Astronomy 1010 Chapters 9-12
The Magnetosphere
Blocks much of the solar wind, trapping the charged particles from the Sun:
Jupiter
Circulation pattern differs from planet to planet in ways not understood. Alternating east-west winds make banded clouds on ______.
Not frequent
Large collisions in space are ______ ______, but they occur. 1994: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, leaving visible scars. Comet or asteroid impacts on Earth are infrequent, but devastating. 1908: The Tunguska event was possibly the high-altitude explosion of an asteroid or comet. 2013: A meteoroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, damaging thousands of buildings in six cities and injuring more than 1,000 people.
Venus
Larger planet, more volcanoes, bigger atmosphere, higher escape velocity, greenhouse effect:
Earth's O2
Life is responsible for ______ ______. Other planets' atmospheres do not have this.
The amount of sunlight (Sun is gradually getting warmer) Axial tilt Reflectivity (Albedo) Greenhouse effect
Long term climate change - can be caused by changes in
Meteoroid
Meteorites are pieces of asteroids that have fallen to Earth. In space, a meteorite is called a ______. While passing through the atmosphere, it is a meteor.
Troposphere (weather), Stratosphere (ozone layer), Mesosphere, Thermosphere, Ionosphere.
Name the layers of Earth's atmosphere in order:
Uranus was straying from its predicted orbit.
Neptune was found because:
Primary Atmospheres
New planets formed ______ ______ by sweeping up gas in the accretion disk.
Occasionally grow large enough to become differentiated and geologically active
Remnants of volcanic activity on the asteroid Vesta indicate that members of the asteroid belt:
Differentiated
S- and M-type asteroids ______. C-type asteroids did not. S-type are similar to igneous rock; M-type to iron and nickel.
Water ice.
Saturn has bright rings because they are made of:
The clouds are much lower in the atmosphere.
Saturn is not as vibrantly colored as Jupiter because:
Zodiacal dust
Sunlight reflects off debris from comets and ground-up asteroids in the inner Solar System. This ______ ______ in the plane of the Solar System makes the zodiacal light.
Geological activity
Surface markings, craters, and bright/dark areas reveal ______ ______. Categorized as active now, possibly active, active in the past, and never active.
O2
Thanks to ______, Earth has an ozone layer.
92 times that
Venus has a hot, dense atmosphere, completely cloud covered. Surface pressure ______ ______ ______ of Earth. Mainly CO2, runaway greenhouse effect.
Opposite direction
Venus has a surface temperature of about 740 K. Thick atmosphere means nearly uniform temperatures over the entire planet. Rotates on its axis very slowly and in the ______ ______ from other planets.
Coriolis effect
The ______ ______ breaks the larger convection cells into smaller ones.
Coriolis effect
The ______ ______, or the most apparent in the path of an object moving longitudinally, causes storm rotation on the surface of planets. Most extreme equatorial winds are in Saturn's and Neptune's atmospheres, with maximum speeds up to 2,000 km/hr.
High and low-pressure zones and belts due to rising convection currents carrying heat from the interior combined with rapid rotation.
The atmospheres of the giant planets are divided into:
Bar
The weight of the Earth's atmosphere creates a force of approximately 100,000 newtons (N) acting on each square meter of the planet's surface, equivalent to about 14.7 pounds pressing on every square inch. This amount of pressure is called a ______.
Refer to very different time and size scales. Weather is the state of an atmosphere at any given time and pace. Climate is the average state of an atmosphere, including temp., humidity, wind, and so-on of the planet as a whole.
The words weather and climate mean: A) Essentially the same thing. B) Refer to very different time scales. C) Refer to very different size scales. D) Both B and C.
Strong magnetospheres concentrate charged particles in radiation belts, including the plasma torus created by particles from Jupiter's moon Io. Powerful flux tubes create bright auroras.
What are the effects of magnetic fields?
Ammonium sulfide clouds (NH4SH) reflect red/brown. Ammonia, the highest, coldest layer, reflects white.
What causes Jupiter's colors?
The Ion tail will point directly away from the sun while the Dust tail will curve along the path of the orbit of the comet.
