AST100 Test 2

Uranus has a mass approximately ___ times the mass of the Earth

16

Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, is approximately how far from the sun?

30 Astronomical Units

Jupiter, the largest planet has a mass about _____ times as large as the Earth

300

Jupiter's satélite Europa is believed to have

A liquid water ocean beneath a frozen surface

Ground-based telescope can reduce the blurriness in images if they use___ optics

Adaptive

"Spots" between belts and zones are present on

All Jovian planets

The Jovian planets

All have magnetic fields much stronger than the Earths magnetic field

The banded structure of "belts" and "zones" is present on

All the Jovian planets

If a spectroscope is pointed at a hot blackbody, you will see a(n)

Continuous spectrum

A light source that is moving toward you or away from you causes a change in the spectrum due to the ___ effect

Doppler

What is the source of Jupiter's intense magnetic field?

Electric currents in Jupiter's liquid hydrogen layer

Which of the following is not a major moon of the solar system

Enceladus

Which moon is the largest moon in the solar system?

Ganymede

What do astronomers believe is the is the heat source that keeps Io's interior molten

Gravitational tides from Jupiter transfer heat to Io

Pluto

Has a relatively large moon, and a couple tiny satellite moons

Which two gasses make up all of the atmosphere of each Jovian planet?

Hydrogen and Helium

The banded structure of different colored "belts" and "zones"

Is caused by atmospheric convection raising some clouds to cooler layers and pulling some clouds down to warmer layers

The Doppler shift

Is caused by the motion of an object towards the observer or away from the observer

The surface of Jupiter's moon Io

Is the youngest surface in the solar system since it is continuously being covered by volcanic action

Pluto is no longer considered a major planet because

It did not form by sweeping up all of the material in an area around its orbit.

Which property of Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, makes it significantly different from all other major moons in the solar system?

It orbits in a retrograde direction, opposite to the rotation and revolution of Neptune

What feature of the planet Uranus is strikingly different than the other Jovian planets?

Its axial tilt is almost perpendicular to what is expected.

Jupiter and Saturn have interiors that are similar to each other, and Uranus and Neptune's interiors are similar to each other. The biggest difference between the interior of Jupiter/Saturn and Uranus/Neptune is?

Jupiter and Saturn have a metallic hydrogen layer, Uranus and Neptune do not

Spectral lines are of particular importance in astronomy because

each different element has a characteristic line spectrum.

The atmosphere of Titan is about as dense as which terrestrial planet?

earth

If the spectroscope is pointed at a hot gas that is being energized by something outside the field of view, you will see a(n)

emission line spectrum

Which of the following lists of different types of electromagnetic radiation is correctly ordered in energy from highest to lowest?

gamma rays, ultraviolet, infrared

Liquid metallic hydrogen is created when hydrogen gas

is compressed to a high pressure

The rings of Uranus are

narrow and dark

Eris, Makemake, and Sedna are

objects in the Kuiper belt called 'plutoids'

The ___ of a gas measures how much light radiation can pass through the gas.

opacity

Two tiny moons that follow nearly identical orbits around Saturn are called 'shepherd' moons because they

push particles so that they form the narrow F ring of Saturn.

The amount of detail in images produced by a telescope is a measure of the telescope's ____.

resolution

Saturn's rings display detailed features. There are large gaps in the ring system, and the main part of the rings consist of many thin rings close together. These details are caused by

the effect of moons inside and outside of the ring system

The sun emits continuum radiation that peaks in the middle of the visible spectrum, showing that the sun's surface temperature is about 5800K. If an astronomer sees a star with a dim red color, she should conclude that

the star is much cooler than the sun

Jupiter and Saturn have earth-tone colors from creamy white, to tan and red- brown Neptune and Uranus have more bluish colors because

their atmospheres have a lot of methane, which appears blue.

What future awaits Triton, the largest satellite of Neptune?

tidal breakup as it spirals closer to Neptune

The atmosphere blurs images taken at sea level because of

turbulence causing slight changes in the direction of light rays.

Which of the following types of electromagnetic radiation has the highest energy?

ultraviolet light

How do we know that there are bands and spots on Uranus

ultraviolet obervations that see through haze

What are Saturn's rings made of?

water ice or ice-coated rock in a variety of sizes, averaging about the size of a snowball.

Different types of radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum have different values of the ___ of the radiation

wavelength

If an object is moving away from the observer, a narrow spectral line in the yellow part of the spectrum will

be shifted towards the red

Spots on the Jovian planets

can move, merge, and interact with each other.

The temperature of an object can be determined from what kind of spectrum?

continuum or absorption

What makes belts and zones in Jovian atmospheres move in opposite directions relative to each other?

convection

Most dwarf planets in the Solar System are found

Kuiper Belt

Pluto most likely came from

Kuiper Belt

On which of the Jovian planets would you see a dark spot, and white clouds over a strong bluish-green atmosphere?

Neptune

On which of the Jovian planets would you see a dark spot, some blue bands, and white clouds over a strong bluish-green primary atmosphere?

Neptune

Ultraviolet radiation cannot be studied from the surface of the earth because the atmosphere is ___ to that of the electromagnetic spectrum

Opaque

Which of the following Jovian moons is not a primary candidate in the search for life in the solar system?

Prometheus

The earth's atmosphere is transparent to which of the following types of electromagnetic radiations?

Radio waves

The deepest core of the interiors of the Jovian planets are composed of

Rocky material

On which of the Jovian planets would you expect to see a light cream-colored surface with some hint of cloud bands, crosses by a wide belt where huge thunderstorms often appear?

Saturn

The main reason why the surface of Saturn and Jupiter have different appearances is that

Saturn has belts and zones, but they are covered by a layer of thick haze.

The rings of Urnaus are

Several thin bands of old, dark ice and dust herded by many shepherd moons

absorption and emmision lines are caused by

The ability of atoms to absorb certain energies of light by changing electron energies.

The Roche limit is

The closest a moon can come to a planet whiteout breaking up

What causes the stripes bands on the surface of Jupiter to have different colors?

The colors come from chemicals at different altitudes that make clouds of different colors

The continuous spectrum coming from an object tells you

The temperature of the object

What is the one fundamental difference between X rays and radio waves?

The wavelengths of X rays and radio waves are very different.

Which characteristic of Saturn's satellite Titan makes it different from any other known satellite in the solar system?

Titan has a permanent dense atmosphere

Pluto is most like

Triton

Which of the Jovian planets would you expect to look almost featureless, like a smooth blue-green ball?

Uranus

Saturns rings are

a few hundred meters thick

The chemical composition of a gas can be determined from what kind(s) of spectrum?

absorption or emission

If a spectroscope is pointed at a hot blackbody surrounded by a cooler gas, you will see a(n)

absorption spectrum

Planetary rings

are seen around all four of the outer planets

The spots visible on the Jovian planets are

are tornado- or hurricane-like storms caused by the fact that neighboring bands move at different speeds

The light-gathering power of a telescope depends directly on

area of its primary mirror or lens

The Kuiper Belt is known to contain

at least a few dwarf planets about the same size as Pluto, along with several slightly smaller ones