Earth Systems B Unit 5: Astronomy: Part 1

!What 1. gases, 2. rocks, and 3. ices make up the majority of the planets and their atmospheres?

1. Hydrogen and helium 2. silicate minerals and metallic iron 3. ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, and water.

*What are two unique facts about Neptune's moon, Triton? (p. 658)

1. It is nearly the size of the Earth's moon. 2. It is the only large moon in the solar system that exhibits retrograde motion, indicating that it formed independently of Neptune and was gravitationally captured.

*Describe the 1. coma and 2. tail of a comet. (p. 662)

1. The glowing head formed when a comet approaches the sun, and its solar energy begins to vaporize the frozen gases. 2. Radiation pressure pushes dust particles away from the coma, and solar wind can move the ionized gases, particularly carbon monoxide.

!*What are Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion? (p. 618) (Tested on quiz 5.3)

1. The path of each planet around the sun is an ellipse, with the sun at one focus. 2. Each planet revolves so that an imaginary line connecting it to the sun sweeps over equal areas in equal time intervals. 3. the square of the length of time it takes a planet to orbit the sun (orbital period) is proportional to the cube of its mean distance to the sun.

The moon's period of revolution is 27 1/3 days, and its period of rotation is ____.

27 1/3 days

*What is Jupiter's Great Red Spot? (p. 654)

A cyclonic storm.

What do we call a meteoroid that reaches Earth's surface? (pp. 663-664)

A meteorite.

Which way does the tail of a comet point?

Away from the sun.

*Why is Pluto no longer considered a planet? (p. 659)

Because it has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

! Some meteor showers are closely associated with the orbit of what minor member of the solar system? (p. 663)

Comets.

Although the heliocentric model of the solar system was originally proposed by Aristarchus in the 3rd century BC, the idea did not gain public support until the 16th century AD with the work of ____.

Copernicus

Which of the following is NOT a Jovian planet?

Earth

heliocentric model of the universe

Earth and other planets orbit the sun.

Seasons are caused by ____.

Earth's tilted axis

Which scientist was the first to use the telescope in astronomy?

Galileo

What are the surface features of Mercury like? What are temperature extremes like?(p. 650) (Tested on quiz 5.7)

It has cratered highlands, much like the moon, and some smooth terrains that resemble maria. Nighttime temperatures drop as low as -173 degrees Celsius, and noontime temperatures exceed 427 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead.

*What is special about Jupiter's mass? (p. 654)

It is 2 1/2 times greater than the mass of all of the other planets and moons combined.

*Where is Olympus Mons? (p. 652)

It is the largest of numerous inactive volcanoes found on Mars.

What is special about Uranus' axis of rotation and the plane of its orbit? (p. 658)

It lies nearly parallel with the plane of its orbit.

Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet?

Jupiter

List the Jovian planets.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are huge gas giants.

Which planets have rings? (pp. 654-658)

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Which of the following planets does NOT have rings?

Mars

Which planet shows evidence of water erosion?

Mars

Which planet, when viewed through a telescope, appears as a reddish ball interrupted by some permanent dark regions that change intensity?

Mars

*Which is the smallest of the terrestrial planets? (p. 649)

Mercury

The planet with the greatest temperature extremes is ____.

Mercury

Which planet has a cratered surface similar to Earth's moon?

Mercury

!*List the terrestrial planet.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are relatively small and rocky.

Which scientist determined the nature of the forces that keep the planets in their orbits?

Newton

Which ancient astronomer developed a geocentric model of the universe explaining the observable motions of the planets?

Ptolemy

What color does Mars appear through a telescope?(pp. 652-653) (Tested on quiz 5.7)

Red.

*What are the rocks on the terrestrial planets chiefly composed of? (p. 646)

Rocky and metallic substances.

*Describe the contributions of the early astronomers. (pp. 617-621) (Tested on quiz 5.3)

Scientists discovered a universe governed by natural laws.

What information supports the giant impact hypothesis?

The ejected material would have been mostly iron-poor mantle and crustal rock. These would account for the lack of sizeable iron core on the moon. The ejected material would have remained in orbit long enough to have lost the water that the moon lacks.

*!What features of the moon are part of the original crust and are the oldest features on the moon? How do we know they are the oldest? (p. 633)

The greater the crater density, the older the surface must be. From such evidence, scientists concluded that the moon developed in three phases - the original crust (highlands), maria basins, and rayed craters.

What causes the seasons? (p. 624)

The inclination of Earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic.

What is the force that keeps planets in their orbit (p. 620) (Tested on quiz 5.3)

The law of universal gravitation.

Which statement supports the giant-impact hypothesis of the moon's formation?

The moon lacks a sizable iron core.

Venus is second only to what object in brilliance in the night sky? (pp. 650-651) (Tested on quiz 5.7)

The moon.

!What evidence do we have of water erosion on Mars?

The rover, Opportunity, found evidence of evaporite minerals and geologic formations associated with liquid water.

What things are parts of the solar system? (p. 644) (Tested on quiz 5.7)

The sun is the hub of a rotating system of planets, their satellites, and numerous smaller bodies.

What is the period of revolution and period of rotation of the moon? (p. 627) (Tested on quiz 5.3)

They are both 27 1/3 days.

How old is the moon compared to the Earth? (p.633) (Tested in quiz 5.7)

They are both about 4.5 billion years old.