When a comet is leaving the solar system, describe the direction the two tails will face:
Neptune
______ was found in 1846 by Galle after being mathematically predicted by Le Verrier and Adams
Uranus
______ was too faint to be discerned from the other stars. Discovered in 1781 by Herschel by accident (at first thought it was a comet).
Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune
______, _____, & ______ radiate away more energy than they get from the Sun. A small increase in internal temperature leads to a large increase in emitted energy. Something has to be increasing the temperature. It is believed that the planets are still shrinking, with gravitational energy being converted into heat during that process.
Stony-iron meteorites
______-______ ______ are a combination of stony materials and iron-nickel alloys and are relatively rare.
Incoming sunlight heats the planet. Outgoing infrared radiation cools the planet. Some gases (greenhouse molecules), especially CO2 and water vapor, block some infrared radiation, preventing the planet from cooling.
Explain Atmospheric greenhouse effect:
All but Uranus have significant internal heat. Heat flows from the hot interior outward. Heat has a big effect on global circulation patterns.
Explain heat as it pertains to the giant planets.
Collisions between ring particles should ultimately cause the particles to spiral into the planet. Thus, there is a recent source of ring particles. For Saturn, this was apparently a fairly recent collision of an object with a large icy moon of Saturn, fragmenting it into ring particles. For the others, it is meteorite impacts on the surfaces of moons, blowing bits of matter into space.
Explain why rings are not permanent.
Moons of Uranus
Five medium sized moons, all regular - they are mostly icy but dark. All appear to have undergone some type of surface activity in the distant past and Miranda appears to have had eruptions of icy slush
Internal heat
For a moon to be geologically active, it must have:
Hot to cool regions.
Global winds carry heat from:
Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants.
How are Jupiter and Saturn different from Uranus and Neptune?
Recent observations indicate the Solar System may not be typical. We have found an abundance of planets ranging from "super-Earths" to different kinds of "Jupiters," including many hot Jovians in close orbits around their star.
How does our Solar System differ from the other detected solar systems?
All of them.
How many terrestrial bodies lost their primary atmospheres?
There is a recent source of ring material
If rings are observed around a planet, this indicates that:
Keep
If the average gas speed is less than 1/6 of the escape speed, the planet will (Loose or Keep) its atmosphere?
More easily retained
If the speed of a gas molecule is less than a planet's escape speed, it will be ______ ______ ______.
Cryovolcanism
"Magma" that is water, hydrogen, or other low-temperature liquids.
Stratosphere
(15-50 km): Temperature rises with altitude; Ozone is present which absorbs light and heats this level.
Mesosphere
(50-90 km): No ozone, temperature declines with altitude. The coldest part of the atmosphere.
Thermosphere
(> 90 km): Ultraviolet radiation and solar wind can ionize atoms, creating a plasma that forms the ionosphere.
3
A substantial percentage of the last ______ moons of Jupiter is water ice. Io is rock and metals.
Saturn's ring system
A very complicated system, composed of thousands of ringlets, each made up of tiny orbiting particles that obey Kepler's laws. There are bright and dark rings, "gaps," and divisions. Gaps are not empty. Brightness/darkness reflects the amount of material in each ring. Though wide, the ring system is extremely thin. If Saturn were a basketball, a piece of paper is >1,000 times too thick. Diffuse rings are fainter and have no defined boundaries. Saturn's largest ring is a diffuse dust ring, discovered in 2009. E Ring and G Ring are also diffuse.
50 to 20,000
All of the giant planets have magnetic fields ranging from ______ to ______ times stronger than Earth's.
Giant Planets
All ______ ______ rotate very rapidly, between 10 and 17 hours
Oblateness
All giant planets have a rapid rotation and therefore different amounts of ______ or flattening of an otherwise spherical planet or star caused by its rapid rotation.
Troposphere
All weather and wind on Earth are a result of convection in the:
Near-Earth objects
Amor, Apollo, and Aten asteroids have orbits near Earth. Apollo and Aten asteroids have orbits that could cross Earth's—could collide with Earth. Called:
A differentiated asteroid
An iron meteorite most likely came from: A) An undifferentiated asteroid. B) A differentiated asteroid. C) A planet. D) A comet.
