PHYS 103 Chpt. 9-12
The number of near-Earth asteroids that are more than one kilometer in diameter appears to be close to
1000.
The number of objects that have been observed to be orbiting in the Kuiper Belt is approximately
1000.
Which of the following space probes flew past Saturn but not past Jupiter?
None of these
The Moon Charon orbits a point that is
Not inside Pluto at all.
Which of the following models for the formation of life on Earth would most likely apply if it turns out that the first step of forming a self-copying molecule is rather easy and happens as soon as conditions are right for it?
The Abiogenesis Model
As Saturn rotates,
both its magnetic poles remain almost motionless at its geographic poles.
The semi-liquid rock that is found inside the Earth
flows like a liquid under gradual pressure but is stiff like a solid under sudden pressure.
Carbon is essential for all life we know about because it
forms complex compounds.
The nucleus of a comet consists of
frozen gas, ice, and dust
The Earth's crust is mostly made of
granite
Which of the following types of radiation has the highest frequency on this list?
green light.
According to the definition of "habitable zone" that we are using, Earth is
near the inner edge of the habitable zone of our Solar System.
One of the experiments carried out by the Viking Landers was to use a mass spectrometer to analyze the gas given off from a heated soil sample. The results of that experiment (as interpreted at the time) established that Martian soil contains
no carbon compounds at all
The original source of energy for life forms that live near a black smoker is
often chemicals generated by the heat of the Earth's interior.
An RNA molecule consists of
one sugar phosphate chain with single nitrogenous bases attached to the side of it.
The portion of the Earth that is liquid iron and nickel is the
outer core.
The part of a protostar where the density first becomes low enough for light to escape is called the
photosphere.
On Earth, a stable long-term carbon cycle could not exist without
plate tectonics recycling the sea floor into the Earth' interior.
Which of the following temperatures is closest to what you might expect on the planet Jupiter?
-250 degrees F
The number of objects that have been observed to be orbiting in the Outer Oort Cloud is approximately
0.
In the Earth's atmosphere, the percentage that is Carbon Dioxide is roughly
0.04%
As of 2018, how many space probes had flown past Uranus closely enough to take detailed pictures?
1
As of 2018, how many space probes have flown past Neptune closely enough to take detailed pictures?
1
How many of the moons of Saturn are larger than the Earth's Moon?
1
The asteroid 2008 AF4 has one chance in 21,000 of hitting the Earth between the years 2078 and 2100. The asteroid is 390 meters in diameter compared to 250 meters in diameter for Apophis. Assuming that an impact could cause the death of 30,000,000 people the average death rate for this type of event is approximately
1500 people per event.
Uranus rotates on its axis once in about
17 hours
Compared to the frequency of photons absorbed during a transition from a from a -6ev state to a -4ev state, transitions from the -6ev state to a -2ev state would correspond to absorbing photons whose frequency is
2 times as high.
The inclination angle of a planet's rotation axis is defined so that a planet that is rotating in the usual direction about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the solar system would have an inclination of 0°, while a planet that is rotating in the opposite (retrograde) direction about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the solar system would have an inclination angle of 180°. The inclination angle of the planet Neptune is closest to
30 degrees
Compared to the Earth, the planet Uranus is roughly
4 times as large
In the Earth's atmosphere, the percentage that is Nitrogen is roughly
80%
The inclination angle of a planet's rotation axis is defined so that a planet that is rotating in the usual direction about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the solar system would have an inclination of 0°, while a planet that is rotating in the opposite (retrograde) direction about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the solar system would have an inclination angle of 180°. The inclination angle of the planet Uranus is closest to
98 degrees
The fact that the surface of Mars shows no tectonic activity means that one of the requirements for continuing life might be missing.
A carbon-return process.
The first generally accepted example of Sea-floor spreading was under the
Atlantic Ocean.
Meteor showers are caused by
Comet debris.
In current Earth life, the self-copying molecule that contains the information needed to construct and operate a life-form is
DNA.
In the 1990s astronomical telescopes began to switch from recording images on film to recording them digitally using Charge Coupled Devices. This led to the discovery of new asteroids at a rapid rate because
Digital images could be processed by computers.
Which of these moons has patterns of cracks in the ice on its surface. indicating a subsurface ocean?
Europa.
What we refer to as a `Saturn Ring-plane Crossing' corresponds to what season on Saturn?
Fall or spring equinox
The largest four moons of Jupiter are referred to as the
Galilean satellites.
Gerard Kuiper predicted that the region we now call the "Kuiper Belt" should be empty.
