Chapter 15 Study Guide
Venus and Mars both have atmospheres made up mainly of carbon dioxide.
True
Venus experiences an intense greenhouse effect.
True
Which planet is tilted on its side?
Uranus
Which planet has a greenhouse effect that causes extremely high surface temperature?
Venus
The greenhouse effect on Earth keeps it warm enough for liquid water to exist. However, on Venus, the greenhouse effect warms the planet to ___.
460 degrees C
Mercury has an atmosphere much like that of Earth.
False
The Sun contains about half the mass of the solar system.
False
The outer planets are called gas dwarfs.
False
Which planet has iron oxide and polar ice caps?
Mars
Which planet has no atmosphere?
Mercury
Which planet is the smallest planet?
Mercury
The orbits of ___ lie closer to the Sun than does Earth's orbit.
Mercury and Venus
Name the inner planets.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Name the planets in order from the Sun.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Inner planets are made mainly of solid rocky materials.
True
What is the basic shape of every planet's orbit?
ellipse
Mercury is the ___ planet from the Sun.
first
An ellipse is a stretched out circle that has a shape defined by two ___ that are each the same distance from the center of the ellipse.
foci
While inner planets are made up mostly of rocky material, the outer planets are made up mostly of ___.
gas and ice
What causes planets and other space objects to orbit around the Sun rather than going off in a straight line?
gravity - the Sun's is pulling objects toward it
Venus is the hottest planet because of the ___ effect of gases in the atmosphere.
greenhouse
Solar energy trapped by gases in Venus's atmosphere causes ___.
greenhouse effect
Venus and Earth both experience ___ because of heat trapped by their atmospheres.
greenhouse effect
___ are pieces of rock that strike the surface of a moon or planet.
meteorites
Small pieces of rock that enter Earth's atmosphere and burn up are called ___.
meteors
The time it takes a planet or any other object to travel once around the Sun is its period of ___.
revolution
The time it takes a planet or any other object to spin or rotate once is its period of ___.
rotation
Mercury is too ___ to have strong enough gravity to hold an atmosphere.
small
What is the basic astronomical unit based on?
the distance between Earth and the Sun
Which planet has liquid water oceans?
Earth
___ is the third planet from the Sun.
Earth
An astronomical unit is the average distance between ______.
Earth and the Sun
Which planet is the largest planet?
Jupiter
Which planet has dark rings and 13 moons?
Neptune
Which planet has the most complex ring system?
Saturn
Which of the following is a common trait of the inner planets? (The atmospheres are made up of the same gases., They all have water., They all have a solid outer layer., They are the same size.)
They all have a solid outer layer.
A meteor is actually a meteoroid that burns up in Earth's atmosphere.
True
