Space 5
Titan's surface temperature is about ___ °Celsius
-180
Saturn is in a nearly circular orbit and averages how far from the Sun?
1,433,449,370 kilometers (903,834,059 miles)
True or false: The spokes appear to be a seasonal phenomenon, disappearing in Saturn's midwinter and midsummer and reappearing as Saturn in it's orbit comes closer to the spring and fall equinox
True
Name the second largest moon of the solar system.
Ttitan
Because _______ condenses and then settles down and out of Titan's cold, upper atmosphere, its abundance slowly increases to 4.9% as you descend towards the surface
methane
The 7th planet was a staggering _________ miles from the Sun
1.8 billion
How long is Saturn's orbit around the Sun?
10,759 days or 29.46 years
There are __ inner moons, which are associated with the rings of Uranus. The __ major moons were all discovered visually before the advent of the Space Age. And __ irregular moons that orbit far from Uranus.
13; 5; 9
How many subdivisions are the rings of Saturn divided into? How many gaps?
14; 9
What is the orbital period of Titan around Saturn?
15.945 days
A day on Uranus is this long, but the rotation is retrograde (backwards like Venus)
17 h 14 m
How long is a season on Uranus?
21 years
Saturn's axis of rotation is ___ degrees from vertical
26.7
Uranus has __ known moons, which are divided into three groups
27
There have been how many flybys of Saturn? What probe currently orbits it?
3 fly-bys and Cassini
Each pole on Uranus gets around __ years of continuous sunlight, followed by __ years of continuous darkness
42; 42
How many miles in diameter is Titan?
5,152 kilometers (3,199) miles
Today, Saturn has __ moons with confirmed orbits, 53 of which have names and only 13 of which have diameters larger than 50 kilometers
62
What is the equatorial diameter of Saturn? Polar diameter?
74,848 miles; 67,520 miles
It takes Uranus __ years to complete one orbit around the Sun
84
Prior to the Space-age, Saturn had _ known moons, all of which had been discovered visually prior to the year 1900
9
Together, Jupiter and Saturn hold what percent of the total planetary mass in the Solar System?
92%
Saturn is how many times more massive than Earth?
95
TEST QUESTION: The outer atmosphere of Saturn contains what elements?
96.3% molecular hydrogen and 3.25% helium
TEST QUESTION: It was discovered that the rotational axis of Uranus is tilted ___ degrees, which means the entire planet is tilted over onto its side
98
The first person to compute the orbit of Uranus.
Anders Johan Lexell
Who finally noticed that Saturn's unique feature were rings?
Christian Huygens
Saturn's bands are much fainter and have a rather '_____' appearance. Why?
Bland; This is because Saturn is colder than Jupiter, and many of the trace gaseous chemicals that color Jupiter's atmosphere have sank deeper into the Saturn's atmosphere and are not visible
Who discovered the third ring of Saturn?
Bond, William and George Bond
In 1658, this famed English architect proposed a model of Saturn in which a 'corona,' so thin it could be considered a mere surface, was attached to the planet
Christopher Wren
TEST QUESTION: Cassini discovered that there was a thin, black division in the ring of Saturn. So there were 2 rings. The inner ring was a bit brighter and wider than the outer ring. Today, this is called the ______ _____
Cassini Division
Enceladus has created the what, which is composed of water ice erupting from the moon?
E ring of Saturn
TEST QUESTION: _____ is one of the largest irregular-shaped objects in the Solar System, with dimensions of 360×266×205 kilometers
Hyperion
What did Christian Huygens name Titan?
Saturni Luna
The Cassini spacecraft discovered that _______ has cryovolcanoes (ice geysers) erupting at its south pole
Encladeus
The surface of this moon of Saturn is composed almost entirely of water ice. The surface displays smooth plains, troughs, scarps, grooves, ridges and few craters.The surface is considered to be of young age
Encladeus
What is the 6th largest moon of Saturn discovered by William Herschel?
