phys201 2
The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is:
Io
A planet in our solar system whose composition resembles that of our Sun is:
Jupiter
Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet?
Jupiter
The largest volcano on Mars is called:
Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)
The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:
Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed to him to be long straight features on the red planet
The Oort cloud is a reservior of comets in the outer solar system
True
There may be a ninth planet in the solar system
True
The smaller objects in the solar system made of rock and metal (most of which orbit between Jupiter and Mars) are called:
asteroids
What drives the motion of the continental plates on earth
convection cells in the mantle
Order of the major steps of solar system formation
gravitational collapse of the solar nebula - condensation - accreation
In general, the further planets are from the Sun, the cooler they are. What other factor can have a significant influence on a planet's surface temperature?
its atmosphere (whether it has one and how thick it is)
All the planets (without exception)
revolve around the Sun in the same direction
According to the theory of plate tectonics
slow motions within the mantle of the Earth move large sections of the crust around
In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles
the Earth's crust and mantle
Our modern understanding of Pluto is that it is a member of
the Kuiper Belt (of trans-Neptunian objects)
The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:
the runaway greenhouse effect
What is the most important reason that astronomers have learned more about our planetary system in the last 30-40 years than all of history before then.
we have been able to send spacecraft to gather information about planets and moons up close
What evidence can you give that shows the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa must be relatively young?
we see very few craters compared to the surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede
Which of the jovian planets does NOT have any satellites?
you can't fool me, all the jovian planets are accompanied by satellites
Mars appears to have long branching channels that have the appearance of being formed by a flowing liquid. Yet we know that liquids would not stay liquid in the very thin atmosphere we have on the Martian surface? So how can we explain the channels?
Mars had a thicker atmosphere long ago when the channels formed
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
At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:
a solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure
If there are at least a million asteroids, how did spacecraft like Galileo survive their trip through the asteroid belt?
although there are many asteroids, they are widely spaced (there is lots of space between them)
Why do we see the same face of the moon at all times
because the moons rotational period and orbital period
Astronomers estimate that the plains of Venus are only about 500 to 600 million years old. How do they estimate dates like this?
by counting the craters visible on the surface and comparing crater counts to other worlds
The average temperature on planet Earth is higher than you would expect just from the heating of sunlight alone. What is the explanation for this?
carbon dioxide (and other gases) in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect
If you were to take a large sample of the four giant planets, the most common element you would find in them is:
hydrogen
The element that can act like a metal when it is under tremendous pressure and is probably responsible for Jupiter and Saturn's magnetism is:
hydrogen
Astronomers believe that Mars formed with a much thicker atmosphere than it has today. Where did this atmosphere go?
it escaped into space (and some later froze out as Mars got cold)
How is mercury similar to the moon
its surface is heavily cratered
Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?
its surface is heavily cratered
In a bad late-night science fiction film, a villain is using a large collection of rare radioactive atoms as energy for a weapon to threaten the good guys. The atoms have a half-life of 1 hour. The villain has 4 kilograms of the radioactive material now, and he needs a minimum of 1 kg. for his weapon to work. After how much time will the weapon no longer be a threat?
just a little after 2 hrs
Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found
on the boundaries of continental plates, where they meet other plates
The large reservoir of comet nuclei far beyond Pluto, from which we believe new long-period comets come into the inner solar system, is called:
oort cloud
The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:
optical illusions
Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:
the Sun
In the four terrestrial planets, the densest, heaviest materials are at the center and not evenly distributed throughout the planet. Scientists interpret this observation to mean that:
the four terrestrial planets must once have been hot enough to be molten (like a liquid)
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
Which of the following characteristics do all four terrestrial planets have in common?
they all have solid surfaces with signs of geological activity on them
What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?
they do not have an atmosphere
A ring around a dwarf planet was discovered by an observation an occultation
true
The asteroid belt lies between mars and jupiter
true
The inner galilean moons have higher densities then the outer moons
true
The kuiper belt is just beyond the orbit of neptune
true
The largest volcano on mars is larger then any mountain on earth
true
The Red Spot of Jupiter is:
variable in size long-lived (observed since the 1600's) made of a reddish colored material a high pressure storm system in the atmosphere