chapter 9-14 Solar Systems
Which of the following statements about the rocks brought back from the Earth's Moon by the astronauts is TRUE?
The Moon rocks were puzzling, because they resemble rocks from the Earth's crust in many ways, but also subtle differences
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:
The Oort Cloud
Scientists now understand that the Earth consists of layers, with the densest materials in the core. What allowed the differentiation of the Earth's layers to happen?
The early Earth must have been so hot it was like a liquid and heavier things sank to the middle
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
The region around the Earth where charges particles are trapped and spiral around is called
The magnetosphere
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
In 2012, NASA's Spaceguard Survey concluded that astronomers had now identified 90% of the asteroids with diameters greater than 1 km. How could astronomers know that they had reached this goal?
The people doing the survey began to find the same objects over again, indicating they were reaching the limits of their survey
Which of the following is NOT a way that Venus resembles the Earth?
The thickness and pressure of its atmosphere
Which of these did the June 1908 impact event in Siberia and the 2013 event in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have in common?
They both exploded high in the atmosphere and produced a shock wave that reached the ground.
How have astronomers learned what different asteroids are made of?
They examine the spectrum of the sunlight that reflects from the astroid
How can astronomers measure the age of a meteorite that fell from the skies?
They measure the amount still left of radioactive materials in the meteorites, and how much it has turned into decay products
The satellite which has the thickest atmosphere (so thick that it's quite a surprise for a satellite) is:
Titan
The atmosphere of Venus is mostly carbon dioxide, and the atmosphere of the Earth has water vapor. Why are these two gases absent in the atmosphere of the satellite around Saturn called Titan?
Titan is so cold that carbon dioxide and water vapor freeze out
If there are at least a million asteroids, how did spacecraft like Galileo survive their trip through the asteroid belt?
although there are many astroids, they are spaced
We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are:
ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon
One of the key reasons that professional astronomers (as opposed to the public) are interested in comets is that they
are icy pieces left over from the time that our solar system formed that can give us clues about early time
The mountains on the Moon
are the result of giant impacts during the Moon's long history of being hit
Why were asteroids not discovered until the 19th century?
astroids are generally small compared to planets and require a good telescope and patient searching to spot them
Which of the following is NOT a way that the moon Titan probably resembles the Earth?
at its surface the temperature and pressure are just right for water to exist in all three phases
If everything in the solar system is moving around, why do the Perseid meteors repeat regularly around August 11th or so?
because the Earth in its orbit intersects the same swarm of meteor particles at the same time each year
Why are the largest craters we find on the Moon and Mercury so much larger than the largest craters we find on the Earth?
because the largest craters were made early in each world's history, and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the Earth's surface
Why are almost all the craters we see on the Moon circular?
because the rocks and icebergs that hit the moon are moving so fast, they explode on impact, making a circular hole
The rings of the outer planets consist of
billions of chunks (of various sizes) that all orbit the equator of each planet
Astronomers estimate that the runoff channels seen on Mars must be at least 3.9 billion years old. How do they estimate ages like this?
by counting impact craters in the regions containing these channels
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
How were the rings of Uranus discovered?
by using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (the telescope aboard an airplane) to observe Uranus moving in front of a distant star
More than 75% of the known asteroids:
can be found in a belt between Mars and Jupiter
The same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. This gas is:
carbon dioxide
Jupiter has enough mass to make 318 Earths. In contrast, Uranus and Neptune have only enough mass to make
15 Earths
In 2013, a small stony asteroid collided with the Earth above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. What was the result?
A fireball briefly brighter than the Sun could be seen in the sky
Astronomers believe that Jupiter's strong magnetic field is caused by
A huge layer of metallic hydrogen inside Jupiter
At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:
A solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure
he person who came up with the continental drift theory that led to our modern understanding of plate tectonics was
Alfred Wegner
Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the ways the jovian planets differ from the terrestrial planets?
All the Jovians have satellites around them and none of the terrestrials do
The largest continental (highland) area on Venus is called:
Aphrodite
A baseball pitcher wants to impress his girl-friend with how strong his throwing arm is. On which of the following bodies would the pitcher be MOST likely to be able to throw a baseball (a fast ball) so fast it would actually go into orbit?
