question

Saturn's shape is even more "squashed" then Jupiter's. This tells you immediately that:

answer

it is even more gaseous in composition than Jupiter is.

question

If you could build a big enough bath tub, fill it with water, and place Saturn inside it would:

answer

float on the surface

question

Which of the following about Saturn's rings are false?

answer

The rings are solid rotating objects i.e. like giant CDs; the rings are just outside Saturn's Roche Limit.

question

Which of the following properties are NOT common to all the Jupiter-like planets?

answer

Their magnetic fields are centered on the planets' core.

question

Uranus' axis is tilted into its orbital plane (it's laying on its side!). Which of the following statements are TRUE as a result of this fact:

answer

Uranus has extreme seasons; winter and summer on Uranus both last 40 years; during winter on Urans, the Sun is never in the sky.

question

Uranus was discovered:

answer

accidentally by Hershell using his telescope.

question

Mathematics played a key role in the discovery of which of the following bodies:

answer

only Neptune.

question

The largest body in the Kuiper Belt that we know of currently is:

answer

Sedna

question

At one time it was thought that the asteroid belt represented the remains of a planet. This idea fell out of favor when:

answer

it turned out that the asteroids are too different in composition to have come from one planet.

question

Which of the following statements of Comet Tails are TRUE:

answer

The ion tail always points away from the Sun.

question

What is the angular size of the planet Uranus?

answer

4.1 arcsec

question

What is the angular size of the planet Neptune?

answer

2.4 arcsec

question

By how many degrees is Uranus' rotation axis tilted?

answer

98 degrees

question

What is the composition of Uranus & Neptune's atmosphere?

answer

Molecular Hydrogen (84%) Helium (14%) Methane (2-3%)

question

Neptune is further away from the Sun than Uranus, yet:

answer

it is slightly warmer than Uranus.

question

What is strange about Uranus' and Neptune's Magnetic Fields?

answer

They are not centered; They do not point remotely close to the rotational axis.

question

What kind of orbit does Pluto have?

answer

highly elliptical.

question

How many years does it take for Pluto to orbit the Sun?

answer

248 years

question

How many moons does Pluto have?

answer

5 moons

question

Why isn't Pluto a planet?

answer

small size; unusual orbit; Pluto & Charon are comparable in size; Density (~2g/cm3) implies a mixture of fox & ice; Resembles other recently discovered Kuiper Belt Objects

question

Uranus & Neptune are considered "twins" for what reasons?

answer

similar sizes, masses, densities, composition & structure

question

True or False: Both Uranus & Neptune have rings (as do all the "Jupiter-like" planets).

answer

True

question

True or False: Neptune was found at a predicted position?

answer

True

question

Pluto is:

answer

small & icy. It has five moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx, Kerberos.

question

Pluto belongs to a class of object that populates the Kuiper Belt ____________ that are thought to represent building blocks of planets like Earth and Jupiter.

answer

dwarf planets

question

Most asteroids are

answer

< 1 km in size; only a few are sas big as 400-800 km

question

Most of the known asteroids are found in

answer

the Asteroid Belt

question

What is the difference between a Long-Period and a Short-Period comet?

answer

Short-Period comets usually are in the same plane as the Solar System and originate in the Kuiper Belt;Long-Period comets come from all directions and originate in the Oort Cloud

question

What is the Kuiper Belt?

answer

It is an extension of the Solar System's disk.

question

When comets are close to the Sun, what can they show?

answer

a small nucleus, a coma of gas and dust that is the bright part, a hydrogen envelope, a dust tail, and an ion tail.

question

Where in respect to the Ion-tail, is the Dust-tail?

answer

always behind and is noticeably curved

question

Some forces that can destroy comets are:

answer

thermal stress; internal gas pressure; tidal stress

question

What is the difference between a meteor and an meteorite?

answer

Meteorites make it to Earth.

question

What is iridium?

answer

It is an element that is extremely rare on Earth but abundant in asteroids & comets

question

What would an impact by an asteroid/comet larger than ~2km do to the Earth?

answer

Widespread extinction of life

question

How do the tails of comets form?

answer

sunlight vaporizes ice & dust from comet

question

The discovery of new planets mostly requires:

answer

the patient use of improving technology

question

Uranus was discovered about the same time as:

answer

the U.S. Declaration of Independence

question

Compared with Uranus, the planet Neptune is

answer

roughly the same size

question

The jovian planets with the largest diameters also tend to

answer

have magnetic field axes most closely aligned with their axes of rotation.