Fragments of rock
Asteroids are ______ of ______. Generally not large enough to be spherical. Erratic rotation periods.
Asteroid belt
Asteroids are rocky planetesimals. Most are in the ______ ______ between Mars and Jupiter.
Obliquity (Tilt)
Astronomical changes in the Sun's energy output, change in a planet's ______, and more.
The planet is at a higher temperature due to the extra energy needed to be in equilibrium with the sunlight.
Atmospheric greenhouse effect means:
Geological: volcanic and tectonic activity. Biological: photosynthesis by bacteria and plants, methane byproducts, human activity.
Climate can affect these factors on a planet:
Impurities
Clouds on Jupiter and Saturn are colored by:
Icy planetesimals
Comets are _____- ______ found beyond the planets. Far from the Sun, these objects remain small, icy bodies that are very hard to see from Earth. Located either in the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud surrounding the Solar System.
Two
Comets have ______ tails. Ion tail created by the solar wind interacting with ions of the nucleus. Dust tail created from solar wind and sunlight. Comet tails point away from the Sun.
Gravitational influences.
Computer simulations show that the giant planets may not have formed where they exist now, but rather could have migrated to their positions due to:
Triton, moon of Neptune.
Cryovolcanic activity: geysers of nitrogen. Thin atmosphere. Largest irregular moon:
Jupiter's Ring system
Dark, narrow rings, possibly carbon material, discovered by Voyager:
Uranus' Rings
Dark, narrow, discovered by occultation.
Neptune's Rings
Dark, narrow, some appear clumped into arcs, probably by shepherd moons. Also discovered by occultation.
Strong dark and light bands. A long-lasting giant storm (Great Red Spot). Many smaller storms. Colors indicate complex chemistry.
Describe Jupiter's cloud patterns:
Rings do not last forever. Collisions and sunlight destroy rings. Shepherd moons can help stabilize rings. Orbital resonances can create gaps. Earth does not have a ring because it lacks shepherd moons to contain the material.
Describe Ring Stability:
Large moons - ongoing geological activity. Medium moons - geological activity early in their history. Small moons - no geological activity, not spherical.
Describe the characteristics/differences of moons:
Weak banding on both Uranus and Neptune. Small, scattered bright or dark clouds. Transient large storms (Great Dark Spot on Neptune).
Describe the cloud structure Uranus and Neptune:
We can relate the eccentricity of an orbit to the object's closest approach (perihelion) and farthest approach (aphelion).
Describe the image:
At depths of a few 1,000 km, gases are compressed so much they liquefy. At higher pressure and temperature, this liquid hydrogen can act like a metal. Cores are a liquid mixture of water, rock, and metals.
Describe the interior of Jupiter and Saturn
Smaller and have less pressure than the gas giants. They have more water and ices (ammonia, methane). Deep oceans containing dissolved gases and salts are present.
Describe the interiors of Uranus and Neptune:
The moon system appears to have been disturbed: Triton is the smallest of the large moons in the solar system, has an atmosphere of nitrogen, orbits the planet retrograde, so it is considered irregular. Clearly shows evidence of cryovolcanism. Has a thin atmosphere. Probably a captured planetesimal. Fewer moons than the other giant planets, also indicating the Neptune may have "lost" some moons in the past when Triton was captured.
Describe the moons of Neptune:
Saturn's Rings
Discovered in the 1600s The rings are composed of water ice particles (some small, some large), very complex structure with ringlets, gaps due to resonances, gap moonlets, and shepherd moons.
True weather.
Earth and Mars are the only two terrestrial planets with:
Liquid water
Earth has much less CO2 in its atmosphere than Venus and Mars, due to ______ ______.
The Greenhouse Effect.
Earth would freeze without this:
Nitrogen (N2) and Oxygen (O2).
Earth's atmosphere is mostly:
Photosynthesis
Earth's atmosphere was different in the past, but evolution (principally by ______) of the atmosphere removed carbon dioxide and added oxygen to the atmosphere.
1 Bar.
Earth's average atmospheric pressure at sea level:
Magnetosphere
Earth's magnetic field, the ______, extends out into space.
