Astronomy Final Review Exams 1-3

The main greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are

Water and carbon dioxide

Why is it so difficult to figure out what Earth was like during the Hadean eon

We have essentially no intact rocks from that eon

Of the following options, when was the Earth's ozone layer thickest

400 million years ago

Which of the following is NOT a piece of evidence that life began on Earth over 3 billion years ago

"RNA World" fossils are found in rocks that are over 3 billion years old

If the same side of the Earth always faced the Sun, how many times would Earth spin on its axis over the course of one orbit around the Sun

1 time

The ages of meteorites, moon rocks, and Earth rocks imply that the Earth is roughly

4.5 billion years old

What is another way to write out 3 billion

3x10^9

If we discovered a plane around the Sun with an orbital period of 8 Earth-years, what would its semi major axis be

4 AU

Cells from this type of life have their DNA contained within nuclei

Eukarya

If we discovered life on Mars and found that it required liquid water to survive, this would be strong evidence that it was related to life on Earth

False

Which of the following would cause Earth's magnetic field to dramatically decrease in strength

If Earth's rotation period became 100x longer

Which of the following is NOT a reason we find many fewer 3 billion year old rocks on earth than 1 billion year old rocks on earth

Less rocks were being formed 3 billion years ago

The interior of the Hadean Earth was

Likely hotter than the modern Earth's interior

At various points in the past, the Universe's peak blackbody wavelength has been located in all parts if the electromagnetic spectrum EXCEPT

Radio

Select the world with the weakest greenhouse effect:

the Moon

What type of galaxy do we live in

A spiral galaxy

At a distance from the sun was the thermal motion of gas molecules fastest within the Sun's circumstellar disk

.3 AU

Select the larger distance

1.2x10^8 Parsecs

If you have 40 grams of a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 100 years. How much of it will be left after 200 years

10 grams

At a given spot on Earth, roughly how many high tides occur each day

2

The moon makes one complete cycle of its phases every

27 Earth Days

How do we believe earth acquired most of its water

A few volatile-rich planetesimals were scattered into the inner solar system during planet formation

Which of the following planets would you expect to have a magnetic field

A planet with volcanic activity and with a rotation period of 16 hours

Of the following events, select the one that occurred first in the formation of the solar system

A slow rotating portion of a giant molecular cloud began to collapse under its own gravity

Which of the following is NOT a reason we believe that all life on Earth has a common ancestor

All known life uses liquid water

Why can we use iridium levels to search for signs of major impacts on Earth

Almost all of the Earth's original iridium is in its core, so iridium on the surface comes from impacting objects

Imagine you discover a new blue-colored galaxy with lots of cold gas and many young stars. Based on this information, you know that this galaxy is NOT

An elliptical galaxy

Most Extremophiles belong to which domain of life

Archea

If you looked at the gas cloud and saw absorption lines, at what position would you be located? (Sun on left, gas cloud in middle, A above gas cloud, B to the right of gas cloud)

B

The figure shows two different orbits around the sun- Width of A equals width of B- A is a circle and B is a eccentric orbit

B's eccentricity is higher They have the same semi major axis They have the same orbital period

If you see a new moon in the night sky, where is the moon's position

Between earth and the sun

The largest divisions of Earth's history are called

Eons

The modern domains of life are defined by

Comparing the DNA of different organisms

If an object has an orbit shaped like an elliptical, where in its orbit is It traveling the slowest? (Whichever one is farthest away from sun)

D

The AU is a unit that astronomers use to measure

Distance

Why is Earth volcanically active but Mercury is not

Earth is larger than Mercury

Which of the following occurs if the size of Earth's polar caps decreases

Earth's albedo goes down and its average temperature increases

Which of the following feature of Earth is NOT critical for Earth's ability to host life

Earth's craters

Imagine you study the light coming from a gas cloud and observe the spectrum: True or False: The Photons in this spectrum were created when electrons moved form a low energy level close to the nucleus to a high one further away from the nucleus

False

True or False: An atom of a radioactive isotope has a 50% chance of decaying over the course of 1 half-life and a 100% chance of decaying over the course of 2 half-lives

False

True or False: As elliptical galaxies age, they steadily transform into spiral galaxies

False

True or False: Asteroid impacts are known to be the cause of most mass extinctions in Earth's history

False

True or False: Because Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, every part of Mercury's surface is hotter than Earth's

False

True or False: Continental crust is generally denser and older than oceanic crust

False

True or False: If the average temperature of Mars was 30 degrees celsius, then is polar caps would become large lakes of liquid water

False

True or False: Igneous rock can be transformed into Metamorphic rock, but sedimentary rock cannot be

False

True or False: In the "language" of DNA, every one of the 65 different genetic "words" corresponds to the construction of a different amino acid

False

True or False: On average, hydrogen atoms will move more slowly than oxygen atoms at the same temperature

