ASTR: Exam 3 study guide
In which year did the most recent exploration of Venus end?
2014
The rotation period ("day") of the Moon is
27.3 Earth days
What do you see in the graph window?
A factory with one smokestack.
At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:
A solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure
Which of these movies involved Saturn?
Interstellar, Wall-E, Beetlejuice
Non-foliated metamorphic rocks are usually found near:
Intrusive igneous rocks
hich city will experience greater sea level rise, New York City or San Francisco?
New York City
In what way is the Moon similar to the Earth?
None of the above
The largest volcano on Mars is called:
Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)
Today, scientists believe that the main reason the Earth has had periodic ice ages is:
Slow changes in the tilt of our planet's 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
What is false about Galileo (1995-2003)?
The mission collected more data than anticipated
On Earth, we can get the age of various parts of our planet by finding rocks that contain radioactive atoms. Which other world do have a good number of rocks from to do this kind of age analysis?
The moon
After what year does data stop appearing?
2005
How long does the Moon take to complete one orbit around the Earth with respect to the stars?
27.3 days
How many types of rocks are present on Earth?
3
What is the approximate distance in au between the Sun and the farthest gas giant planet? Use the Angular Separation Tool to measure the appropriate distance.
30 AU
How much surface area did ice sheets in the northern hemisphere lose in the last 20,000 years?
31,540,000 km^2
How many missions have been to mars?
49
What rise in global mean sea level is projected for the year 2100 by the two scenarios, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5?
55cm, 74cm
What graphic is now visible?
A lump of coal
The Van Allen belt is
A region of trapped charged particles in the Earths magnetosphere
The largest continental (highland) area on Venus is called:
Aphrodite
What mean global temperature change is predicted in 2100 by the RCP4.5 model?
Approx 1.8 degrees C
Which part of the Earth has the greatest density?
Core
Where does magma originate?
Deep in the earth's crust
A planet in our solar system whose composition resembles that of our Sun is:
Jupiter
Which of the jovian planets has the shortest period of rotation (the shortest day)?
Jupiter
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
The planet closest to the Sun in the solar system is:
Mercury
Which of the following is made of the densest material?
Mercury
Sediments are solidified by:
Minerals deposited in pore spaces
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
Which is not a feature on the surface of Uranus?
Plate tectonics
The first trans-Neptunian object astronomers found (in 1930) is called
Pluto
The three dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt are:
Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
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 warming than we expect
Compared to today's reference sea level (i.e. 0 m), what was the sea level 20,000 years ago?
The sea level 20,000 years ago was 129 m below today's current level
Which of the following is NOT a way that Venus resembles the Earth?
The thickness and pressure of the atmosphere
In which region of the Earth's atmosphere have you spent most of your life?
The troposphere
Compare the shapes of the two graphs.
The two graphs are very similar; they are almost the mirror opposites of each other
What quantities are being mapped by your new data point?
The x coordinate is mapping the year while the y coordinate is mapping the change in global surface temperature for RCP 8.5.
What quantities do you think are being measured by these coordinates?
The x coordinate is measuring the year, and the y coordinate is measuring the amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
What mean global temperature change is predicted in 2100 by the RCP2.6 model?
This model predicts a mean global surface temperature change of approximately 1.0 degrees C by 2100.
Which of Saturn's moons is most prominent in pop culture?
Titan
The primary clouds in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn are composed of:
frozen ammonia crystals
Generally, planets and moons in our solar system are named after
gods and goddesses from mythology
The most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere is
nitrogen
What appears above the dot?
An ordered pair, a set of coordinates, appears above the blue dot
Which probe was the first mission to explore Mercury?
Mariner 10
The first spacecraft to orbit another planet circled Mars in 1971. It was:
Mariner 9
Which of the following is the most recent mission to an asteroid?
Osiris Rex
The large circular coronae on Venus are:
large regions where hot magma rising from the interior of Venus puts pressure on the surface material
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
The Moon takes 27.3 days to complete one orbit around the Earth. How many degrees of arc does the Moon move across Earth's sky every day? [HINT: One orbit is 360 degrees.]
13.2 degrees
How many times have we visited Pluto?
1
The smaller objects in the solar system made of rock and metal (most of which orbit between Jupiter and Mars) are called:
Asteroids
Foliated metamorphic rocks are created by
Directed pressure
By far the most abundant element in the giant (jovian) planets is:
Hydrogen
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
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 Moon appears to grow successively larger and smaller during the libration cycle. Which statement correctly explains this phenomenon?