He was incorrect because he assumed a mass for Pluto that is now known to be too large.
Which of the following statements best describes the presence of water on Mars?
Mars probably had liquid water flowing on its surface at some time in the past.
Which of the following systems is closest to the plan of most current Earth life-forms?
One DNA molecule is used to make RNA molecules which, in turn make the proteins and enzymes that construct and operate a life-form.
In which of these layers of the atmosphere is it generally warmer at higher altitudes?
Ozone layer
Which of the following spacecraft were the first to fly past Jupiter?
Pioneer 10 & 11
Which of the following Trans Neptunian Objects is thought to be a visitor from the Inner Oort Cloud?
Sedna.
Which of the following statements describes the relation between what we observe and the predictions of the nebular model of the formation of the Solar System?
The model predicts rocky planets nearest to the Sun and we observe rocky planets there.
Suppose that you observe a planet that reflects mostly green light and absorbs both red and infra-red light. Which of the following conclusions can you make?
The planet does not have Earth-type green plants on its surface.
Hurricanes and other storms start when the air is unstable. Under which of the following conditions would you expect the air over the ocean to be unstable so that it is likely to give rise to storms?
The temperature of the ocean water is higher than the temperature of the air above it.
From our discussion of how water and carbon dioxide interact on Mars, what would happen if a large body of liquid water (a big lake perhaps) were to appear on Mars?
The water would absorb carbon dioxide, which would reduce the atmospheric pressure and cause the water to evaporate or freeze.
Which of these moons has landmarks that are not rotating with the rest of the moon, indicating a subsurface ocean?
Titan.
The axial tilt of Pluto is most similar to that of
Uranus.
An example of a planet with no liquid water at all and a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere is
Venus
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft
Went into orbit around the planet Saturn
Jupiter has
a few rings made of dark rocks
When a hydrogen atom on one molecule is attracted to an oppositely charged part of another molecule, the result is
a hydrogen bond.
An encounter between Earth and an iron asteroid fifty meters in diameter would most likely cause
a large explosion on the ground.
The magnetic field of Jupiter indicates that its core must contain large amounts of
a liquid that can conduct electricity.
A rising convection current in the Earth's mantle is expected to cause
a mid-ocean ridge where tectonic plates are spreading apart.
When the light from a star is spread out into a rainbow of colors, the resulting picture is called
a spectrum.
Jupiter has
an atmosphere of Hydrogen and Helium with no real surface
Neptune has
an atmosphere of Hydrogen and Helium with some methane.
According to the current model of the early history of the Solar System, the rain of comets that supplied water to the Earth and other planets happened
at the same time as the formation of the Oort Cloud.
A necessary (but probably not sufficient) condition for a planet to have active plate tectonics is that it
be considerably larger than the planet Mars.
The oxygen atom in a water molecule
carries a negative electrical charge.
Stars usually come in clusters, all born at about the same time, because
collapsing interstellar clouds usually fragment.
The currently accepted model of the formation of the Solar System says that the planets
condensed from a disk of matter formed from the rotating Solar Nebula.
The strongest evidence that Earth life is all descended from a single self-copying molecule is that all Earth life
contains the same version of molecules that have different mirror-image forms.
Current computer models of planet formation suggest that the Alpha Centauri system
could have planets within the habitable zones of both Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B.
According to our current (very tentative) estimates, a spaceship travelling from our Sun to one of the nearest stars such as Alpha Centauri A probably
could make the trip in many short hops between rogue planets along the way.
Early (before 1970) theoretical estimates of the number of near-Earth asteroids were very low because the astronomers of that time
did not realize that Jupiter's gravity was deflecting asteroids from the Belt.
Neptune's magnetic North and South poles are
displaced from its rotation axis poles and also from the center of the planet
Uranus's magnetic North and South poles are
displaced from its rotation axis poles and also from the center of the planet
An advantage of carbon dioxide as the starting form of carbon for use by living things is that it
dissolves in liquid water.
The atmosphere of Pluto is now known to
extend a thousand miles above its surface.
The primary mission of the Kepler Spacecraft is to
find planets in orbit around nearby stars.
The possibility that increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air will raise the average temperature of the Earth is referred to as the
greenhouse effect
According to our current (very tentative) estimates, a spaceship travelling from our Sun to one of the nearest stars such as Alpha Centauri A would probably be traveling through the Oort cloud of our Sun and that of Alpha Centauri A for a distance that is
half of the whole trip.