question

The five largest moons of Uranus

answer

all orbit directly above the planet's equator

question

Moons that show few crater probably

answer

have warm interiors

question

A gas giant planet orbiting a distant star would be expected to have

answer

evidence for hydrogen in its spectrum

question

Uranus's rings were discovered by the occupation of starlight, as shown in Figure 13.15 ("Occultation of Starlight"). If Uranus were moving more rapidly relative to Earth, the graph in that figure would appear

answer

more compressed horizontally

question

The discovery of a moon orbiting a planet allows astronomers to measure

answer

the planet's mass

question

The solar system object most similar to Neptune is

answer

Uranus

question

According to Figure 14.1 ("Inner Solar System"), the asteroid groups with the smallest perihelion distances also tend to have orbits that

answer

are most eccentric

question

Most main-belt asteroids are about the size of

answer

a small U.S. city

question

Spectroscopic studies indicate that the majority of asteroids contain large fractions of

answer

carbon

question

Trojan asteroids orbiting at Jupiter's Lagrangian points are located

answer

behind and in front of Jupiter, sharing its orbit

question

The tails of a comet

answer

point away from the Sun

question

Compared with the orbits of the short-period comets, the orbits of long-period comets

answer

can come from all directions

question

Kuiper belt objects are not regarded as planets because

answer

their masses are too low to clear other bodies from their orbital paths

question

According to the figure in Discovery 14-1, an impact resulting in global catastrophe is expected to occur roughly once per

answer

million years

question

A meteorite is a piece of interplanetary debris that

answer

survives the trip to the surface

question

According to Table 14.1, the meteor shower that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox is the

answer

Orionids

question

A successful scientific model of the origin of planetary systems must be able to account for all of the following solar system features, except for

answer

intelligent life

question

After the central star has formed, the gas making up the original nebular cloud is

answer

blown away into interstellar space

question

The inner planets formed

answer

by collisions and mergers of planetesimals

question

According to Figure 15.6 ("Solar System Formation"), the jovian planets formed

answer

within a few million years of the formation of the Sun

question

Using the standard model of planetary system formation, scientists invoke catastrophic events to explain why

answer

Uranus has an extremely tilted rotation axis

question

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of at least

answer

several hundred planets beyond our own solar system

question

From Figure 15.12 ("Extrasolar Planetary Parameters"), most known extrasolar planets are

answer

cool and massive

question

Super-Earths are thought to be composed primarily of

answer

rock or water

question

In Figure 15.17 ("Habitable Zones"), the habitable zone of a star twice as massive as the Sun

answer

is centered at roughly 3 AU from the star

question

Astronomers have not yet detected any Earth-like planets orbiting other stars because

answer

they are not detectable with current technology

question

The "assumptions of mediocrity" suggest that

answer

life should be common throughout the cosmos

question

The chemical elements that form the basic molecules needed for life are found

answer

commonly throughout the cosmos

question

Fossil records of early life-forms on Earth suggest that life began about

answer

3.5 billion years ago

question

The discovery of bacteria on another planet would be an important discovery because bacteria

answer

are the lowest form of life known to exist

question

The least-well-known factor in the Drake equation is

answer

the average lifetime of a technologically competent civilization

question

Although the habitable zone around a large B-class star is large, we don't often look for life on planets there because the star

answer

is too short lived for life to evolve

question

From the data shown in Figure 28.12 ("Stellar Habitable Zones") and your knowledge of stellar properties (Chapter 18), the habitable zone surrounding a main sequence K-type star

answer

is larger than that of an M-type star

question

If Figure 28.16 ("Leakage") were to be redrawn for a planet spinning twice as fast, the new jagged line would be

answer

compressed horizontally

question

Radio telescopes cannot simply scan the skies looking for signals, because

answer

many nonliving objects emit radio signals naturally

question

The strongest radio-wavelength emitter in the solar system is

answer

human-made signals from Earth

question

Compared with ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation has a greater

answer

wavelength

question

Compared with red light, blue wavelengths of visible light travel

answer

at the same speed

question

An electron that collides with an atom will

answer

produce an electromagnetic wave

question

According to Figure 3.8 ("Electromagnetic Spectrum"), the wavelength of green light is about the size of