Asteroid Ida
The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:
Optical illusions
The person who really publicized the idea of canals on Mars and impressed it on the public mind was:
Percival Lowell
Two small moons in the solar system, known since the 19th century, turn out to be captured asteroids. These two moons are:
Phobos and Deimos around Mars
One reason we know more about the surface composition of the asteroid Vesta than about most other members of the asteroid belt is that
Pieces of Vesta have landed on Earth as meteorites
The first spacecraft to explore the environment of the planet Jupiter was called
Pioneer
Which of the following worlds does NOT have a ring?
Pluto
Which planet has the biggest moon relative to its own size? Not the biggest moon in terms of kilometers, but the biggest as a percentage of the size of the planet it orbits.
Pluto
Two worlds in the outer solar system that seem remarkably similar to each other are:
Pluto and Triton
Rocks that have not been chemically modified by being significantly heated are called
Primitive
I want to examine the surface of a planet which is completely covered by a thick layer of clouds all the time. What wavelength of electromagnetic radiation would I be smartest to use:
Radio waves (like radar).
Which of the following is NOT an accomplishment of the Rosetta mission to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G)?
Rosetta took samples of the surface material of Comet C_G and sent them back to earth
The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:
Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed him to be long straight features on the red planet
The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:
Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed what seemed to him to be long straight features on the Red Planet
Which of the following is NOT a way we have studied the planet Mars so far?
Sending spacecraft to mars which have
Which of the following is NOT a way we have studied the planet Mars so far?
Sending spacecraft to mars which have brought samples of the planet back to Earth
The comet that broke into more than 20 pieces and then collided with Jupiter in 1994 was
Shoemaker-Levy 9
A type of planet that our surveys of exoplanets are revealing around other stars, but we don't have any examples of around the Sun are:
Super Earths
In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:
T Earth's crust and mantle
One of the most impressive features of the geology of Mars is an uplifted area about the size of North America, with volcanoes on it, which is called the
Tharisis Bulge
One of the most impressive features of the geology of Mars is an uplifted area about the size of North America, with volcanoes on it, which is called the
Tharsis Bulge
What was a surprise to astronomers when they carefully examined Neptune with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994?
The Great Dark Spot Had disappeared
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 I the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect
If no one has ever visited the core of the Earth, how do we know it is made of metals
circulating liquid metals in the core set up a large (measurable( magnetic field
The fact that some asteroids cluster in what are called asteroid families is probably the result of:
collisions which broke up larger bodies into a number of smaller ones
Short-period comets like Comet Halley
come back again and again at predictable intervals
Which part oft he Earth has the greatest density
core
The type of rock we find predominant in the crust of the Earth's continents is called:
granite
When astronomers say that Ganymede is a differentiated body, they mean that it:
has a heavier core, surrounded by a lighter, Icy mantle and crust
When a periodic comet leaves its dusty debris behind in its orbit, the Earth can intercept this debris and
have a meteor shower as the dust burns up
The synchrotron radiation (radio waves) that astronomers first observed from Jupiter in the 1950's comes from:
high speed electrons spilling around the planets strong magnetic field
The ages of stony meteorites have been measured to be roughly equal to:
the oldest ages we have measured for any bodies in the solar system
Which of the following pieces of observational evidence does our modern "solar nebula" theory of the formation of the solar system NOT explain directly?
the plane of the orbit of Pluto
One reason that we have such a complex system of belts/zones/storms in Jupiter's atmosphere is that:
the planet rotates very rapidly
For scientists, one bar is
the pressure with which 1 square centimeter of the Earth's atmosphere presses down at the surface
The same process that explains why astronomers see less helium in the upper atmosphere of Saturn when they take spectra also explains
the reason Saturn is warmer than we expect
Which of the following statements about Saturn's rings is TRUE?
the rings are made of billions and billions of moonless
The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:
the runaway greenhouse effect
Halley's Comet was given that name because Edmond Halley was
the scientist who pointed out that the orbit of the comet was such that6 it should return every 76 years or so
The process of convection involves
the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material
Astronomers call the vast, rotating cloud of vapor and dust from which the solar system formed:
the solar nebula
What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?
they do not have an atmosphere
When larger fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter in 1994,
they exploded in Jupiter's atmosphere, releasing energy equal to millions of megatons of TNT
What makes astronomers believe that Mars once had rivers and running water?
zImages form orbiting spacecraft reveal
A very rich and eccentric tourist in the future hires you to fly him to a region of Venus' atmosphere where the temperatures and pressures are the most Earth-like. Where would you take him?
in the cloud layers about 50 km above the surface
Which of the following statements about the Earths magnetosphere is false
its shape and size are the same o the sides facing towards and away from the Sun.