False

True or False: Roughly 70% of the Earth's mass is in the form of water

False

True or False: The Earth contains much more iron that water (which is made of hydrogen and oxygen) because hydrogen and oxygen were much rarer elements than iron in the Sun's circumstellar disk

False

True or False: The K/T Extinction is the deadliest mass extinction in Earth's history

False

True or False: The distance from the Earth to the Sun would always be exactly 1 AU if the eccentricity of Earth's orbit was 1.0

False

True or False: The gravity of all the matter in the Universe is causing the expansion rate of the Universe to become slower and slower

False

True or False: The most accurate way to estimate the age of the Earth is to determine the oldest Earth rocks we can find on its surface

False

True or False: the oldest known fossils are used to estimate the age of the Earth

False

Which of the following choices have all of the Earth events ordered correctly in time (from longest ago to most recent)

Formation of Eukarya, rise of atmospheric oxygen, Cambrian Explosion, formation of plants living on land

The Earth's atmosphere comes from

Gas from the outgassing of Earth's rocks that remains bound to earth

This is an attractive force between any two objects that have mass:

Gravity

The correct ordering (from oldest to newest) of Earth's Eons is:

Hadean, Archaen, Proterozoic, Phanerozoic

Compared to red light, blue light

Has a shorter wavelength

The rate that objects strike the moon

Has decreased over the solar systems history

If one neutron is added to the nuclear of a hydrogen atom, it will become

Hydrogen

Which substance formed first in the Universe

Hydrogen

The densest materials making up a planet are usually found

In the planet's core

Which type of radiation does earth generate the most of

Infrared

Earth's greenhouse effect is regulated by the carbon cycle. Which part of the Earth's carbon cycle operates on Venus as well

Injection of atmospheric carbon dioxide from volcanism

Why is Iridium generally very rare on Earth's surface

Iridium is very dense so it migrated to Earth's core during differentiation

The reason that the Moon experiences more extreme temperatures than the Earth is because

It does not have an atmosphere but Earth does

Imagine you discover a planet that has active volcanoes and rotates on its axis once every 12 hours. What can you predict about this planet based on this information

It has a magnetic field

Imagine you discover a new planet in the solar system . Observations of this planet show that the surface is rocky and that its average density is 6g/cm^3. What can you conclude about this planet

It has a very large iron core

Which of the following is NOT a property of the moon

It has much higher abundances of volatiles than Earth does

Which of the following is NOT a reason the Earth's interior is hot

It is heated by the sun

The Earth's atmosphere warms the Earth's surface because

It is transparent to visible light but not to infrared light

Why doesn't Venus have a strong magnetic field

It rotates too slowly

How will the gravitational force between two objects change if we triple the separation between them

It will become 9x weaker

How will gravitational force between two objects change if we decrease the mass of one of the objects by 50%

It will become twice as weak

Imagine the Sun's surface temperature suddenly doubled but its size, mass, and distance stayed the same, How would the sun's appearance change to us

It would appear bluer and brighter

If the earth was suddenly moved .5 AU from the Sun, how would the force of gravity between the sun and Earth change

It would become four times as strong

If the masses of both the Sun and the Earth were suddenly doubled, how would the force of gravity between the two objects change?

It would become four times as strong

If the Earth's rotation rate was decreased by 100 times (or length of a single day became 100 times longer), how would the moon's orbit change over time

It would get steadily closer to Earth

The brightness of a star in the night sky depends on

Its luminosity and its distance

A planet's escape velocity will go up if

Its mass increases

The strength of a planet's magnetic field depends on

Its rotation rate and interior heat

Where is the tallest and largest volcano in the solar system

Mars

One reason that the tallest mountain on Mars is taller than the tallest mountain on Earth is that

Mars' surface gravity is weaker than Earth's

The strength of the gravitational force between two objects depends on their

Mass and separation distance

Carbon-14 (half life of 5,730) is most useful for finding the age of which of the following materials

Materials recovered from an ancient Egyptian city

All of the following methods are used to measure the distances to galaxies EXCEPT

Measuring peak blackbody wavelength of galaxies

The oldest rocks that we have come from

Meteorites

The expansion of the Universe causes

More distant galaxies to have larger redshift

All of the following statements about mutations are true EXCEPT

Mutations are errors that occur when a cell is making new copies of its proteins

Throughout the course of a single night, every star in the sky will appear to change its position except for Polaris, the North Star. Will this be the case in the future

No

Which was most likely the first step in the formation of the first organisms on Earth

Organic molecules are built or delivered from inorganic processes

Most volcanoes on Earth are located where

Oceanic crust is being subducted below continental crust

If no stars rise or set throughout the course of an entire night (and its not cloudy), you know you must be located

On one of Earth's poles

If the moon had a very thick atmosphere, which panel would the distribution of crater sizes look like instead