A 10-meter layer of water
Earth's surface atmospheric pressure is equivalent to:
Saturn's faint E Ring
Enceladus's low gravity cannot hold onto the icy particles once they are ejected. This is the source of material for:
Pluto
Has an elliptical, inclined orbit, retrograde rotation, rotation axis tilted 118 degrees to the orbit Has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen. Shows evidence of geological activity. Moons - Charon - half the size of ______, 1:1 tidal resonance, four other small moons: Nix, Hydra, Styx, and Kerberus
Jupiter and Saturn
Interiors of ______ & ______ are made of liquid hydrogen and then a metallic hydrogen phase (they each have a core of about 10 Earth masses of rock and metals). About 5.2 AU from Sun, and 9.6 AU from Sun.
Protection from comets, but also - Source of water on the Earth: Due to the melting of icy planetesimals hitting the Earth in the early history of the solar system.
Is Jupiter necessary for life on the Earth?
Equatorial plane
It's not entirely clear that the rules apply in 100% of the moons. They are also classified as regular or irregular. Regular moons orbit in the planet's ______ ______, have a circular orbit, and tend to be closer to the planet. Irregular moons have the opposite properties.
Protoplanetary accretion disk
Jupiter and Saturn formed from the ______ ______ ______ while hydrogen and helium were still present. Solar wind later blew out these gases.
Tidal heating
Jupiter's ______ ______ should be too low for volcanism, but should allow for sub-surface liquid, perhaps as underground lakes. Broken slabs of ice that appear to have floated and collided suggest geologic activity.
Core
Jupiter's ______ is thought to be made of rock, metals, and hydrogen compounds and about the same size as Earth but 10 times as massive.
Composed of dark silicates
Jupiter's rings are not as dark as the ice giants, nor as bright as Saturn's; most likely because they are:
Giant planets.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the:
Evidence of Major Impacts
Killed the Dinosaurs 65 million years ago Tunguska in 1908 Shoemaker - Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994
They are too far from the sun.
Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are actually comet nuclei. Why do they not display comae and tails?
Thermal escape, solar wind, chemical reactions with planet's surface, & impacts of large meteors.
Losses of gas in an atmosphere is caused by:
Solar wind
Magnetospheres interact with the ______ ______. They form auroras ("northern lights" on Earth). They also produce strong radio waves/synchrotron radiation.
Pieces of asteroids
Meteorites are ______ of _____. Over 90% are stony, like Earth rocks. Chondrites have chondrules; achondrites do not; some have carbon. Can use meteorites to date the age of the Solar System (4.5 billion years).
Large winds, which can make big dust storms.
Mars' Equator: up to 20°C (cool room temperature). Pole: down to -150°C. These factors cause:
Venus's
Mars's atmosphere is much less dense than ______ due to the little greenhouse effect.
The age of the solar system. The temperature in the early solar nebula. Changes in the composition of the primitive solar system. Changes in the rate of cratering in the early solar system. The physical processes that controlled the formation of the solar system.
Meteorites contain clues to:
Metallic hydrogen
Models suggest cores of jovian planets have similar compositions. However, lower pressures inside Uranus and Neptune mean no ______ ______
Io Europa Ganymede Callisto
Name the Moons of Jupiter:
Limestone
On Earth water removes CO2 from the atmosphere, forming ______.
Circulation of wind
On Earth, Venus, and Mars, the ______ of ______ depends on the heating pattern and rotation period.
Earth
On ______ life further removed CO2 from the atmosphere.
Zodiacal light
On a clear, moonless night, not long after the western sky has gone dark, zodiacal dust is visible as a faint column of light called ______ ______. This light can be brighter than the Milky Way, which it is often mistaken for.
Venus
On which of these planets is the effect of greenhouse gasses the strongest? A) Mars B) Mercury C) Venus D) Earth
Long-period comets
Periods of almost 1000 to perhaps 1 million years. Prograde or retrograde orbits, from the Oort Cloud. Large tilts from the ecliptic, very elongated orbits. Nucleus not "worn out."
