ASTRO 1010 EXAM 2
Although Mars and Mercury are nearly equal in size, Mars has more of an atmosphere because Mars is
Cooler
This huge cloud collapsed to form our solar system. What force caused it to collapse?
Gravity
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.
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.
The largest planet in the solar system is...
Jupiter
Assuming that the density of planet building material has the same density at both locations, would you expect Jupiter & Saturn or Uranus & Neptune to grow faster?
Jupiter & Saturn
Which planets would you expect to have quickly gain lots of mass, have had more gravity, and thus been more capable of pulling in copious amounts of H and He from the solar nebula?
Jupiter & Saturn
Many of these icy leftovers orbit the same direction as the original planetary nebula (and thus the planets) and are concentrated near the ecliptic plane in the...
Kuiper Belt
Between 1992 and today, astronomers using large telescopes have discovered many icy pieces that orbit in the same region as the orbit of Pluto. These are believed to be members of the...
Kuiper belt.
Two planets, John and Mary, are identical in density and temperature, but Mary is larger in size (radius) than John. Which planet is likely to have a more substantial atmosphere?
Mary
The planet closest to the Sun is...
Mercury
The Nebular Theory states that the solar system formed from a large collapsing rotating cloud of gas and dust. What features of the solar system, as we observed it today, are necessarily the consequence of angular momentum conservation? Pick all that apply.
Planets orbit in nearly the same plane Planets all orbit in the same direction that the Sun rotates. Asteroids and Kuiper belt objects orbit in roughly the same plane as the planets.
Two identical stars, Tom and Sherry, each have one planet orbiting them, causing them to wobble. Sherry's planet orbits closer to Sherry than Tom's planet orbits around him. From what you know about Kepler's Third Law, and the cause of these stellar wobbles, which star, will wobble with a shorter periodicity?
Sherry
If a planet had formed 3.0AU away from the Sun, it would have been which kind of planet?
Terrestrial
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.
Which of the following characteristics do all four terrestrial planets have in common?
They all have solid surfaces.
Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet?
Uranus
At the end of the formation of the Jovian planets, we are left with gas giants (90% H & He) and ice giants (20% H and He). Which planets are the ice giants?
Uranus & Neptune
Random events like these could explain which of the following (select all that apply)? Note that some of the items would occur naturally and would not require any random event to occur.
Venus rotating backward on its axis Neptune's large moon Triton orbiting backward Uranus being completely tipped on its side
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!
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.
We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are...
ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon.
Rocky and metallic leftover planetesimals are what we observe today as...
asteroids
The smaller objects in the solar system made of rock and metal (most of which orbit between Jupiter and Mars) are called:
asteroids
Stars make heavier elements out of hydrogen during fusion process in their cores. Just after the beginning of the universe, there was basically only hydrogen (H) and helium (He). The formation of the solar system began as a huge cloud of gas and dust rich in iron, oxygen, silicon, etc. These heavier elements that formed the solar system must have...
come from previous generations of stars.
Icy leftover planetesimals are what we observe today as...
comets
We can assume that there was no force outside the cloud acting on the cloud. The answer to the previous question is due to angular momentum...
conservation
As the cloud shrinks, it gets hotter in the center. This is due to the conversion of...
gravitational potential energy to thermal energy.
Statistically, there will be some net rotation about some axis. As the cloud slowly collapses inward the rotation rate (Hint: like spinning skater pulling her arms in)...
increases
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
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
Mars is the farthest terrestrial planet from the Sun at a distance of 1.5AU. From the information in the graph above, the terrestrial planets formed from...
rock and metal only.
Jupiter is the closest Jovian planet to the Sun at 5.2AU away. Jovian planets formed from...
rock, metal and ices.
Any smaller subsystem (e.g. a planet or a planet and its moons) forming within this disk will tend to form with rotational and orbital motions in the same direction as the solar system. This would apply to... (pick all that apply)
rotation of planets on their axes
Any smaller subsystem (e.g. a planet or a planet and its moons) forming within this disk will tend to form with rotational and orbital motions in the same direction as the solar system. This would apply to... (pick all that apply)
rotation of planets on their axes orbit of large moons around planets rotation of moons.
According to the theory of plate tectonics,...
slow motions within the mantle of the Earth move large sections of the crust around.
A planet orbits a star, causing the star to wobble. We can detect that wobble due to
the Doppler shift of the star.
As the cloud shrinks, the cloud flattens like whirling pizza dough. Planets are going to form out of this flat rotating cloud. This dynamics directly explains... (pick all that apply)
the Sun rotating in same direction as the disk rotation. planets, asteroid and Kuiper Belt objects orbiting in the same direction as the disk rotation planets, asteroid and Kuiper Belt objects orbiting near the ecliptic plane
In the four terrestrial planets, the densest, heaviest materials are at the center and not evenly distributed throughout the planet. Scientists interpret this observation to mean that...
the four terrestrial planets must once have been hot enough to be molten (like a liquid)
The process of convection involves...
the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material.
