astronomy final
Jupiter has enough mass to make 318 Earths. In contrast, Uranus and Neptune have only enough mass to make
15 earths
What kind of seasons are on Uranus:
21 years of a season. The most extreme seasonal variations in the solar system
Pluto's big satellite is called
Charon
What are comets made of?
Icy rocks or rocky ice "dirty snowballs"
How did they determine Jupiter's true rotation rate?
Its magnetic fields rotation is the same as the planets
Short period comets come from:
Kuiper Belt
The moon Triton orbits which of the planets?
Neptune
Where do the long period comets come from:
Oort Cloud
What are the three main classes of asteroids?
S-class-stony/silicates/rock, M-class-metallic, C-class-carbonaceous. Meteorites are the same material.
Why are they not as oblake as they would be based on their composition?
They have a solid core. Rocky material. Silicate material.
difference between a meteor and a meteorite
a meteor does not hit the surface of a planet it blows up, and a meteorite does hit the surface.
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 (moons)
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
what was the galileo spacecraft carrying with it
an atmospheric probe
Which of the following is NOT one of the largest moons in the Solar System?
atlas
If everything in the solar system is moving around, why do the Perseid meteors repeat regularly around August 11th or so?
bc the earth in its orbit intersects the same swarm of meteor particles at the same time each year
The rings of the outer planets consist of
billions of chunks (of various sizes) that all orbit the equator of each planet
What is the nature of the moons for the giant planets:
captured objects and have retrograde orbits
which spacecraft went to saturn
casini, hogans probe into and onto titan
The first asteroid to be discovered (which is also the largest one) is called
ceres
Pluto was discovered through the patient searching of
clyde
type of rotation jupiter and saturn and the sun has
differential rotation. display an oblake shape (jupiter and saturn)
The satellite whose surface is characterized by a smooth icy crust with a complex network of cracks is:
europa
spacecraft not leaving the solar system is
galileo
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
The four large moons of Jupiter were first discovered by:
galileo and his telescope
The largest satellite (moon) in the solar system is:
ganymede
One of the galilean moons displays the characteristic of differentiation:
genimean
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?
gravity assist from other planets
When astronomers say that Ganymede is a differentiated body, they mean that it:
has a heavier core surrounded by a lighter icy mantle with crust
What are the criteria that pluto does not meet to make it a planet:
has not cleared its orbit, the ecliptic (pluto does not orbit on this-goes above and below it), pluto crosses inside neptune's orbit, it would act like a comet (dust tail, ion tail, and act as if it is a comet), pluto is known as a cyper belt object.
Why do astronomers see a helium deficiency in the atmosphere of saturn:
helium condenses out of the hydrogen and moves towards the core.
By far the most abundant element in the giant (jovian) planets is:
hydrogen
major composition of jupiter and saturn?
hydrogen and helium
A main difference between asteroids and comets is that asteroids are mostly made of rock and comets are mostly made of
ice
Saturn's rings are made up mostly of
ice and rock
first asteroid to have its own moon was
ida moon named dactile
More than 75% of the known asteroids:
in a belt between mars and jupiter
The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is:
io
Why does a comet's tail always points away from the sun:
it interacts with the solar wind
Which of the following statements about the seasons on Jupiter is correct?
its axis is hardly tilted meaning no real seasons
Which spacecraft visited halley
jiotto
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 planet has the fastest rotation
jupiter 9 1/2 hours
What allows Jupiter and Saturn to generate these massive magentfields they have:
liquid metallic hydrogen
what are the tails names
made of gas, dust, and ice. A dust tail and ion tail.
problem with the galileo spacecraft
main antenna is stuck in closed position
differential rotation
material at the equator is spinning faster than the material at the poles.
How can astronomers measure the age of a meteorite that fell from the skies?
measure the amount still left of radioactive materials in the meteorite, and how much has turned into decay products
Chunks of solid material that survive passing through the Earth's atmosphere and are found on the Earth's surface are called
meteorites
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 upper clouds in the atmosphere of Neptune are composed of:
methane
Uranus and Neptune share a composition to give them their unique color:
methane. Neptune holds a little more since it is farther away and colder.
At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:
mixture of icy and rocky material under great pressure
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 jovian planet that has the longest year (period of revolution) is:
neptune
spacecraft that went to pluto and sent back our first images
new horizon (or more than one above)
We know those planets have rings through occultation:
one object moves behind another and affects the light coming from the first object.
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
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
titon is a moon of which planet
saturn
The comet that broke into more than 20 pieces and then collided with Jupiter in 1994 was
shoemaker levy 9
Spacecraft that went to the asteroids:
shoemaker near matilda and eros
The majority of the moons orbiting the outer (jovian) planets are:
small moons moving in retrograde direction
Which of the following is NOT a way that Jupiter differs from terrestrial planets?
surface has more craters from early collisions
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 Io's inside
Halley's Comet was given that name because Edmond Halley was
the person who found it
Which of the bodies in our solar system does the composition of Jupiter most resemble?
the sun
Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:
the sun
what makes the giant planets different from the other planets?
their composition, all have rings, their distance from the sun, and they have no surface
which jovian planets do not have satellites?
they all do
What makes the rings of Neptune different from those of other planets we know?
they are clumpy (darker material than saturn)
The satellite which has the thickest atmosphere (so thick that it's quite a surprise for a satellite) is:
titan
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 mostly resemble saturns are
uranus's rings
Much of what we have learned about the jovian planets (outer planets) and their satellites has come from the work of two spacecraft called:
voyager
Which of the following is NOT a way that the moon Titan probably resembles the Earth?
water can exist in all three phases- methane plays the same role
saturns ring particles are mainly composed of
water ice