The Moon's orbit is elliptical and the Earth-Moon distance varies thereby producing changes in the Moon's apparent size as seen from Earth.
In what year should the temperature change begin to level off according to the RCP2.6 scenario?
The RCP2.6 scenario predicts that the mean global temperature change should begin to level off sometime around 2050
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 (about 200km across) near Chicxulub Mexico
In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:
The earth's crust and mantle
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 sun and we used the gravity of each planet to speed up the spacecraft to get to the next one in its path
What was the global mean sea level in the year 2010?
The global mean sea level in the year 2010 was 4cm
What could account for this drastic change in area covered by ice sheets in the northern hemisphere?
The global surface temperature must have gradually increased. This resulted in much of the ice finally beginning to melt
Why does Mars have an overall reddish color when we see its surface from afar?
The material of mars surface contains lots of iron oxide, the same chemistry that makes rusting metals look reddish
Mercury is named after what Roman God?
The messenger
A future interplanetary tourist whose parents kept him too warm as a baby asks for your help to find a "really cold place" in the solar system. Which of the following would be the coldest place to take him?
The moons of Neptune
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 in which 1 square centimeter of the Earth's atmosphere presses down at the surface
What do the four terrestrial planets and the four gas giant planets have in common?
They all revolve about the Sun in the same direction.
What do the four terrestrial planets have in common?
They all revolve about the Sun in the same direction.
The planet that orbits "on its side" (i.e. has its rotation axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit) is:
Uranus
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
We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are:
ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the moon
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
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
Of the people who landed on the Moon, how many were trained scientists?
exactly one
One piece of evidence that can help astronomers sort out how the planets in our solar system formed is
finding circumstellar disks of material around nearby stars
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
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 plane of its orbit
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 changes in the planet's 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
In terms of numbers, the most common life-forms on Earth are
microscopic creatures
The rate at which a collection of the same radioactive atoms will decay depends on:
only on internal processes within the atoms; nothing external matters
In the for terrestrial planets, the densest, heaviest materials are at the center and not evenly distributed throughout the planet. Scientists interpret this observation to mean what?
the for four terrestrial planets must once have been hot enough to be molten (like a liquid)
Which theory of the Moon's origin do astronomers (and the evidence) favor:
the giant impact theory
Which of the following is NOT a way that Jupiter differs from terrestrial planets?
Its surface has many more craters from early collisions
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 following is NOT a terrestrial planet?
Jupiter
Which of the following statements about the seasons on Jupiter is correct?
Jupiter's axis is hardly tilted, so it has no real seasonal variations
The four outer planets of the solar system in order of distance from the Sun are:
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
In a bad late-night science fiction film, a villain is using a large collection of rare radioactive atoms as energy for a weapon to threaten the good guys. The atoms have a half-life of 1 hour. The villain has 4 kilograms of the radioactive material now, and he needs a minimum of 1 kg. for his weapon to work. After how much time will the weapon no longer be a threat?
Just a little after 2 hours
Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the rotation of Venus?
Venus rotates in roughly the same time period as Earth
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 that had been frozen inside on the ground in the cold moon, but it is briefly heated by impact
Which of the following spacecraft is NOT leaving the solar system?
Galileo
Of the following planets, which do NOT have satellites (moons)?
Venus
When chemists say that a planet's outer regions are reduced, they mean that these regions
are dominated by the element hydrogen and its compounds
Compare the shape of the Natural Gas graph with the Liquid Fuels graph.
co2 emissions from natural gas gradually increase at a fairly steady rate in a manner similar to the liquid fuels graph
Describe the historical change in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from liquid fuels between 1990 and 2010.
co2 emissions have gradually increased at fairly steady rate between 1990 and 2010
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
The largest part of the Earth is its
Mantle
Is Neptune really the last planet in the solar system?
Technically
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 is the name of the book that brings the fear of meteors/asteroids/comets into pop culture?
The Day of the Triffids
The mountains on the Moon
are the result of giant impacts during the moons long history of being hit
About 75% of the surface of Venus consists of
lowland lava plains
The material that would eventually make all the major bodies in our solar system first gathered together as smaller pieces which astronomers call:
planetesimals
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 Earth in terms of their chemical make-up
What year is showing in the year slider in the bottom left of the page?
20 thousand years ago
During what time period was there the greatest amount of change in the world's sea levels?
11,000 years ago and ending at about 7,000 years ago
What amount of CO2 emissions from liquid fuels are projected for 2025?