Asteroids
One asteroid is a dwarf planet - Ceres. Location of most asteroids is between Mars and Jupiter Trojan asteroids lead and trail Jupiter in Jupiter's orbit a few approach the inner solar system. However, for most, their semi-major axis gives them a "distance" that places them in the asteroid belt their sizes and shapes are irregular except for a Ceres which is spherical and Vesta which is almost spherical. They are mostly composed of various types of rock and metals.
Sources of gas in an atmosphere
Outgassing from volcanoes & evaporation of surface liquids
Temperature, CO2 levels, and methane levels
Over the past 800,000 years, ice-core data indicate ______, ______, & ______ are correlated?
Carbon dioxide and methane levels.
Over the past 800,000 years, the Earth's temperature has closely tracked or stayed on level with:
Short-period comets
Periods < few centuries. Near ecliptic plane. Prograde orbits, circular or somewhat elongated. From the Kuiper Belt.
The motions of a planet's moons and effects of gravity.
Planetary masses are found by observing:
Dwarf Planets
Planets must be pulled into a spherical shape by gravity, orbit the Sun, and must have gravitationally cleared their orbits of other objects.
Callisto, Ganymede, Titan, Io
Rank these moons in terms of the density of impact craters you would expect to observe on the surface: A) Callisto; B) Titan; C) Io; D) Ganymede.
Almost totally airless. A combination of temperatures and low escape velocity means any atmosphere is lost. No erosion from wind or other weathering, so old, cratered surfaces are retained
Similarities between Mercury and the Moon are
Description of gravitational distortion
Some rings are kept stable by shepherd moons. Shepherd moons can also distort rings. Gravity can cause distortions, including what look like twists and waves. Other distortions include scalloped shapes and appearance of transient spokes in Saturn's rings. Spokes grow in a radial direction and last for less than half an orbit around Saturn, indicating that the particles in the spokes must be suspended above the ring plane, probably by electrostatic forces.
Seven
Spacecraft have visited ______ asteroids. It is possible for some asteroids to have moons.
Ozone (O3)
Sun's ultraviolet radiation produces ______ by breaking O2 into 2 Os.
Ceres
______ used to be known as the largest asteroid. Spherical, about 4% the mass of the Moon.
Kinetic energy
The energy that can be released by the impact of a comet nucleus is equal to its:
Solar wind
The flow of particles from the Sun.
Meteorites
The following statements all describe the same missing term: Are always pieces of asteroids (and sometimes the Moon and Mars). ______ are classified as primitive (unchanged since formation) and processed (they were once part of a larger object which differentiated). Primitive ______ can be stony or carbon. Processed ______ can be stony or metallic or a combination. Metallic ______ are fairly rare. Stony ______ are most common by far.
Solar system debris
The following statements describe ______ ______ ______ Comet nucleus disintegration and asteroid collisions make debris. Earth passing through a collection of comet debris results in meteor showers, such as the Perseids (meteors from the comet Swift-Tuttle) or Leonids (meteors from the comet Temple-Tuttle). Single pieces of debris result in sporadic meteors.
Planetesimals
The following statements describe the same missing term: ______ left over from the formation of the solar system include asteroids and comets, as well as meteorites and meteoroids. Five large ______ deserve their own classification: dwarf planets. Four reside in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune's orbit: Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. Ceres is in the main asteroid belt.
Comets
The following statements describe: ______ Sources are the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud Composition of ices with dust mixture - dirty snowball Structure consists of a nucleus (the "dirty snowball"), and, when near the Sun, the coma (head) and two tails - ion (gas) and dust. The tails always point (more or less) away from the Sun
Comet anatomy
The following statements describe: ______ ______ Comet nucleus is an ice/rock mix. "Dirty snowballs." Size of nucleus ranges from a few dozen meters to several hundred kilometers. This is the comet's appearance when far from the Sun. When near the Sun: active comets. Sun heats the icy nucleus, causing sublimation. Sublimation forms: Coma. Ion tail. Dust tail.
