NATS1740 Assignment 14 xx – Flashcards
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The asteroid belt lies between the orbits of
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2. Mars and Jupiter.
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Can an asteroid be pure metal?
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3. Yes, it must have been the core of a shattered asteroid.
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Did a large terrestrial planet ever form in the region of the asteroid belt?
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2. No, because Jupiter prevented one from accreting.
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What does Pluto most resemble?
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3. a comet
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How big an object causes a typical shooting star?
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1. a grain of sand or a small pebble
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Which have the most elliptical and tilted orbits?
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3. Oort cloud comets
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Which are thought to have formed farthest from the Sun?
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2. Kuiper belt comets
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Which of the following statements about comets and asteroids is true?
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1. Comets are balls of ice and dust.
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What do asteroids and comets have in common?
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5. Most are unchanged since their formation in the solar nebula.
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A rocky leftover planetesimal orbiting the Sun is
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4. an asteroid.
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An icy leftover planetesimal orbiting the Sun is
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4. a comet.
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Why do asteroids and comets differ in composition?
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4. Asteroids formed inside the frost line, while comets formed outside.
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What is the size of the largest asteroid?
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3. 1,000 km
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How does the largest asteroid, Ceres, compare in size to other solar system worlds?
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2. It is about half the size of Pluto.
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Which is closest to the average distance between asteroids in the asteroid belt?
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1. 1 million km
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The combined mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt is
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3. less than that of any terrestrial planet.
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Where are the Trojan asteroids located?
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5. along Jupiter's orbit, 60∘ ahead of and behind Jupiter
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The large gaps in the asteroid belt (often called Kirkwood gaps) are caused by
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2. orbital resonances with Jupiter.
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Why isn't there a planet where the asteroid belt is located?
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4. Gravitational tugs from Jupiter prevented material from collecting together to form a planet.
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Why aren't small asteroids spherical in shape?
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4. The strength of gravity on small asteroids is less than the strength of the rock.
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What is a meteorite?
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4. a fragment of an asteroid from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface
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A typical shooting star in a meteor shower is caused by a ________ entering Earth's atmosphere.
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3. pea-size particle from a comet
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What characteristic distinguishes a meteorite from a terrestrial rock?
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5. All of the above are true.
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Meteorites can come from
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5. all of the above
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Halley's comet is named after the English scientist Edmund Halley because he
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1. calculated its orbit and predicted that it would return in 1758.
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When do comets generally begin to form a tail?
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1. inside of Jupiter's orbit
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Why does the plasma tail of a comet always point away from the Sun?
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2. The solar wind electromagnetically "blows" the ions directly away from the Sun.
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Where did comets that are now in the Oort cloud originally form?
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3. near the jovian planets
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Where did comets that are now in the Kuiper belt originally form?
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2. near the radius at which they orbit today
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Comets with extremely elliptical orbits, like comets Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp,
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4. come from the Oort cloud.
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What is the typical size of comets that enter the inner solar system?
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4. 10 km
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When was Pluto discovered?
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5. about 80 years ago
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Why won't Pluto collide with Neptune?
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3. The two planets have an orbital resonance that prevents them from colliding.
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What is Charon?
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1. Pluto's moon
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A comet entering the inner solar system from afar will __________.
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2. form a coma and some time later form a tail
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During the time that a comet passes through the inner solar system, the comet can appear quite bright because
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3. sunlight reflects off the comet's tail and coma
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A comet's plasma tail always points directly away from the Sun because __________.
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1. of pressure exerted by the fast-moving charged particles in the solar wind
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Listed following are several objects in the solar system. Rank these objects from left to right based on their distance from the Sun, from closest to farthest.
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a typical asteroid in the asteroid belt, a trojan asteroid, a typical kuiper belt object, a typical oort cloud object
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Listed following are several objects in the solar system. Rank these objects from left to right based on their orbital period around the Sun from shortest to longest.
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a typical asteroid in the asteroid belt, a trojan asteroid, a typical kuiper belt object, a typical oort cloud object
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Listed following are several objects in the solar system. Rank these objects from left to right based on the distance from the Sun at which they are presumed to have formed, from nearest to farthest.
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a typical asteroid in the asteroid belt, a typical oort cloud object, a typical kuiper belt object
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Listed following are some distinguishing characteristics of comets, meteors, and asteroids. Match these to the appropriate category of objects.
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Comets - form a coma when near the Sun - most are located either in kuiper belt or oort cloud - visible in the sky as a fuzzy patch of light that rises and sets with the stars Meteors - visible in the sky as a bright streak of light for only a few seconds -dust particles entering earth's atmosphere at high speed Asteroids - compositions similar to that of the terrestrial planets - typically orbit the sun at approximately 3 au