13.2 billion metric tons
Jupiter has enough mass to make 318 Earths. In contrast, Uranus and Neptune have only enough mass to make
15 earths
What year was Pluto discovered
1930
In which year did the first spacecraft successfully reach the surface of Venus?
1966
What rise in local mean sea level at New York City is projected for the year 2100 by the RCP2.6 scenario?
62cm
At what time did the ice coverage in the northern hemisphere begin to stabilize?
7,000 years ago
When did the changes in sea level begin to stabilize and taper off?
7,000 years ago
What rise in local mean sea level at New York City is projected for the year 2100 by the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios?
75cm, 96cm
What do you see in the graph window? (liquid fuels)
A black liquid droplet
The person who came up with the continental drift theory that led to our modern understanding of plate tectonics was
Alfred Wegner
What do all if the RCP scenarios predict is going to happen to mean global surface temperature in the future?
All of the RCP scenarios, even the unrealistic RCP 2.6, predict that the mean global surface temperature will increase in the future
Compare the graph projections for the two scenarios, RCP2.6 and RCP4.5.
All of the above
Describe what is happening in the graph window.
All of the above
How does projected sea level rise in New York City compare with global mean sea level rise predictions?
All of the above
Earth-crossers are?
Asteroids that actually cross earth's orbital path
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'd history, and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the earth's surface
Compare the graph projections for the two scenarios, RCP2.6 and RCP4.5.
Both scenarios are relatively similar until the year 2020. After that they start to diverge with RCP 4.5 showing a much greater increase in mean global surface temperature
How does the stabilization in sea level compare with the stabilization of ice coverage in the northern hemisphere (i.e. question 5)?
Both the sea level and the ice coverage began to stabilize at about the same time, 7,000 years ago
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
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 (and other gases) in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect
Which of these missions was the first to orbit Saturn?
Cassini-Huygens
If no one has ever visited the core of the Earth, how do we know that it is made of metals?
Circulating liquid metals in the core set up a large (measurable) magnetic field
Use the now completed fuels table above to rank the three fuels based on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions; rank the fuels from the greatest to the least.
Coal, liquid fuels, natural gas
The smaller objects in the solar system composed mainly of ices (frozen gases) that usually orbit far from the Sun are called:
Comets
What is one way that astronomers have actually gotten an idea of the age of the surfaces of terrestrial planets other than the Earth?
Counting craters
Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?
Deep inside craters in the regions near the moons poles
Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today is FALSE?
Droplets of liquid water rain irrigate the surface of mars regularly
Who was the second person to recognize a periodic comet?
Edmond Halley
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
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 much of its original crust and mantle
Who was the first asteroid discovered by?
Giuseppe Piazzi
What do all of the RCP scenarios predict is going to happen to global mean sea levels in the future?
Global mean sea levels will increase in the future
The type of rock we find predominant in the crust of the Earth's continents is called:
Granite
Sediment can be transported to the oceans by:
Gravity, rivers and ice
If you were to take a large sample of the four giant planets, the most common element you would find in them is:
Hydrogen
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
Any rock in the Earth's crust that has cooled from an originally molten state is called
Igneous
Metamorphic rocks are formed from pre-existing rocks. These are:
Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic
What makes astronomers believe that Mars once had rivers and running water?
Images from orbiting spacecraft reveal ancient channels that look like dried up river beds on earth (and our rovers show geological formations made by running water)
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
Why does the global sea level not go through 0 for the year 2010?
It does not go through 0 because the global sea level in the year in 2010 was already above the reference level set in the time period 1985-2005 (which is the zero level)
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 colder)
Which of the following statements about the planet Venus is true?
It has a thick layer of clouds containing sulfuric acid droplets
What is interesting about the status of Ceres in the Solar System?
It is the only dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt.
What is the source of the fine, powdery dust found on the Moon's surface?
It is the result of many impacts breaking surface rocks apart over billions of years
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
Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?
It's surface is heavily cratered
The big problem with the Galileo spacecraft is that
Its main antenna is stuck in the closed position
Which of the following statements about the Earth's magnetosphere is FALSE?
Its shape and size are the same on the sides facing toward and away from the sun
If metamorphic rocks are melted they turn into:
Magma
The spacecraft that really gave scientists their first good close-up look of the planet Mercury was:
Mariner 10
Why is it so much easier to determine the length of the day on Mars than on Venus?
Mars atmosphere is generally pretty clear (so the surface is visible) while Venus is always cloudy
You are the captain of an interplanetary tour ship and a wealthy tourist from Texas asks you to take him to see only the "largest darn planets" in the solar system. Which of the following would you NOT include in your tour?