Moons of Saturn
The following statements describe: _______ of _______ Titan is the one large moon and is regular, has a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and surface liquids, probably methane, in lakes and rivers. There are strong indications that Titan is geologically active. Methane in Titan's atmosphere is most likely renewed by active geology. Huygens lander revealed icy "rocks" and a soil rich with organic compounds. Enceladus, although fairly small at 500 km diameter, shows ridges and smooth plains. Plumes of water vapor have definitely been seen by the Cassini spacecraft, indicating an ocean underneath an icy surface. These plumes appear to be the source of particles in the E ring. It is considered a medium, regular moon. Other significant moons are medium sized, regular, and mostly ice, many appear to have evidence of "volcanic" activity
Albedo
The fraction of electromagnetic radiation striking the surface that is reflected by that surface:
Downward
The gas giants have similar cloud layers. Temperature and pressure increase in which direction?
Obliquities
The giant planets also have different ______ or inclinations of their equators to their orbital planes. Jupiter: 3°. Uranus: 98°, which results in extreme seasons.
Saturn
The giant planets are less dense than the terrestrial planets; in fact, ______ would float in a large enough tub of water.
Cloud layers in the atmospheres.
The giant planets have no solid surfaces. We just see:
Earth's Moon
The giant planets have several large moons, and many are as large as:
Enceladus, Europa, Titan, and Callisto
The identification of extremophile bacteria on Earth has led to consideration of the possibility of life in the extreme environments of the Solar System's moons. The combination of liquid water, heat, and organic compounds could be present. ______, ______, ______, & ______ are possibilities for life.
The giant planets radiate more energy than they receive from the sun. Terrestrial planets essentially only radiate away the energy they receive from the Sun. The giant planets radiate an excess, which appears to originate from gravitational contraction.
The interiors of the giant planets are heated by gravitational contraction. We know this because:
Magnetospheres
The magnetic fields of the giant planets are strong enough for them to form ______ of their own. The most colossal is Jupiter's with a radius 100 times that of the planet itself (6 AU).
Escape velocity
The moons of the giant planets have a much lower ______ ______ than that of Earth, which is 11.2 km/s or >40,000 km/h. Therefore they cannot easily hold on to particles ejected during volcanic activity.
Earth and Neptune - super-Earths or mini-Neptunes
The most common type of planet may be one with a radius between that of ______ & ______. Obviously, there are none of those in our solar system.
A porous mix of ice and dust
The nucleus of a comet is mostly:
Temperature of an atmosphere.
The number of greenhouse gas molecules affect the:
Ultraviolet radiation
The ozone layer protects Earth from:
The powerful magnetic fields of Jupiter trap large amounts of solar radiation, leading to radiation belts far more intense than Earth's.
The radiation belts around Jupiter are much stronger than those found around Earth because:
Backlighting
The rings of the other giant planets are mostly narrow and diffuse. ______ brings them into view. Neptune has denser sections known as ring arcs.
The temperature.
The speed of a gas is determined by:
Pressure
The temperature of a gas is a measure of the average kinetic energy of its molecules. The motion of the gas molecules in an atmosphere creates its ______.
Accretion (but locked in the interior); Volcanism (releasing the gas from the interior); Comet impacts.
The three ways the terrestrial planets acquired their secondary atmospheres:
Their masses, the size of the moon, and the distance between them
The tidal force between a planet and its moon depends on:
A small icy moon
The total mass of Saturn's bright rings is about the same as:
Looking at different depths where different ices form - Such as ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, water, and methane.
The varied colors of the giant planets are due to:
Other Kuiper belt objects
These statements describe: ______ ______ _______ ______ Three are classified as: Dwarf planets - Eris, Haumea, and Makemake Several thousand have been discovered between 1992 and now. Quaoar was the first large object discovered Eris is more massive than Pluto but smaller diameter. They have probably been placed in their current position by the migration of Neptune. Composition is mostly ice with some rock.
False. All four giant planets have strong magnetic fields. The fields of Jupiter and Saturn are generated by convection currents in the metallic hydrogen layer coupled with rapid rotation. The fields of Uranus and Neptune are created by convection currents in oceans of water and ammonia with dissolved salts, coupled with rapid rotation. The fields of Uranus and Neptune are off center and tilted with respect to the planets' rotation axes.
True or False: All four giant planets have strong magnetic fields. The fields of Jupiter and Saturn are generated by convection currents in the metallic ammonia layer coupled with rapid rotation. The fields of Saturn and Neptune are created by convection currents in oceans of water and hydrogen with dissolved salts, coupled with rapid rotation. The fields of Uranus and Neptune are off center and tilted with respect to the planets' rotation axes.