Which of the following is NOT a way that Jupiter differs from terrestrial planets?
its surface has many more craters from early collisions
Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?
its surface is heavily cratered
Astronomers estimate that about 25 million meteors strike the Earth's atmosphere each day. How come we haven't run out of meteors in the long history of the Earth?
meteors are pieces of dirt left over from the formation of our solar system and old comets; there is a huge supply of small dirt particles from both sources
The bluish color that makes the atmosphere of Neptune so beautiful to the human eye is caused by the interaction of sunlight with what gas?
methane
The lakes found in the north polar region of Titan are filled with liquid
methane
The upper clouds in the atmosphere of Neptune are composed of:
methane
Which element plays the same role on Titan as water does on Earth (existing as gas, liquid, and solid)?
methane
In terms of numbers, the most common life-forms on Earth are
microscopic creatures, too small to see with our eyes
The reason that Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain on Mars, is taller than Mount Everest (the tallest mountain on Earth) is that:
moire than one of the above
If our estimates of the number of comets in every part of the solar system are correct, the total mass contained in comets must be:
on the order of the mass of all the planets put together
The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:
optical illusions
The Murchison meteorite that was found in Australia in 1969 is important to scientists because it contained
organic materials, such as amino acids
Callisto, the fourth moon of Jupiter's, takes 17 days to orbit Jupiter. If I stand on the surface of Callisto and see Jupiter high in the sky over my head, and then wait 8.5 Earth days in the same spot, where will I see Jupiter?
overhead
The majority of the moons orbiting the outer (jovian) planets are:
small moons orbiting in retrograde direction
Which of the following statements about Jupiter's magnetosphere is TRUE?
It completely covers the inner satellites of Jupiter and is one of the largest structure sin the solar system.
Which of the following statements about the Galileo probe that dropped into Jupiter is FALSE?
It detected a lot of water and water vapor clouds on its way down
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 told
Valles Marineris is a wide, deep network of chasms stretching for some 2500 miles on the surface of Mars. How do we believe such a big set of canyons formed originally?
It was caused by tectonic pressures from deep within the planet
The largest planet in the solar system (by mass) is
Jupiter
The planet that has an axis that points roughly straight up, and thus has no seasons to speak of, is:
Jupiter
Which of the jovian planets has the shortest period of rotation (the shortest day)?
Jupiter
Which of the following statements about the seasons on Jupiter is correct?
Jupiters axis is hardly tilted
Why do astronomers today think that we have an asteroid belt and not a planet between Mars and Jupiter?
Jupiters gravity prevented material in that zone from getting together
The telescope in space that allowed astronomers to find thousands of exoplanets and exoplanet candidates by making very careful measurements during a planet transit was called:
Kepler
Between 1992 and today, astronomers using large telescopes have discovered many icy pieces that orbit in the same region as the orbit of Pluto. These are believed to be members of the
Kuiper belt
In addition to hundreds of smaller objects they have been discovering in the Kuiper Belt recently, astronomers were surprised to find
Larger bodies, with sizer as big as Pluto
The same astronomer wrote extensively about canals on Mars and about the possibility of a ninth planet in our solar system. The observatory named after this astronomer is the:
Lowell Observatory
In the far future, an entrepreneur with a large fleet of space ships decides to capture and bring to Earth some valuable asteroids. If at that time, there is a shortage of usable metals on Earth, what type of asteroids should his employees search for?
M-type
The jovian planet that has the longest year (period of revolution) is:
Neptune
The moon Triton orbits which of the planets?
Neptune
The most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere is
Nitrogen
The mountains on Pluto are made of frozen water, which at Pluto temperatures, is as hard as rock. Pluto also has a smooth, round basin which could be thought of as a frozen sea. What material is in the basin (nicknamed Sputnik) likely to be made of?
Nitrogen
The largest volcano on Mars is called:
Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)
The tallest mountain on a terrestrial world is:
Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus) on Mars
A crucial difference that helps explain why Venus is so hot and the Earth isn't is that:
On Venus, there was eventually no ocean to remove carbon dioxide form the atmosphere
Our modern understanding of Pluto is that it is a member of
the Kuiper belt
Which of the following is NOT one of the largest moons in the Solar System?