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 eight planets has a smaller mass than Mercury?
Mercury has the smallest mass
The four inner planets of the solar system in order of distance from the Sun are:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of:
Metals
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
Which cities will experience sea level rise above the global average?
NYC, Halifax, Key West, San Francisco
Rank the five cities in order from greatest sea level rise to least sea level rise.
NYC, Halifax, Key West, San Fransisco and Vancouver
The first human being to step out onto the surface of another world was:
Neil Armstrong
Today, the chemistry of the terrestrial planets does not include a lot of free hydrogen. Chemists call the chemistry in places like the Earth:
Oxidized
The person who really publicized the idea of canals on Mars and impressed it on the public mind was:
Percival Lowell
What's the name of the most recent exploration to mars?
Perseverance
The first spacecraft to explore the environment of the planet Jupiter was called
Pioneer
What was the first spacecraft to explore Jupiter?
Pioneer 10
Rocks that have not been chemically modified by being significantly heated are called
Primitive
Do you consider the RCP2.6 scenario to be a realistic scenario for the future? Explain (a bit of research into issues like population projections might assist you here).
RCP 2.6 is not considered to be a plausible climate change scenario because it requires carbon dioxide emissions to remain at today's level
Right now the world community is trying to reach a consensus on restricting global temperature change to under 2°C (3.6°F). Which RCP scenario would achieve this?
RCP 4.5
Is there much difference between the projections for RCP4.5 and RCP6.0?
RCP 4.5 and RCP 6.0 have a sea level rise projections that are very similar. There is very little difference between the two projections.
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:
Radar waves (like radar)
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
Scientists have been concerned about a set of industrial chemicals called CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) because they:
Rise into the atmosphere and destroy ozone
What is Pluto named after?
Roman God of the underworld
The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:
Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed to him to be long straight features on the red planet
When rocks are subjected to weathering and erosion, they change into which of the following?
Sediment
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 total surface area of planet Mars is roughly equal to the
Surface area of the earths continents
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 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
Calculate the average rate of sea level change (i.e. the slope) during this time period.
The average change in sea level was 0.026
Which of the following is NOT evidence that objects from space collide with the Earth?
The crater at the top of the Mount St. Helens volcano
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 earth must have been so hot it was like a liquid and heavier things sank to the middle
What do you think that the graphic is illustrating?
The extent of ice coverage in the northern hemisphere at a time of 20,000 years ago
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
What is the projected change in global surface temperature in the year 2050 for RCP8.5?
The projected change in global surface temperature in the year 2050 for RCP 8.5 is 1.78 degrees C
In studying the surfaces of solid bodies in the solar system, astronomers have learned that the number of craters (per unit area):
The rate at which a collection of the same radioactive atoms will decay depends on:
We always see the same side of the Moon from the Earth because:
The rotation period of the Moon is the same as its period of revolution around the Earth
The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:
The runway greenhouse effect
The process of convection involves
The slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material
Our best evidence and theoretical calculations indicate that the solar system began with a giant spinning system of gas and dust that scientists call:
The solar nebula
Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:
The sun
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
What quantities do you think are being measured by these coordinates?
The x coordinate is measuring time and y is measuring the surface area
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 that was under water and also minerals that only form in water
The voyager was the only craft to travel to Uranus
True
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
On which planet (besides the Earth) do we still see a high level of geological activity on the surface today?
Venus
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
Who discovered the planet Neptune?
Veyer
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
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 relatively recent event shows that impacts continue to happen in our solar system even today?
a comet (which broke into more than 20 pieces) hit the planet Jupiter in 1994
[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
Describe the projected change in carbon dioxide emissions from liquid fuels between 2010 and 2040.
co2 emissions will continue to increase at a steady rate right up until 2040
Which of the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?
the difference in temperature between mercurys daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planets in the solar system
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 same size as mars or smaller, so it ejected material from the earth but did not break it
In the far future, a visiting tourist from another planetary system asks to see the most massive object in our solar system. Where would you take him/her/it?
the sun
Which of the following places is most likely NOT to be differentiated?
A small asteroid
Why are there no smaller craters on the surface of Venus, only bigger ones?
In Venus' thick atmosphere all smaller chunks of material burn up before they can reach the surface
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 50km above the surface
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 structures in the solar system
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 from the atmosphere
Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE?
On earth we can see all 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
The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:
Optical illusions
How does the change in the factory graphic reflect the change in carbon dioxide emissions predicted by the RCP2.6 scenario?