True. No solar system looking exactly like ours has been found. Too soon to tell if our solar system is very unusual or others just haven't been discovered.
True or False: Multiple planet systems have been found.
True Many planets with masses comparable or larger than that of Jupiter have been found in tight orbits around their stars - so-called hot Jupiters. Hot Jupiter's must have been formed outside the snow line of their system and then migrated inward. The most common type of planet may be one with a radius between that of the Earth and Neptune - super-Earths or mini-Neptunes. Obviously, there are none of those in our solar system. Multiple planet systems have been found. No solar system looking exactly like ours has been found. Too soon to tell if our solar system is very unusual or others just haven't been discovered.
True or False: Our solar system may not be typical compared to other solar systems,
False. Composition of the atmosphere for all four is mostly H and He with H compounds, large storm systems are present.
True or False: Composition of the atmosphere for all four giant planets is mostly Ozone and He with H compounds, large storm systems are not present.
H2O (Water) and CO2
Two of the most effective greenhouse gases: ______ & ______.
Meteors
Two types: Shower (from comet debris) and Sporadic (from asteroids).
From the shadowed side of the planet looking towards the sun.
Under what lighting conditions are the tiny dust particles of some planetary rings best observed?
Methane ice
Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, the highest clouds on Uranus and Neptune are:
Methane
Uranus and Neptune appear bluish because of scattering by ______.
Uranus and Neptune have a higher percentage of ices in their interior.
Uranus and Neptune are different from Jupiter and Saturn in that: A) Uranus and Neptune have a higher percentage of ices in their interior. B) Uranus and Neptune have more hydrogen. C) Uranus and Neptune have no magnetic field. D)Uranus and Neptune are closer to the Sun.
The merger of icy smaller bodies.
Uranus and Neptune formed after the rest of the planets by:
Organic material
Uranus and Neptune have dark rings from ______ ______ (darker than coal).
Absorption of incident light by methane. Only blue is reflected.
Uranus and Neptune look blue due to:
The time the atmospheres formed.
Which is NOT a factor in the difference between the atmospheres of Venus and Mars? A) Planet mass. B) Distance from the sun. C) The time the atmospheres formed. D) Original chemical composition of the secondary atmosphere. E) Composition of the planet's core.
It has no moons.
Which is NOT a reason Mercury has so little gas in its atmosphere? A) Its mass is small. B) It has a high temperature. C) It is close to the Sun. D) Its escape velocity is low. E) It has no moons.
They are much smaller than all of the known planets.
Which of the following is not a characteristic of regular moons? A) They revolve around their planets in the same direction as the planets rotate. B) They have orbits that lie nearly in the equatorial planes of their planets. C) They are usually tidally locked to their parent planets. D) They are much smaller than all of the known planets.
Venus, Earth, and Mars
Which planets were able to obtain significant secondary atmospheres?
Earth / Venus
While ______ is 35 K warmer because of the greenhouse effect, a runaway effect makes ______ 400 K warmer.
The terrestrial planets and the Moon could not hold onto the gas—it escaped into space.
Why did the terrestrial bodies lose their primary atmosphere?
Large planets have stronger gravity. Planets closer to the Sun are hotter. High mass molecules move more slowly for a given temperature that low mass molecules. Put these all together and hot, low mass planets retain no atmosphere, higher mass, cooler planets retain some type of atmosphere. All terrestrial planets formed with a Primary Atmosphere - H and He. Lost due to low gravities and high temperatures. Secondary atmosphere - outgassing from volcanoes as well as impacts from comets and asteroids. The secondary atmospheres then evolved differently for each planet.
Why do different planets have different atmospheres?
Because of the composition of its atmosphere. The giant planets tend to be naturally blue - a consequence of methane absorbing reddish light. In the case of Jupiter, complex chemistry in the deeper layers generates compounds which give it a reddish color.
Why is Jupiter reddish in color?
Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere.
Why is the sky blue? A) Rainbows reflect the blue light into the atmosphere causing the sky to be blue. B) The ozone layer is made of blue particles. C) Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. D) Ultraviolet light from the sun fragments cometary molecules such as methane and amonia.