answer

a bacterium

question

An X-ray telescope located in Antarctica would not work well because of

answer

Earth's atmosphere

question

In Figure 3.10 ("Multiple Blackbody Curves"), an object at 1000 K emits mostly

answer

infrared light

question

According to Wien's law, the hottest stars also have

answer

the shortest peak wavelength

question

Stefan's law says that if the Sun's temperature were to double, its energy emission would

answer

increase 16 times

question

A star much cooler than the Sun would appear

answer

red

question

The blackbody curve of a star moving toward Earth would have its peak shifted

answer

towards higher energies

question

What is the closest big galaxy to us?

answer

M31 - the Andromeda galaxy

question

How do we detect Electro-Magnetic (EM) radiation from distant objects in space?

answer

Telescopes and sensitive detectors (e.g., CCDs)

question

Wave Wavelength is

answer

the distance between two crests/troughs

question

Wave Amplitude is

answer

how high the wave is

question

Wave Speed is

answer

how fast the wave moves

question

Wave Period is

answer

time for passage of two crests/troughs

question

Wave Frequency is

answer

the number of crests/troughs that pass by in one second (i.e., 20 per second)

question

A red-light wavelength has

answer

600 nm

question

A blue-light wavelength has

answer

400 nm

question

What medium do sound waves need to travel?

answer

air

question

What medium do light waves need to travel?

answer

-the vacuum of space & atmosphere (mostly) -water -glass -flesh (X-rays & gamma-rays) -buildings (radio waves)

question

What medium does Electro-Magnetic waves use?

answer

None

question

Energy is proportional to

answer

frequency

question

Energy is inversely proportional to

answer

wavelength

question

A star orbited by a close & massive planet may add a detectable "_________" to the star's motion

answer

wobble

question

The chemical composition of the interstellar medium is basically similar to that of:

answer

the Sun

question

The density of atoms in the interstellar medium is most similar to:

answer

the interior of a TV tube.

question

Of the following objects, the one that shines most like an emission nebula shines is:

answer

a glowing fluorescent light tube

question

Stars interact with emission nebulae by

answer

exiting their atoms enough to emit light

question

A dark interstellar globule is about the same size as

answer

the Oort cloud

question

The Ophiuchi cloud, shown in Figure 18.13 ("Dark Dust Cloud"), is dark because

answer

starlight from behind the cloud does not penetrate the cloud

question

If a proton and an electron within a hydrogen atom initially have parallel spins, then change to have antiparallel spins, the atom must

answer

emit energy

question

Of the following telescopes, the one best suited to observing dark dust clouds is

answer

a radio telescope

question

Of the following, the largest interstellar clouds are

answer

molecular clouds

question

Molecular clouds are routinely studied using spectral lines from all but which of the following?

answer

Molecular hydrogen

question

Mars' orbit is

answer

highly elliptical

question

Mars' orbital period is

answer

686.9 Earth Days (-1.9 years).

question

Mars' inclined rotation axis give _____________ like Earth.

answer

seasonal cycles

question

Mars' surfaces ________ during Summers.

answer

darkens

question

Martian Atmosphere consists of

answer

95.3% CO2 2.7% Nitrogen 1.6% Argon 0.1% Oxygen

question

Martian atmosphere is mostly

answer

carbon dioxide, and very thin.

question

Optical images taken of Mars show

answer

giant volcanoes immense canyons impact craters vast plains and dunes

question

The north and south hemispheres of Mars have very different terrain, as such

answer

the north has rolling volcanic plains and few craters the south has highlands, heaviy cratered, Tharsis regions, giants volcanoes, Hellas impact basin crater.

question

What three main factors contributed to Mars' different evolution?

answer

Mars' volume is small: ~1/10th Earth's Mars is further from the Sun Mars lacks a magnetic field

question

How can the lack of a magnetic field hurt Mars?

answer

No magnetic field means no Magnetoshpere to protect the planet from the Solar Wind

question

Common Definition for something to be considered "Living"

answer

1. must react to their environment 2. be able to repair themselves when damaged 3. grow/sustain themselves by taking nourishment from environment and converting into energy 4. must be able to reproduce 5. must be able to evolve (i.e., pass information to offspring)

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