What are asteroids? Where are they generally found? (p. 661)

They are small rocky bodies that orbit the sun. Most of them lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They have orbital periods of three to six years.

*What happens to most meteoroids when they enter Earth's atmosphere? What are these called?

They burn up. They are called meteors.

Describe the contributions of the ancient Greeks to astronomy. (pp.615-616)

They were able to explain the apparent movements of all celestial bodies in space by using the geocentric model.

!Which planet has a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, thick clouds, and high surface temperature?

Venus

Which planet has a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere and high surface temperatures?

Venus

Which planet is second only to the moon in brilliance in the night sky?

Venus

mass

a measure of the total amount of matter it contains.

*How large is one astronomical unit (AU)? (p. 618)

about 150 million kilometers.

crescent phase

about 2 days after the new moon, the moon appears low in the western sky just after sunset as a thin silver crescent shape.

How old is the moon?

about the same age as Earth

What is the name of the point when the Earth is farthest from the sun? (p. 624)

aphelion

What is the name of the point when the moon is farthest from Earth? (p. 626)

apogee

The relatively small, rocky bodies generally found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter are known as ____.

asteroids

!How did Maria on the moon form? (p. 632)

asteroids punctured the lunar surface, letting magma "bleed" out.

The glowing head of a comet is known as the ____.

coma

Copernicus

concluded Earth is a planet, and proposed a model of the solar system with the sun as the center.

Aristotle

concluded that the Earth is round because it always casts a curved shadow on the moon when it passes between the sun and the moon.

Kepler

discovered three laws of planetary motion.

new-moon phase

during the two weeks following the full-moon phase, the moon is waning when the lighted portion of the moon visible from the Earth steadily declines until the moon disappears altogether.

first-quarter phase

during the week following the crescent phase, the moon is waxing when the lighted portion of the moon visible from the Earth increases to a half-circle.

full-moon phase

during the week following the first-quarter phase, the moon looks like a complete disk and can be seen rising in the east as the sun is sinking in the west.

What is the shape of a planet's orbit?

elliptical

Ptolemy

explained retrograde motion by saying that planets moved along smaller circles, or epicycles, which in turn moved along their orbits around Earth.

Which is most frequent: Total solar eclipse, total lunar eclipse, full moon, partial lunar eclipse? (p. 628) (Tested on quiz 5.3)

full moon

Which of the following are you most likely to experience?

full moon

Which of the following is NOT considered part of the solar system?

galaxies

Galileo

his most important contributions were his descriptions of the behavior of moving objects with the aid of a telescope.

Brahe

his observations, especially of Mars, were far more precise than any made previously.

The Jovian planets contain a large percentage of the gases ____.

hydrogen and helium

What gases are found in large quantities in the atmosphere of the Jovian planets. (p. 646)

hydrogen and helium.

Aristotle concluded that Earth was round because ____.

it always casts a curved shadow during a lunar eclipse

The remains of extraterrestrial particles that are found on Earth's surface are called ____.

meteorites

The formation of the solar system from a huge cloud of dust and gases is called the ____.

nebular theory

*Explain how the moon goes through phases (p. 627)

on a monthly basis, we observe a change in the amount of the moon that appears lit. Lunar phases are caused by the changes in how much of the sunlit side of the moon faces the Earth.

*What is the name of the point when the moon is closest to Earth?

perigee

*What is the name of the point when the Earth is closest to the sun?

perihelion

The turning or spinning of a body on its axis is known as ____.

rotation

What movement of Earth is responsible for night and day?

rotation

*What are moon craters? (p. 631)

round depressions in the surface of the moon.

*What is retrograde motion? What causes it? (p. 616)

the apparent motion of a planet in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its system, as observed from a particular vantage point. As Earth passes another planet, the other planet appears to move backward with respect to the background stars, but the planet's motion does not really change.

Aristarchus

the first Greek to propose a sun-centered, or heliocentric, universe.

Newton

the first to formulate and test the law of universal gravitation.

weight

the force of gravity acting upon an object.

geocentric model of the universe

the moon, sun, and known planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter - go around Earth.

revolution

the motion of a body, such as a planet or a moon, along its orbit around some point in space. We see the planets and moon travel in nearly the same plane as the Earth.

Which law states that each planet revolves so that an imaginary line connecting it to the sun sweeps over equal areas in equal time intervals?

the second law of planetary motion

precession

the slight movement, over a period of 26,000years, of Earth's axis. This effects climate change.

*Explain the Nebular Theory of solar system formation (p. 647)

the sun and planets formed from a rotating disk of dust and gases. As the speed of the rotation increased, the center of the disk began to flatten out. Matter became more concentrated in this center, where the sun eventually formed.

rotation

the turning, or spinning, of a body on its axis. The result is day and night.

How long does it take the moon to go from full-moon phase to new-moon phase?

two weeks

The force that gravity exerts on an object is called ____.

weight

!*Describe what happens during a solar eclipse. (p. 628)

when the moon moves in line directly between Earth and the sun, it casts a dark shadow on the Earth.

What is the giant impact hypothesis of the formation of the moon? (p. 633) (Tested in quiz 5.7)

when the solar system was forming , a body the size of Mars impacted Earth. The impact would have liquefied Earth's surface and ejected huge quantities of crustal and mantle rock from an infant Earth. A portion of this ejected debris would have entered an orbit around Earth where it combined to form the moon.