Chapters 7-16 Astronomy Exam 2
most didtant from Jupiter of these four moons
Callisto
largest moon in the solar sytem
Ganymede
Which planets are terrestrial?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
The two jovian planets that contain the highest proportions of hydrogen compounds are
Uranus and Neptune
What is the probability that an object 100 meters in diameter will hit Earth during the coming year?
about 1 in 1000
A comet entering the inner solar system from afar will __________.
form a coma and some time later form a tail
Meteors can be viewed only
on worlds with atmospheres
Jovian planets formed (in or out frost line)
outside the frost line
The large reservoir of comet nuclei far beyond Pluto, from which we believe new long-period comets come into the inner solar system, is called
the Oort Cloud
Which part of a comet is the DENSEST?
the nucleus
For scientists, one bar is
the pressure with 1 square centimeter of the Earth's atmosphere presses down at the surface
The process of Convection involves
the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material
Which of the following statements about the tails of comets is FALSE?
the tail of a comet can sometimes be ahead of the comet in its orbit
Asteroids are formed_______while comets are formed ________the frost line
1)Inside 2)outside
The minimum size of an object that could cause a mass extinction is a little less than
10km
The sunspot cycle range between
11 years
What is the maximum number of moons that must be orbiting a planet for the moons to have an orbital resonance?
2
Is the dusty atmosphere of a comet created by sublimation of ices in the nucleus when the comet is near the Sun
A coma
Is the solid portion of a comet, and the only portion that exists when the comet is far from the Sun
A nucleus
Is one of two tails seen when a comet passes near the Sun (the other is the dust tail) it is composed of ionized gas blown straight outward from the Sun by the solar wind
A plasma tail
Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the ways the jovian planets differ from the terrestrial planets?
All the jovians have satellites around them and none of the terrestrials do
Different asteroids reflect different percentages of the light falling on them. This is due to the fact that they have different:
Compositions
The sun's outer most layer of solar system is called
Corona
Spacecraft images show fountains of ice spraying into space from Saturn's moon
Enceladus
Ice covered surface with few impact creater s and subsurface oacean
Europa
Jupiter has three moons for which there is evidence of a global, subsurface ocean of liquid water, with the strongest evidence favoring an ocean on ____
Europa
The two moons that are larger than the planet Murcury are Titan and ______________ which is also the largest of Jupiter's moons (and largest moon in the solar system). ________
Ganymede
By far the most abundant element is the giant (jovian) planet is:
Hydrogen
When the Sun's core contracts, the core temperature _____.
Increases
The moon that experiences the most tidal heating from Jupiter's is
Io
is the most volcanically active world in the solar system
Io
volcanos currently erupting on its surface
Io
Why is Io more volcanically active than our moon?
Io has a different internal heat source.
What is unusual about Triton?
It orbits its planet backward.
Why is Jupiter denser than Saturn?
Its higher mass and gravity compress its interior.
The largest planet in the solar system (by mass) is
Jupiter
The tidal force that acts on Io is due primarily to the gravity of
Jupiter
Which of the jovian planets has the shortest period of rotation (the shortest day)?
Jupiter
Which of the following statements about the season on Jupiter is correct?
Jupiter's axis is hardly tilted so it has no real seasonal variations
Why do astronomers today think that we have an asteroid belt and not a planet between Mars and Jupiter?
Jupiter's gravity prevented material in that zone from getting together
Which lists the jovian planets in order of increasing distance from the Sun?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Which planets are Jovian
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
The asteroid belt is located between the orbit of________and _______.
Mars and Jupiter
The reason that Jupiter and Saturn have a strong
Metallic Cores
Consist of particles shed by comets as they orbit the Sun
Meteor showers
Why does neptune apear blue?
Methane in Neptune's atmosphere absorbs red light and reflect blue light
Did a large terrestrial planet ever form in the region of the asteroid belt?
No, because Jupiter prevented one from accreting
The process by which big nucleus splits into smaller places is called
Nuclear fission
The process by which a small nuclei nucleus stick together make a bigger is called
Nuclear fusion
Why didn't a planet form in the region of the solar system now occupied by the asteroid belt?
Orbital resonances with Jupiter disrupted orbits in this region
The "giant impact" hypothesis refers to the idea that
Our Moon formed when Mars- size object collided with the young Earth
Comets are formed (in or out frost line)
Outside frost line
The comet that broke into more than 20 pieces and then collied with Jupiter in 1994 was
Shoemaker-Levy9
Is the comet-rich region of our solar system that spans distances of about 30-100 AU from the Sun
The Kuiper belt
Is huge, spherical region centered on the Sun, extending perhaps halfway to the nearest stars, in which trillions of comets orbit the Sun with random inclinations, orbital directions, and eccentricities
The Oort cloud
In which region of the Earth's atmosphere have you spent most of your life?
The troposphere
Scientist have detected lakes of liquid mathene and ethane on the surface of
Titan
Which moon shows evidence of rainfall and erosion by some liquid substance?
Titan
An orbital resonance occurs when one moon's orbital period is a single fraction of the other's such as 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4
True
In our solar system, the jovian planets are all father from the Sun that are the terrestrial planets.
True
The planet that "on its side" (i.e. has its rotation axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit) is:
Uranus
Which of the following statements best describes the general pattern of composition among the four jovian planets?
Uranus and Neptune contain relatively more rock and hydrogen compounds that Jupiter and Saturn
Astronomers believe that Jupiter's strong magnetic field is caused by
a huge layer of metallic hydrogen inside Jupiter
At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made if
a solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure
An object 10 kilometers across hits Earth
about once every 100 million years
Staurn's rings
are continually supplied by impacts with small moons
One of the key reasons that professional astronomers (as opposed to the public) are interested in comets is that they
are icy pieces left over from the time that our solar system formed that can give us clues about that early time
Leftover planetesimals that formed inside the frost line are known as
asteroids
The objects that are sometimes visible in the night sky with long tails are
comets
The outer layer of the solar's interior is called
convection zone
Ceres, Pluto, and Eris are all round in shape and classified as
dwarf planets
The Kuiper belt is located
from about the orbit of Neptune to about twice Neptune's distance from the Sun
What two items on the list below are in balanced in what we call gravitational equilibrium
gravity and gas pressure
A main difference between asteroids and comets is that asteroids are mostly made of rock and comets are mostly made of
ice
The Oort Cloud is located
in a spherical region far beyond the orbit of Pluto
The comets of the Oort cloud are thought to have formed
in the same region as the Jovian planets
Terrestrial planets formed (in or out frost line)
inside the frost line
Which of the following characteristics distinguishes Uranus from EVERY other planet in out solar system?
it rotates on an axis tilted almost 90 degrees to the circle of its orbit
Which of the following is NOT a way that Jupiter differs from terrestrial planets?
its surface has more craters from early collisinos
Pieces of asteroids that have fallen to Earth are called
meteorites
Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble
the Sun
What is a solar nebula?
the cloud of gas and dust that formed our solar system