Atlas
The largest and most massive of Saturn's rings is the
B ring
The largest impact basin on Mercury (located on that part of the planet which is closest to the Sun at noon) is called:
Caloris
On some parts of Mars, it gets cold enough for a gas to freeze out of the atmosphere that does not freeze out by itself at the temperatures and pressures on Earth. This gas makes up some of the polar caps on Mars and is:
Carbon Dioxide
The first asteroid to be discovered (which is also the largest one) is called
Ceres
When the Dawn spacecraft explored the largest asteroid Ceres, it discovered white spots that appear to be salt and volcanic mountains made of water ice. This led astronomers to which of the following ideas:
Ceres may have a liquid ocean under its crust
Pluto's big satellite is called
Charion
Pluto was discovered through the patient searching of
Clyde Tombaugh
Different asteroids reflect different percentages of the light falling on them. This is due to the fact that they have different:
Compositions
Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?
Deep inside craters I the regions near the moon's poles
One of the best proofs that our theory of how the solar system formed is correct is that astronomers now observe
Diskd around other stats which show evidence of gaps where planets may be forming
Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today is FALSE?
Droplets of liquid water rain irrigate the surface of Mars regularly
The satellite whose surface is characterized by a smooth icy crust with a complex network of cracks is:
Europa
When a chunk of cosmic material the size of a golf ball or a baseball hits the Earth's atmosphere it makes a
Fireball
The scientist who first proposed that comet nuclei were "dirty snowballs" was:
Fred Whipple
The first spacecraft which did not merely fly by a jovian (or giant) planet, but actually went into orbit around it for an extended period of time was
Galileo
Which of the following spacecraft is NOT leaving the solar system?
Galileo
The four large moons of Jupiter were first discovered by:
Galileo with his early telescope
The largest satellite (moon) in the solar system is:
Ganymede
The Galileo spacecraft measured that the moon Ganymede had a magnetic field, indicating that its interior was at least partly melted and warm. What do scientists think is the most likely reason for this?
Ganymede is heated by tidal forces from Jupiter
The spacecraft that got the closest to the nucleus of Halley's Comet and sent back dramatic photographs of what the nucleus looked like was:
Giotto
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
The first asteroid confirmed to have a satellite (moon) was
Ida
The two asteroids from which close-up images and data have been returned by the Galileo spacecraft are:
Ida and Gaspra
According to our textbook, what is the best way to defend ourselves against an asteroid which is on course to collide with the Earth in 7 years?
If we do it early enough, we could explode something on or near the as trios to deflect it slightly, so that years later it would then miss Earth
Any rock in the Earth's crust that has cooled from an originally molten state is called
Igneous
What makes astronomers believe that Mars once had rivers and running water?
Images fro orbiting spacecraft reveal ancient water channels that look like fried-up river beds on Earth
Why are there no smaller craters on the surface of Venus, only bigger ones?
In Venus' thick atmosphere all smaller chunks of material
The spacecraft that sent back the most detailed radar images of Venus and showed us features as small as a football field is:
Magellan
The spacecraft that really gave scientists their first good close-up look of the planet Mercury was:
Mairner 10
The largest part of the Earth is its
Mantle
The large, roughly circular, dark, and somewhat younger regions on the Moon are called:
Maria
The first spacecraft to orbit another planet circled Mars in 1971. It was:
Mariner 9
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 is it so much easier to determine the length of the day on Mars than on Venus?
Mars' atmosphere is generally pretty clear while Venus is always cloudy
The Shoemaker-NEAR spacecraft explored two asteroids, Mathilde and Eros. A big difference between them is that:
Mathilde appears to be pile of "rubble"
The highest mountain on Venus is also the only feature to be named after a man; its namesake is the Scottish scientist who laid the foundations for our understanding of electro-magnetic waves. This is Mount:
Maxwell
One way to measure how long Jupiter takes to rotate is to watch the giant storms in its atmosphere go around. A more fundamental way to measure the rotation is to:
Measure the cancers in the planets radio waves, which are controlled by its magnetic field
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
Which of the following is made of the densest material?
Mercury
Which of the following statements about Mercury's orbit is TRUE?
Mercury has the highest speed in its orbit of any planet
Which of the following statements about NEO's (Near Earth Objects) is TRUE?
NEO's can include both astroids and comets that cross the Earth's orbit
The first human being to step out onto the surface of another world was:
Neil Armstong
In the far future, a daring interplanetary tourist wants to go "hang-gliding" on the jovian planet with the highest equatorial wind speeds. Which planet would have the fastest wind at its equator?
