facts we have about the Moon is _____.
a large object hit the Earth and the collision produced a filament of material that condensed to make the Moon
Greenhouse gases trap ____(a)____ radiation within a planet's atmosphere. This leads to an ____(b)____ in surface temperature.
a) infrared, b) increase
Which of the following statements is FALSE?
all of the terrestrial planets have active plate tectonics.
The primary clouds in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, which make the white bands, are composed of:
ammonia ice crystals
Prior to about 1.8 billion years ago, life was restricted to living in the oceans because Earth lacked
an ozone layer
We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are _____.
ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon
The rings of the outer planets consist of _____.
billions of chunks (of various sizes) that all orbit the equator of each planet
The same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. This gas is _____.
carbon dioxide
The most abundant gas in Mars' atmosphere is
carbon dioxide (CO₂)
The most abundant gas in Venus' atmosphere is
carbon dioxide (CO₂)
If no one has ever visited the core of the Earth, how do we know that it is made of metals?
circulating liquid metals in the core set up a large (measurable) magnetic field
By far the most abundant element in the giant (jovian) planets is _____.
hydrogen
What is the element that acts like a metal when it is under tremendous pressure within the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn, driving their magnetic fields?
hydrogen
stratosphere
is the layer that contains the Ozone layer that protects us from harmful UV radiation emitted by our Sun.
troposphere
is the layer that you live in and contains all of our weather (since it contains most of our atmosphere's water vapor).
Which of the following statements is FALSE about Venus?
it has active plate tectonics, just like Earth's
Which of the following statements is FALSE about Europa?
it has patches of stable liquid water at its surface (i.e., lakes)
Which of the following statements is FALSE about Mars?
it underwent the runaway greenhouse effect in the past, which is how it lost all of its liquid water
Which of the following statements about our planet's atmosphere is FALSE?
its mass is a substantial part of the mass of the Earth.
Which of the following statements about the Earth's magnetosphere is FALSE?
its shape and size are the same on the sides facing toward and away from the Sun
Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?
its surface is heavily cratered
The thickest layer of Earth's interior is the
mantle
An important way that scientists have been able to study the interior of the Earth is by _____.
measuring how seismic waves are transmitted through the Earth
The clouds in the upper atmosphere of Neptune, which give it its color, are composed of:
methane
Which element plays the same role on Saturn's moon Titan as water does on Earth (existing as gas, liquid, and solid)?
methane
Which of the following statements is TRUE about Earth's Moon and planet Mercury?
neither have an atmosphere today
About how long did the Huygens probe survive on the surface of Titan, sending back data to the Earth about the moon?
only an hour or two
What explains the time lag between the rise in the amount of oxygen being produced by cyanobacteria and the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere?
oxygen bonded with iron in the crustal rocks first.
In order to examine the surface of Venus, what wavelength of electromagnetic radiation is best to use?
radio waves (like radar)
Scientists have been concerned about a set of industrial chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) because they:
rise into the atmosphere and destroy ozone
Select all of the following that were discovered on Titan, thanks to the Cassini mission and its Huygens probe.
rivers and drainage channels frozen water ice boulders liquid methane and ethane lakes methane and ethane rain mountains
Dating back to 3.5-3.7 billion years, the earliest evidence of life on Earth came in the form of layered sedimentary formations called____.
stromatolites
In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles _____.
the Earth's crust and mantle
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
Select all of the ways in which Earth and Mars are similar.
the fact they both have seasons the length of their solar day the length of their sidereal day angle of axial tilt
What allowed the Voyager 2 spacecraft to make a "tour" of all four of the jovian planets in the late 1970's and the 1980's?
the four planets were approximately aligned on one side of the Sun and we used the gravity of each planet to speed up the spacecraft to get to the next one in its path
Which theory of the Moon's origin do astronomers (and the evidence) favor?
the giant impact theory
Which of the following statements is FALSE about the process of impact cratering?
the impacting meteor remains intact since the energy of the impact is dissipated through a shockwave
What formation or formations are evidence that the planet Mercury may have shrunk (gotten a bit smaller) as it cooled?
the long scarps or cliffs
Which is older?
the lunar highlands
For scientists, one bar is _____.
the pressure with which 1 square centimeter of the Earth's atmosphere presses down at the surface.
The process of convection involves _____.
the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material
Which of the following is NOT a way that Venus resembles the Earth?
the thickness and pressure of its atmosphere
What explains why three of Jupiter's Galilean Moons have internal heat today?
the tidal forces they experience between Jupiter and the other Galilean Moons
What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?
there are ten times more craters on the older highlands than the younger maria
Mars rovers (such as Opportunity and Curiosity) have identified evidence that their landing sites were once under water. Which of the following is among the kinds of evidence they have identified?
they found rock formations that show the area was under water and also minerals that only form in water
Which of the following gases is not present within Titan's atmosphere?
water
Select all of the following gases that are greenhouse gases.
water vapor (H₂O) carbon dioxide (CO₂) ozone (O₃) nitrous oxide (N₂0) methane (CH₄)
Dating back to around 4.4 billion years, the oldest mineral on Earth (and also the oldest material on Earth) is called______.
zircon