Panel with a CCD curve

The first organisms on Earth likely did not use photosynthesis because

Photosynthesis is a very complicated metabolism

What process removes carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere

Precipitation

The number of __________ in an atom determines what element it belongs to

Protons

Panspermia could transport living samples of Earth life to all of the following places except

Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to our sun)

Which type of molecule reads and carries out the instructions contained within DNA

RNA

Which process is NOT part of Earth's carbon cycle

Radioactive decay

Which of the following is NOT a molecular component used in all cells

Right Handed amino acids

Water erosion generally leads to the formation of which type of rock

Sedimentary rock

Which one of the following is NOT a characteristic exhibited by all known organisms

Silicon Based Chemistry

The largest object in our solar system is a

Star

How was the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere during the Archean eon compared to the amount during the Phanerozoic

The Archean likely had a higher amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide

The temperature in Oklahoma is warmer in July than in January. This is because

The Earth's spin axis is tilted by 23 degrees relative to its orbital plane

The modern way that life is classified uses the tree of life. This tree of life is based on:

The differences between organisms' DNA

If you dug up an animal fossil, you would know that this fossil was made in

The Phanerozoic eon

Every planet in our solar system orbits around

The Sun

What would happen to the amount of the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere if the sun's luminosity suddenly decrease by 10%

The amount of carbon dioxide would increase gradually over several million years

What is one reason it took is long for animals and plants to appear in land during Earth's history

The amount of ultraviolet radiation striking the continents was too harsh for life for most of Earth's history

The sun rises and sets every 24 hours because

The earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours

How does the Giant Impact Hypothesis of the moon's formation explain the Moon's lack of volatiles

The heat generated by the impact would vaporize the volatiles in the material that formed the moon

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of our solar system

The most massive planets are the ones closest to the sun

Why do some scientists now think the Hadean Earth may have actually been a relatively cool environment

The oldest zircon grains contain a chemical signature of liquid water

All of an organism's hereditary information is stored in

The sequence of its DNA base pairs

A planet's ability to retain an atmosphere depends on all of the following EXCEPT

The planet's tides

(A Is smooth like Maria and B is rough like highlands) Based on the above images, which of the following statements is correct

The rocks making up Region A's surface are younger than those making up Region B's surface

Measuring peal wavelength of an objects blackbody spectrum will tell us

The surface temperature of the object

Why is there convection in Earth's mantle

There is a huge temperature difference between Earth's surface and Earth's core

Which of the following is NOT a reason that Jupiter has much more hydrogen gas than the Earth

There was never any gas near 1 AU when the planets were forming in the Sun's circumstellar disk

True of False: Even though the composition of the planets is very different from the composition of the Sun, we believe that planets formed out of a circumstellar disk with a sunlike composition

True

True or False: All known extremophiles need liquid water to grow and reproduce

True

True or False: All of life on Earth uses the same molecule to store and release energy

True

True or False: Every domain of life contains microbial (single-celled) organisms

True

True or False: On Earth, older rocks typically lie beneath younger rocks

True

True or False: Plants, animals and fungi all belong to the same domain of life

True

True or False: Some of the "organelles" in Eukarya cells are likely related to simple bacteria organisms

True

True or False: We know the Universe is expanding because nearly every galaxy we look at is redshifted

True

If the photons of one type of radiation (Type A) have more energy than another type (Type B), we know that

Type A has a shorter wavelength than Type B

If liquid water exists on Mars today, where is it most likely located

Underground

Which body has the fewest impact craters

Venus

Why is the surface of Venus hotter than the surface of Mercury

Venus has a stronger greenhouse effect than Mercury

(Earth to the left, A, B, C from left, top, and right, people on ABC, moon to the right) Imagine people standing at each of the 3 marked positions. In this diagram, which one is experiencing a low tide

Wherever moon isn't parallel to earth and feeling affects of tides

If a solar system planet's orbit was shaped like an elliptical, where would sun be located

Whichever letter is closest to the orbit

Shown below are the reflectance spectra of three different planets- Which spectrum would correspond to a red planet

Whichever line has an increasing albedo

Imagine two stars (A and B) have the same identical composition, surface temperature, radius, and mass. In addition, both stars are the same distance from you. If star A is traveling toward you at 250km/s and Star B is traveling away from you at 200km/s, which of the following is true

You would observe that the blackbody spectrum if Star A peaks at a shorter wavelength that that of Star B

Which of the following is an example of a photoautotroph

a tree

Of the following types of radiation, which one's photons have the lowest energy

infrared light

The most massive planets in our solar system formed

outside the snow line

Select the most volatile substance

oxygen

The Co-Accretion Theory suggests that the moon is accreted from the same pool of the planetesimals that the Earth did. Although this is a failed theory of Moon formation, which property of the moon can it successfully explain

the moon's isotopic similarities to Earth