Neptune
The planet that orbits "on its side" (i.e. has its rotation axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit) is:
Uranus
The rings that most resemble Saturn's narrow F ring in the solar system are:
Uranus' rings
. 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
There was a pair of spacecraft whose components both orbited the planet Mars and landed on its surface in 1976. These spacecraft were called:
Viking
The Viking spacecraft were designed -- in part -- to search for life on Mars. Which of the following statements about the results of these experiments is true?
Viking found that the surface of Mars in the two places it searched did not have any life or even life's building blocks
Which of the jovian planets does NOT have any satellites?
You can't fool me
What relatively recent event shows that impacts continue to happen in our solar system even today?
a comet hit the planet Jupiter in 1994
When a projectile (a rock from space, say) hits the surface of the Moon, which of the following do we NOT get?
a gushing out of lots of water
An alternate phrasing of question 15]: 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
The Van Allen Belt is
a region of topped charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere
When two objects in orbit have periods of revolution that are simple ratios of each other (such as 1 to 2 or 1 to 3) we say that we have:
a resonance
The typical meteor is
a small solid parcle, no bigger than a pea
At the beginning of the solar system's history, a ready supply of proto-planets or mini-planets crashed into the developing planets and each other - something astronomers call the "era of giant impacts." How long do astronomers estimate this era lasted?
about 100 million years
According to the fossil record, how old is the oldest evidence of life forms on the surface of the Earth?
about 3.5 billion years
One way in which the ozone layer is useful for life forms on the Earth's surface is that it
absorbs ultra-violet light, preventing much of it from reaching the surface
The Red Spot of Jupiter is:
all of the above
Which of the following is a way we believe that the early atmosphere of the Earth differed from the atmosphere we have today?
all of the above
Which of the following is evidence for volcanic activity on Venus?
all of the above
What do the magnetic fields of Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have in common?
all three have their magnetic axes offset from the center of the planet
Which of the following is NOT something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon?
discovering that the moon has a great deal of water under its surface
Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today is FALSE?
droplets of liquid water rain irrigate the surface of mars regular
Of the people who landed on the Moon, how many were trained scientists?
exactly one
Astronomers have realized that the surface of Ida is older than the surface of Gaspra. How do they measure this?
from counting craters on each astroids surface
The primary clouds in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn are composed of:
frozen ammonia crystals
What theory of Mercury's origin can best explain the fact that its core is made of such dense materials?
giant impacts in its early history may have torn away mcc how its original crust and mantle
One of the most perplexing issues raised by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets is the existence of "hot Jupiters" - planets with the masses and compositions of Jupiter, but orbiting closer to their stars than Mercury does in our solar system. What is our best idea currently about how such "hot Jupiters" came to be?
hot jupitrers formed further out in their star system, and then migrated inward
By far the most abundant element in the giant (jovian) planets is:
hydrogen
A main difference between asteroids and comets is that asteroids are mostly made of rock and comets are mostly made of
ice
The Magellan spacecraft revealed a wide variety of volcanic features on Venus, including some that looked like ticks and spiders. What instrument aboard Magellan was used for these investigations?
imaging radar
What features are abundant on Callisto and Ganymede and almost absent on Europa and Io?
impact craters
What is the source of the fine, powdery dust found on the Moon's surface?
is the result of many impacts, breaking the surface rocks apart over billions of years
Astronomers believe that Mars formed with a much thicker atmosphere than it has today. Where did this atmosphere go?
it escaped into spaced (and some later froze out as Mars got cold).
Which of the following statements about the planet Venus is true?
it has a thick layer of clouds containing sulfuric acid droplets
Which of the following statements about the unusual object Chiron is FALSE?
it is one of the largest asteroids, just a little smaller than Vesta
Which of the following characteristics distinguishes Uranus from every other planet in our solar system?
it rotates on an axis tilted almost 90 degrees to the circle of its orbit
Which of the following statements about Charon is FALSE?
its has a significant atmosphere
The big problem with the Galileo spacecraft is that
its main antenna is stuck in a closed position
Which of the following points 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 Valles Marineris, the great "grand canyon system" on Mars is true?
landslides have helped broaden the canyons since they were first formed
Which of the following statements about Valles Marineris, the great "grand canyon system" on Mars is true?