Encladeus
True or false: Saturn is a sphere
False, oblate spheriod
What did William Herschel originally name Uranus? Who eventually called it Uranus?
Georgium Sidus (George's Star); Johann Bode
This very large storm on Saturn formed very quickly in 2011 and lasted about 200-days, and eventually covered 2 billion square miles
Great White Cloud
TEST QUESTION: This shape on Saturn is created by "jet stream" currents in the atmosphere
Hexagon shape on North Pole
Describe what's unique about Saturn's south pole.
Hurricane-like vortex that has not been observed anywhere else
Most of our understanding of Titan comes from observations made by the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, and especially by the _____ ____ that successfully landed on the surface of Titan on January 14, 2005
Huygens Probe
The _____ _____ successfully soft-landed on the moon Titan
Huygens lander
TEST QUESTION: This moon of Saturn is best described as a rubble pile of water ice, with 40% of the moon being empty space. The peculiar sponge-like appearance is absolutely unique in the Solar System.The numerous cup-like craters are floored with dark hydrocarbons
Hyperion
After Giovanni Cassini published his discoveries of four more moons of Saturn between 1673 and 1686, astronomers fell into the habit of referring to these 5 moons as Saturn I through V, with Titan being Saturn ___
IV
What causes spokes in Saturn's rings?
It is not understood
He first proved that a solid ring could not be stable and that a fluid ring would be forced by wave action to break up into blobs. Who concluded that Saturn's rings must be composed of numerous small particles he called 'brick-bats', each independently orbiting Saturn?
James Maxwell
In 1656, the Polish astronomer ______ ______ published De Nativa Saturni Facie (On the Real Appearance of Saturn), in which he proposed that Saturn was ellipsoidal in shape, with two crescents attached to its extremities
Johannes Hevelius
He made the first known observation of Uranus in December 1690 and catalogued it as 34 Taurui
John Flamsteed
Who established a naming convention for the moons of Saturn?
John Herschel
Name the Roman god of agriculture, and also of plenty, wealth, periodical renewal, dissolution and liberation
Saturnius Mons
The moon ______ orbits just inside the Phoebe ring, and is tidally locked, always keeping the same face towards Saturn
Lapetus
It rains _____ on Titan
Methane
What gas gives Uranus its color?
Methane
Saturn has at least 150 known ______ that orbit within the rings, and there may be a few thousand
Moonlets
TEST QUESTION: What is unique about Themis?
No other astronomer or spacecraft has found Themis besides Pickering.
The gas giants are ______ spheroids.
Oblate
These Shepard moons orbit on either side of the F ring of Saturn
Pandora and Prometheus
_____ is an irregular satellite in a retrograde orbit, which is inclined 27 degrees to the equator of Saturn and the other rings
Pheobe
The _____ ____ is the outermost ring and extends from 4 million to 13 million kilometers (2.5 million to 8 million miles) from Saturn
Pheobe ring
The _____ ____ was discovered in 2009 by the NASA's infra-red Spitzer Space Telescope. It is a very tenuous ring of dust believed to have been created from rocky material blown off of the moon Phoebe by countless impacts.
Pheobe ring
This spacecraft discovered 2 small moons of Saturn, found an additional ring and measured the temperature of Titan
Pioneer 11
The majority of the rings of Saturn are composed of 99.9 percent what?
Pure water
If two astronomical objects get too close, their mutual gravitational attraction can cause one or both objects to break up due to tidal forces.How close they can get is called their what?
Roche limit
It is believed that the interior of Uranus is divided into three major layers. What are they?
Rocky core, Icy mantle, Atmosphere
There are extensive "_____ ____" along the equatorial region of Titan. It is suspected to be formed of hydrocarbons
Sand Dunes
The visible atmospheric features on ______ rotate at different rates depending on latitude
Saturn
What planet has the lowest density?
