Astronomy 3 test

Why do the upper levels of Neptune's atmosphere appear blue?

It makes is appear blue because the gaseous molecules in Neptunes atmosphere scatters blue light.

How was the Mars Odyssey spacecraft able to detect water on Mars without landing on it?

It used gamma-ray spectrometer to detect hydrogen below the surface of Mars. They think the hydrogen is from water molecules

takes the shortest time to rotate

Jupiter

Which planet has the strongest magnetic field, and hence the largest magnetosphere? What is its source?

Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field because it has such a fast rotation.

Why is Mars red?

Mars is red because there are very strong winds on Mars which blows the iron oxide dust everywhere creating the reddish look.

smallest planet

Mercury

What is the relationship between Mercury's rotational period and orbital period?

Mercury's rotation= 59 earth days One year= 88 earth days The relationship is that three Mercury days is equal to two Mercury years

What is the primary source of Jupiter's internal heat?

Most of its internal heat comes from Jupiter's primordial heat left over from the formation of it. It gathered together from smaller planetesimals and accreted gas.

Which of the gas giants has the largest icy/rocky core compared to its overall size?

Neptune

What is, by far, the most abundant component of Earth's atmosphere?

Nitrogen

Is it likely that life ever existed on either Venus or Mars? Justify your answer in each case.

No Venus couldn't have life because it's too hot due to the greenhouse effect. Life might be possible if it 2was high in Venus atmosphere where the clouds contain water droplets. On the other hand, Mars could have life in the past because evidence shows that there might have been water and the atmosphere wouldn't kill life and it isn't that hot there either.

Do all planetary systems look the same as our own?

No not at all. Most of the planetary systems we have observed evolved differently compared to us.

What are the advantages of using radar imaging rather than ordinary cameras to study the topography of Venus? What are the relative advantages of these two approaches to mapping Earth or Mars?

Radar imaging is better because it can penetrate Venus clouds making the surface visible for us.

Least dense planet

Saturn

What are the visible clouds on the four giant planets composed of, and why are they different from each other?

The clouds of Jupiter and Saturn are composed of crystals of frozen ammonia. Uranus and Neptunes clouds are composed of methane. They are different because Jupiter and Saturn's temperature keep methane in a gaseous state. On Neptune and Uranus, the colder temperature allows the methane to freeze and condense into clouds

Describe the current atmosphere on Mars. What evidence suggests that it must have been different in the past?

The current atmosphere of Mars is that it's mostly made up of carbon dioxide and it's very thin. There has been strong evidence of water on Mars which gives us the idea that the atmosphere of Mars used to be thicker and warmer.

What is the source of Earth's magnetic field?

The source of Earth's magnetic field is the rotation and circulation of the Earth's iron and nickel core. It is basically an electromagnetic field

What is the thickest interior layer of Earth? The thinnest?

The thickest interior layer of the earth is the mantle. The thinnest interior layer is the crust

Summarize the present main hypothesis for the origin of the Moon.

There are four main hypotheses for the Origin of the moon... Fission hypothesis- The moon was a part of the earth but separated Sister hypothesis- The moon formed independent of the Earth Capture hypothesis- Moon formed elsewhere in the solar system but later moved toward the earth Giant impact hypothesis- A planet came into contact with earth releasing a whole bunch of material that condenses to form the moon.

What are the seasons like on Jupiter?

There are no seasons at all on Jupiter because it's tilted about 3 degrees

Why are there so many impact craters on our neighbor world, the Moon, and so few on Earth?

There are so many craters on the moon and so little on the moon because the earth geography is always changing, and the atmosphere protects us from meteors compared to the moon that has no geological changes and has no atmosphere

Why are there so many craters on the Moon and so few on Earth?

There are so many craters on the moon because of asteroids and meteorites colliding with the lunar surface. Also, the moon has no atmosphere protecting itself compared to the earth

Venus rotates backward and Uranus and Pluto spin about an axis tipped nearly on its side. Based on what you learned about the motion of small bodies in the solar system and the surfaces of the planets, what might be the cause of these strange rotations?

They believe that planets collided with large objects frequently in the early solar system which caused the planets rotations to be weird

densest planet

earth

What is the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?

A meteorite is when the object lands on the surface of the earth. A meteor is objects that enter into Earth's atmosphere.

What is the difference between a differentiated body and an undifferentiated body, and how might that influence a body's ability to retain heat for the age of the solar system?

A differentiated body is a body that has been heated so much that it turned into a liquid, becomes heavier, and denser. An undifferentiated body is the complete opposite the body cools very quickly and it's typically smaller in size.