landslides have helped broadened the canyons since they were first formed
The large circular coronae on Venus are:
large regions where hot magma rising from the interior of Venus puts pressure on the surface material
Sometimes, when the Moon is a thin crescent, you can still dimly make out the full disk of our satellite. What is the reason for this?
light reflecting from Earth onto the moon
The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is:
lo
About 75% of the surface of Venus consists of
lowland lava plains
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
The first technique that allowed astronomers to find exoplanets involved:
measuring changes in the radial velocity
The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of:
metals
Chunks of solid material that survive passing through the Earth's atmosphere and are found on the Earth's surface are called
meteorites
Comets get significantly brighter in our skies as they approach the Sun because
more than one of the above
The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930. Since that time, which jovian planet has completed a full revolution around the Sun?
more than one of the above
The spacecraft that visited Pluto and send back our first images:
more than one of the above
Astronomers estimate that there may be a trillion (a thousand billion) comet nuclei orbiting beyond Pluto. Why then do we not see more comets in our skies?
most comets remain in stable orbits beyond Pluto
In what way is the Moon similar to the Earth?
none of the above
Which part of a comet is the DENSEST?
nucleus
Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE?
on Earth, we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us
Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found
on the boundaries of continental plates, where they meet other plates
When the solar system was forming, the building blocks from which the protoplanets gathered together were the:
planetismalks
How do astronomers know that the age of the solar system is about 4.5 billion years old?
radioactive dating of the pirmitvbe meteorites
If I stood on the surface of Pluto, observing its big moon, I would see that moon:
remain in the same place in the sky
The troposphere (the lowest layer in the atmosphere) of Venus
resembles being about a kilometer or so under the Earth's ocean-- a huge mass of air keeps temperatures pretty much the same all over the planet
Regions where the continents or the sea floor are pulling apart are called
rift zones
Scientists have been concerned about a set of industrial chemicals called CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) because they:
rise into the atmosphere and destroy ozone
The lunar highlands are made mostly of rocks that
rose to the top as the Moon cooled from a molten state early in its history
One way to find a new meteorite is to:
search the area beneath or close to the point where a bright fireball was seen to burn out
Today, scientists believe that the main reason the Earth has had periodic ice ages is:
slow changes in the tilt of our plants axis of rotation
According to the theory of plate tectonics,
slow motions within the mantle of the Earth move large sections of the crust around
The total surface area of planet Mars is roughly equal to the
surface area of the Earth's continents
The total surface area of planet Mars is roughly equal to the
surface area of the Earth's continents.
To obtain the wonderful images of the jovian planets in our textbook (out where the sunlight is a lot fainter) what did the Voyager spacecraft cameras have to do as they flew by each world?
swivel the cameras backwards to keep pointing in the same direction as the craft flew by
What method was used to discover Pluto in 1929-1930?
take pairs of photographs several days apart and "blink" them
Astronomers now believe that the differences in composition among the planets reflect what characteristic in the early solar system
temperature
Which of the following is not a characteristic that worlds in our solar system have in common:
that all the planets have solid surfaces on which we can see impact craters
At the moment when the Voyager spacecraft got closest to Uranus, the Sun was shining directly on the planet's south pole. Uranus takes about 17 hours to rotate once on its axis. If Voyager took a photo of the south pole 8.5 hours later, what would it observe?
the South Pole was brightly lit, with the Sun shining down o nit
Mercury is a small planet and therefore has trouble holding on to an atmosphere. How then do scientist account for the extremely thin atmosphere that was found around the planet in 1985?
the Sun's "wind" of particles is chipping atoms off the surface of mercury
The Moon is heavily cratered, but the Earth which "lives next door" is NOT. Why?
the active geology and weather on Earth destroy traces of impacts over millions of years
One region on Earth that has become a rich source of new meteorites in recent decades (including the meteorite from Mars that got famous because some scientists claimed they had found evidence for the building blocks of life on Mars) is:
the antarctic
The reason that worlds like the Earth are differentiated is that
the continuing impacts on a growing protoplanet eventually melted the entire body
Which of the following is NOT evidence that objects from space collide with the Earth?
the crater at the top ofthe Mount St. Helens volcano
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 plant in Solar system
According to astronomical tradition, who gets to suggest the name for a newly discovered asteroid?
the discover of the astroid
In 1980, scientists suggested that the great mass extinction of 65 million years ago (which ended the reign of dinosaurs) may have been caused by a large impact from space. What discovery gives a big boost to this idea?