There are now two smokestacks
In which year was Uranus first visited?
1986
What graphic is now visible?
A flame representing natural gas
What rise in global mean sea level is projected for the year 2100?
A global mean sea level rise of 44 cm is projected for the year 2100.
What rise in global mean sea level is projected for the year 2100 by the RCP4.5 scenario?
A global mean sea level rise of 53cm is projected for the year 2100.
Astronomers believe that Jupiter's strong magnetic field is caused by
A huge layer of metallic hydrogen inside Jupiter
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 ago
Radioactive dating techniques have revealed that our Earth and Moon are approximately how old?
About 4.5 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
In radioactive dating, the measure scientists use to note how long (on average) a particular radioactive nucleus will take to decay is called its
Half-life
The Red Spot of Jupiter is:
All of the above
What do you think accounts for the increased amount of CO2 emissions from coal in the 21st century?
All of the above
What do you think accounts for the projected steady rise in CO2 emissions from liquid fuels right up to 2040?
All of the above
Where do you think all of this glacial meltwater eventually ended up?
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
Why might the local sea level projection be different from the global sea level projection?
All of the above
Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the ways the jovian planets differ from the terrestrial planets?
All the jovian's have satellites around them and none of the terrestrials do
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
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 same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. This gas is:
Carbon dioxide
Rocks that cool as lava flows are called:
Extrusive igneous
The synchrotron radiation (radio waves) that astronomers first observed from Jupiter in the 1950's comes from:
High speed electrons spiraling around the planet's strong magnetic field
Describe the change in carbon dioxide emissions predicted by the RCP2.6 scenario.
Historical data is marked in black up till 2005. The projection from the RCP2.6 scenario then follows and is marked in blue. Carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase in the RCP2.6 scenario until roughly the middle of the 21st century. Emissions after that date flatten out into a plateau and appear to remain constant.
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 the earth onto the moon
The large, roughly circular, dark, and somewhat younger regions on the Moon are called:
Maria
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 jovian planet that has the longest year (period of revolution) is:
Neptune
What's different about the discovery of Neptune compared to other planets?
Neptune is impossible to see
How has the factory graphic changed?
The factory has two smokestacks now
Describe the shape of the graph showing how the surface area of ice sheets in the northern hemisphere has changed over the last 20,000 years.
The first part of the graph shows the surface of ice coverage in the northern hemisphere to be decreasing at a fairly regular rate. This rate then increases in the central area of the graph. The last third of the graph on the right is a horizontal line showing the area of ice coverage in the Northern hemisphere is relatively stable in this time period.
Describe the sea level graph that the RCP2.6 carbon emissions scenario projects.
The graph is linear and rises at a quite steady rate right to the year 2100.
Describe the shape of the graph up to this point.
The graph is slowly aging upwards. The increase is more pronounced in the later half of the 20th century
During the process of differentiation,
The heavier materials sink to centers of molten planets
One way in which Mars closely resembles the Earth is:
The length of its day (period of rotation)
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 charged particles are trapped and spiral around is called:
The magnetosphere
Describe how the mean global surface temperature has changed during the 20th century.
The mean global surface temperature has generally been steadily increasing during the course of the 20th century
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 the continents
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 have subtle differences
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
What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?
They do not have an atmosphere
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
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
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
The inner planets are made mostly of rock and metal because:
it was so hot where the inner planets formed that the lighter materials evaporated
In general, the further planets are from the Sun, the cooler they are. What other factor can have a significant influence on a planet's surface temperature?
its atmosphere (whether it has one and how thick it is)
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 ways that jovian (giant) planets differ from the terrestrial planets is NOT CORRECT?
jovians (being larger) rotate significantly more slowly than terrestrials
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
All the planets (without exception)
revolve around the Sun in the same direction
Regions where the continents or the sea floor are pulling apart are called
rift zones
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 on it
What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?
there are ten times more craters on the older highlands than the younger Maria
Which of the following characteristics do all four terrestrial planets have in common?
they all have solid surfaces with signs of geological activity on them
What is the most important reason that astronomers have learned more about our planetary system in the last 30-40 years than all of history before then?
we have been able to send spacecraft to gather information about planets and moons up close
Which planet in the solar system has not been examined by spacecraft instruments that have either flown by or orbited them?
you can't fool me, spacecraft have visited all the planets in our solar system
On which of the planets (other than Earth) could a human being step out of a spacecraft and survive without any protective gear (special suit, oxygen tanks, etc)?
you can't fool me; there is no other planet on which we could survive unprotected