Jupiter / Neptune
Wind speeds are very high, from 550 km/hr on ______ to 2000 km/hr on ______.
Observing the movement of clouds above an assumed "surface." Using the circumference of the planet, you can find how much a spot travels in a given time.
Wind speeds on gas giants can be measured by:
Wind and weather
______ & ______ are due to the Coriolis effect (caused by rapid rotation), temperature differences across a planet, evaporation, clouds and precipitation.
Mars and Venus
______ & ______ both have mainly CO2 atmospheres.
Temperature and pressure
______ & ______ decline with altitude.
Uranus and Neptune
______ & ______ have hydrogen compounds (water, etc.) and cores of rock and metal (about 10 Earth masses), have much more water, water ice, and other ices. 19.2 AU from Sun, and 30.0 AU from Sun.
Venus and Earth
______ & ______ were able to keep more gases than Mars.
Saturn and Jupiter
______ & ______ were known to the ancients.
Paleoclimatology
______ (The study of Earth's climate throughout history) has yielded much information about Earth's climate change. Has found temperature and climate cycles, including ice ages. Earth's climate is very sensitive to changes in temperature. The rise of CO2, CH4, and other greenhouse gases is correlated with global temperature increase. The vast majority of climatologists accept the computer models suggesting the beginning of a long-term change in the temperature of Earth's climate.
Troposphere
______ (surface to 10-15 km altitude): This level is mainly water vapor and is the source of Earth's weather due to convection.
Planetary diameters
______ ______ are found by observing how long it takes for a planet to pass over a star: Also known as: Stellar occultation.
Ring particles
______ ______ are from disrupted moons or from volcanic activity on moons.
Ring systems
______ ______ do not occur in the terrestrial planets but are found around each of the giant planets. Saturn's rings are the largest and brightest. The fainter rings were discovered by stellar occultation methods.
Iron meteorites
______ ______ have high concentrations of metal, with a melted and pitted appearance.
Infrared observations
______ ______ let us see details of structure on Uranus.
Hot Jupiter's
______ ______ must have been formed outside the snow line of their system and then migrated inward.
Hadley circulation
______ ______ transports heat between equator and poles.
Europa
______ a liquid ocean under the ice surface, probably also due to tidal heating. The Hubble telescope apparently saw plumes of water vapor erupting from the surface, but these were not seen again. The ocean may be 100 km deep.
Mercury / Moon
______ and the ______ have basically no atmosphere.
Ozone
______ blocks ultraviolet light, which is harmful to life.
Jupiter's
______ chemistry is like the Sun: mostly hydrogen and helium.
Nine
______ comets have been visited so far by spacecraft-most recently by Rosetta. A projectile hit Comet Tempel 1 in order to study its contents.
Particles from the solar wind collide with the atmosphere. When there is a lot of trapped particles, they can leak into the atmosphere and ionize the gas.
______ creates the northern and southern lights (auroras).
Ganymede
______ evidence of tectonic activity in the past, strange surface features, possibly a liquid ocean underneath the surface.
Callisto
______ geologically inert, yet there is some indication of a subsurface ocean.
Mars
______ has a cold, thin atmosphere. Virtually no oxygen, no ozone, so UV light reaches the surface. Thin atmosphere = extreme temperature variations.
Saturn
______ has a similar band structure to Jupiter, but less pronounced. It has violent storms and a feature similar to Earth's jet stream.
Venus
______ has over 2,500 times more atmospheric mass than Mars.
Io
______ heated by tidal forces, active volcanoes, the most volcanically active object in the solar system. A very young surface. Volcanoes have extensively resurfaced the moon.
Pluto/Charon
______ is about 1/400 the mass of Earth. "Double dwarf planet": Eccentric orbit. Rock and ice. Thin methane atmosphere.
Eris
______ is larger than Pluto, is the most distant. Has moon, Dysnomia. Orbit has greater inclination than Pluto's.
Climate
______ is the average state of an atmosphere. Can be affected by astronomical, geological, and biological mechanisms.
Near-Earth
asteroids that have orbits and come close to the orbit of Earth.