the discovery of a buried crater near Chicxulub, Mexico
Some years some meteor showers, such as the Leonids, feature many more meteors than at other times. What is the cause of these "meteor storms"?
the dust freed some comets is clumps and not evenly distributed along its orbit
Which of the following would NOT be one of the problems faced by an unprotected Earthling stranded on Mars? (Unprotected meaning no space suit.)
the extreme (high) heat at most latitudes
Which of the following would NOT be one of the problems faced by an unprotected Earthling stranded on Mars? (Unprotected meaning no space suit.)
the extreme heat at most latitudes
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 side of the sun
Which theory of the Moon's origin do astronomers (and the evidence) favor:
the giant impact theory
What is the cause of its many volcanic/geyser-like eruptions on the moon Io?
the gravitational stress of being so close to Jupiter and its other large moons heats the lo's inside
Comets change as they approach the Sun in their orbits. Which of the following statements about a comet approaching the Sun is FALSE?
the gravity of the comet nucleus holds on to the evaporated material, and it eventually freezes back into the Nucleus
According to the giant impact hypothesis about the formation of the Moon, why did the Earth not break apart into many pieces when the giant impact happened?
the impactor was about the size of mars or smaller, so it ejected material from the Earth but did not break it
For solid rocky worlds, a general rule is
the larger the world, the slower it cools off and the more it will keep its internal heat
One way in which Mars closely resembles the Earth is:
the length of its day (period of rotation)
An increase in the Earth's temperature by several degrees Celsius would result in:
the melting of many glaciers, a rise in sea levels, and more flooding of towns near the coast of continents.
Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:
the sun
Which of the following statements about the tails of comets is FALSE?
the tail always points away from the sun
In which region of the Earth's atmosphere have you spent most of your life?
the troposphere
Which of the following is NOT one of the key reasons that so many spacecraft from Earth have visited Venus and Mars?
their atmospheres are very similar to the Earth in terms of their chemical make-up
What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?
there are 10 times more craters on the older highlands than the younger Maria
How does Saturn's F ring stay so thin (narrow), when the other rings are so wide?
there are 2 shepherding saltellities of it
What do astronomers think is the origin of the many irregular moons around the outer planets (irregular meaning they are orbiting backwards and/or have eccentric orbits)?
these moons were likely formed elsewhere and captured b the giant planets
What makes the rings of Neptune different from those of other planets we know?
they are clumpy in places
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 dorm in water
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 statements about the geysers on the moon Triton is true?
they involve plumes of nitrogen on the sunlit Sid of Triton
A key difference between the protoplanets that formed in the outer solar system and those that formed in the inner solar system was that
those in the outer solar system were in a place condensed
Among solid worlds, which type of world is most likely to have significant geological activity?
those that are the largest
In the future, a pair of astronauts are sent on a mission to the planet Mercury. They watch the Sun set one mercurian evening and decide they will go exploring in opposite directions and meet again the NEXT time the Sun is setting in the spot where they started. How long will they have to wait for the next sunset at that spot?
two Mercury years, 176 Earth Days
For a while, after the space age began, astronomers did not know what the surface of Titan looks like, but today they do. Which of the following was NOT a method by which astronomers have learned about the surface of Titan?
using the Hubblke Space Telescope in orbit to take a photo of Titan
The planet that most resembles the Earth in size and internal composition is
venus
What planet can come closest to the Earth in its orbit and look brightest in our skies?
venus
Which of these worlds is the most active geologically?
venus
Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the rotation of Venus?
venus rotate in roughly the same time period as Earth
A spot where magma rises to the surface can be seen as a
volcano
Today, a significant amount of new gas is joining the atmosphere of the Earth from what source:
volcanoes release gas that was trapped within the Earth
Much of what we have learned about the jovian planets and their satellites has come from the work of two spacecraft called:
voyager
A student in your class whom you kind-of like asks you come to watch a meteor shower. What exactly are you being invited to?
watching the left-over dirt from a comet burn up by a friction as the pieces hit the Earth's atmosphere
Mountains on Earth often have sharp peaks and edges to them, while mountains on the Moon look smooth and kind of dull in comparison. What gives the Earth's mountains their dramatically sharp shapes?
water and ice flow over the Earth's mountains and erode them
Saturn's ring particles are composed mainly of:
water ice
What is one way that we humans are currently making the atmosphere of the Earth more like that of Venus?
we are adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming
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 eight planets has a smaller mass than Mercury?
you can't fool me