According to our current model of how planets form magnetic fields, the magnetic field of Saturn is much less than the magnetic field of Jupiter because Saturn
has less metallic hydrogen in its core than Jupiter.
The rotation rate of Saturn
has not been exacly determined because different methods give somewhat different results.
The second most common element in the universe is
helium.
Ultraviolet light is sometimes described as either UV-A or UV-B. The UV-B variety is supposed to be more damaging to your skin. You can conclude that of the two types, the UV-B variety has the
higher frequency.
The molecules of both liquid water and ice are held together by
hydrogen bonds.
After the impact of an asteroid large enough to cause global effects, the main worry is smoke and dust
in the Stratosphere.
Protostars are very bright because of their large surface areas. Most of this energy comes out as
infra-red light with wavelengths too long to see with an ordinary telescope.
If the frequency of electromagnetic radiation goes from 6×10¹⁴Hz to 3×10¹⁴Hz, the energy of each individual photon in the radiation
is divided by 2.
The Kupier Belt
is no longer accepted as the starting point of short-period comets.
The range of signal frequencies between absorption bands caused by hydrogen and hydroxyl molecules
is referred to as the "water hole" and is the frequency band that SETI programs usually choose.
Pluto
is sometimes closer to the Sun than Neptune and sometimes farther from the Sun.
The Oort Cloud
is the hypothetical (but mostly unobserved) starting point of long-period comets.
If we wish to find life with a carbon-return process similar to the one here on Earth, we should look for planets
larger than Mars.
When ice melts, the resulting liquid water occupies
less volume than the ice did.
Comparing asteroids hitting the Earth at the same speed, the energy released by an asteroid impact is proportional to (Be careful here!) the
mass of the asteroid.
When the fireball of its entry into the atmosphere was spotted from a KLM airliner, asteroid 2008 TC₃ had officially become a
meteor.
The blue color of the planet Uranus is caused by the presence in its atmosphere of
methane.
The reason that most SETI programs choose to listen at microwave radio frequencies is that
microwaves are the most energy efficient way to send information.
The epicenters of earthquakes are located
mostly along the edges of moving plates
Silicon atoms can bond to other silicon atoms to form polysilylene molecules in much the same way that carbon atoms can bond to other carbon atoms to form sugars and other hydrocarbon molecules. What is the key difficulty with basing life on silicon and polysilylenes instead of on carbon compounds such as glucose?
polysilylenes tend to explode in the presence of oxygen.
It has been theorized that planets do not easily form in binary star systems. If they do form, there are three possible arrangements: (1) Planets with orbits similar in radius to the distance between the two stars. (2) Planets with orbits much smaller in radius than the distance between the two stars. (3) Planets with orbits much larger in radius than the distance between the two stars. Observations so far (2018) indicate that
possibilities (2) and (3) actually happen.
When a seismometer detects an earthquake, the first signal to arrive is usually the
pressure wave.
Jupiter has the most mass of any planet in our Solar System and is also the largest planet. Objects that have still more mass than Jupiter and are not stars are usually
smaller than Jupiter.
Green plants obtain the energy they need from
sunlight.
Because the radiant of the Lyrid meteor shower is in the constellation Lyra, you can conclude that
the Earth is moving toward Lyra when it passes through the remains of the comet.
The Kuiper Belt was named after Gerrd Kuiper, who said that
the belt formed early in the history of the solar system but should not still be there because Pluto would have cleared its neighborhood of smaller objects.
If we detect that the intensity of the light from a star is mostly constant but drops slightly to a new constant value for a while and then returns to its normal level and repeats this behavior at regular intervals, we can reasonably suspect that
the star has a planet in orbit around it.
You hear about an asteroid impact threat at level 10 on the Torino Scale. You should
think about ways to get off the planet.
Upon close examination by space probes, the rings of Saturn are found to consist of
thousands of circular rings
The magnetic field of Jupiter is
tilted relative to the planet's rotation axis but not offset from its center.
You are standing at the edge of a great desert at noon time. In front of you is a sea of hot sand. Behind you is the coolness of a green and growing forest. Which way is the wind most likely blowing?
toward the desert.
In which of these layers of the atmosphere is it generally colder at higher altitudes?
troposphere
Our Sun's nearest neighbor star system is
two stars in close orbit around each other and a third star orbiting farther out.
The reason the temperature rises as you go higher in the stratosphere is that the Sun's
ultraviolet light heats the ozone layer.
A world with both liquid water on its surface and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere is unstable because
water dissolves carbon dioxide and takes it out of the atmosphere.