Saturn
______ has an intrinsic, dipole magnetic field that is not quite as strong as Earth's
Saturn
_______ ______ are small moons that orbit within, or right next to, a planet's ring system. They have the effect of shaping the rings by giving them sharp boundaries and creating gaps between the rings
Shepard Moons
The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has revealed intricate details of the structure of the rings that could never have been viewed from Earth. Some of these structures include:
Spokes Moonlets Shepard moons Spirals & kinks
Uranus has a very unique upper atmosphere that extends from the surface out to about 50,000 kilometers (30,000 miles). This is known as what?
The Corona
TEST QUESTION: On April 28, 1905, William H. Pickering, announced the discovery of a tenth satellite of Saturn, which he promptly named ____
Themis
The plumes are ejected from long, deep fissures called ____ _____ that slash across Enceladus' south pole
Tiger Stripes
On March 25, 1655, Christian Huygens discovered the first moon of Saturn. Name it.
Titan
The upper atmosphere of ____ is composed of 98.4% nitrogen, 1.4% methane and 0.1% hydrogen
Titan
This moon of Saturn has an atmosphere several hundred kilometers thick and a surface pressure 1.5 times higher than on the surface of Earth
Titan
____ does not have a magnetic field, however, it does mostly orbit inside Saturn's magnetosphere, which may help shield Titan from the solar winds
Titan
_____ is the only natural satellite that has a dense atmosphere
Titan
It is believed that solar ultraviolet radiation has created a high-altitude hydrocarbon photochemical haze that is partially opaque. This "smog" is probably why _____ usually has a bland, featureless appearance
Uranus
TEST QUESTION: This planet's magnetic field is very asymmetric in strength and is skewed like a corkscrew.
Uranus
The atmosphere of _____ is composed of 84% hydrogen, 14% helium and 2% methane
Uranus
Voyager 2 found that ______ has a magnetic field about as powerful as Earth's
Uranus
What planet has the lowest mass?
Uranus
Cassini carries a ____ _____ ____ ______ _____ and ______ that are able to see thru Titan's clouds and view the surface.This data is being used to map Titan, just like Venus was mapped by radar
Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer and an onboard Radar
The _______ spacecraft made its closest approach to Uranus on January 24, 1986, coming within 81,500 kilometers (50,600 miles) of the planet's cloud tops
Voyager 2
This spacecraft flew by Saturn in August 1981, and added to our understanding of the entire Saturn system, including the rings
Voyager 2
The rings of Saturn are composed of what?
a very large number of individual particles; also, ice particles
The upper clouds of Saturn are primarily composed of ammonia crystals, and the lower level clouds appear to be either ________ _________ or water ice
ammonium hydrosulfide (NH4SH)
Observations revealed that Uranus's magnetic field is peculiar, why?
both because it does not originate from its geometric center and because it is tilted at 59° from the axis of rotation
TEST QUESTION: Hyperion does not rotate on an axis like every other object in the Solar System, but rather it is in a what?
chaotic tumble
The "___ _____" of Uranus is a misnomer, since ice cannot possibly exist in the heat and pressure which occur at that depth
icy mantle
TEST QUESTION: Each individual _____ of Saturn is composed of a very large number of individual ice particles. These particles range in size from a few centimeters to a few meters in diameter
ringlets
Each major ring of Saturn is further subdivided into thousands of individual _____ and _____, each only a few kilometers wide
ringlets and gaps
Most of Saturn's _____ are very thin, averaging less than 100 meters in thickness
rings
One theory is that the ____ were never part of a moon, but are debris left over from the solar nebula material that originally formed into Saturn
rings
One theory is that the _____ were once a moon (given the name Veritis) of Saturn whose orbit decayed until it came inside the Roche limit and was ripped apart by tidal forces
rings
Then in 1980 images from the Voyager spacecraft, and later from Cassini, showed radial features in the B ring of Saturn, known as _____
spokes
Winds with velocity as high as 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) per hour have been measured in the atmosphere of what?
the Great White Cloud of Saturn