What does a planet need in order to retain an atmosphere? How does an atmosphere affect the surface of a planet and the ability of life to exist?

A planet needs to have good gravity to retain an atmosphere. Atmosphere affects the surface of a planet by affecting its composition, and density. Certain gases can lead to the greenhouse affect which makes the planet warmer than you would expect. If you have a dense atmosphere this allows heat to be reatiedn compared to atmosphere that has a less dense atmosphere.

What was the solar nebula like? Why did the Sun form at its center?

A solar nebula was a huge cloud of material made up of gasses and dust. The sun formed at its center because of gravitational forces which allowed materials to stick together, after this nuclear fusion caused a star to for the sun.

How do asteroids and comets differ?

Asteroids are basically made out of rock and metal while Comets are basically icy objects

How did our exploration of the Moon differ from that of Mercury (and the other planets)?

Due to the moon being the closest to the Earth we have actually sent men to the moon and take back actual materials compared to Mercury and other planets where we have only sent rovers and observe though telescopes (We haven't had humans visit these places yet).

Frozen water exists on the lunar surface primarily in which location? Why?

Frozen water exists mostly in deep craters on the Moon's south pole. The south pole is always in the shadow, so it doesn't receive light from the sun, so the water doesn't evaporate so it doesn't escape in space

Largest moon in the solar system

Ganymede

Which type of planets have the most moons? Where did these moons likely originate?

Giant planets typically have the most moons for example Jupiter and Saturn. People think that these moons originated from small-body population during the formation of our solar system.

How might Venus' atmosphere have evolved to its present state through a runaway greenhouse effect?

Heat from the sun evaporated water from the surface of Venus creating carbon dioxide. Due to all of this carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it prevents infrared radiation from escaping Venus leading to the temperature to rise on the planet

Densest moon

Io

What are Earth's core and mantle made of? Explain how we know.

The earth's mantle is made of rock, and we know this from getting samples of the upper mantles material that get shot up from volcanoes and using chemical analysis to identify it. Earth's core is mostly made up of iron and nickel, and we know this based on scientist understanding of internal differentiation, which helped us calculated the density of the core. We also figure it out by analyzing seismic waves that travel through the interior of the Earth.

How did the giant planets grow to be so large?

The giant planets grew so large because the cyclonic storm on Jupiter have very high pressure.

Why is it difficult to drop a probe like Galileo? How did engineers solve this problem?

The high speeds of probe would burn up as it enters into the atmosphere. They solved this problem by putting a heat shield in the front of the space craft to absorb the heat.

Describe the interior heat source of Saturn.

The mantle of Saturn is still differentiating, the helium is starting to sink replacing the hydrogen which the rises. Due to this helium is released and makes a gravitational energy that heats the interior.

Why does the Moon not have an atmosphere?

The moon doesn't have an atmosphere because the moon isn't big enough to keep gases an compounds due to a weak gravitational force, so any gases on the moon quickly escapes into space

What is the composition of the Moon, and how does it compare to the composition of Earth? Of Mercury

The moon is mostly made up of silicate rocks while the earth is made from more metal compounds. The doesn't have an Iron core while the Earth does. Earth has water but the moon and Mercury don't. Mercury also has more metals than the moon with an Iron-nickel core

What is the consequence of Uranus' spin axis being 98° away from perpendicular to its orbital plane?

The poles are facing toward and away from the sun. This means that each pole will experience both long periods of light and darkness. There will be one season of darkness and one season of light.

At the pressures in Jupiter's interior, describe the physical state of the hydrogen found there.

The pressure is so high in Jupiter's interior to the point that hydrogen gets so compressed that it turns into metallic hydrogen

Moon with the thickest atmosphere

Titan

Describe the seasons on the planet Uranus

Uranus has 42 years of sunlight and 42 years of darkness, so this means it has a 84 yearlong orbit.

Planet with the closest diameter to Earth's

Venus

If Earth was to be hit by an extraterrestrial object, where in the solar system could it come from and how would we know its source region?

We could either be hit by a comet or an asteroid. We can tell the difference between the two in advance based on the orbit of how it approaches earth, and by figuring out what it's made from (Icy or rocky).

Jupiter is denser than water, yet composed for the most part of two light gases, hydrogen and helium. What makes Jupiter as dense as it is?

What makes Jupiter so dense is that Jupiter has a layer of liquid hydrogen which is very expansive and thick.

Briefly describe the greenhouse effect.

When light from the sun hits the Earths lower atmosphere it gets trapped by the greenhouse gases that are in our atmosphere, and this results in high surface temperature.

How was the rotation rate of Mercury determined?

With the use of radar beams we were able to determine the rotation rate of Mercury.