Astronomy Exam, Chapter 6 – Flashcards
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Which of the following lists the planets of our solar system in the correct order from closest to farthest from the Sun?
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Mercury, venus, earth, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune
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Suppose you view the solar system from high above Earth's North Pole. How would the planets orbit the sun?
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All the planets orbit counterclockwise around the Sun.
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The planet in our solar system with the highest average surface temperature is _________.
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Venus
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The terrestrial planets in our solar system are _________.
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Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
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The jovian planets in our solar system are _________.
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Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
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Which jovian planet does not have rings?
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All of the jovian planets have rings
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Which moons are sometimes called the Galilean moons?
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The four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
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What does the Cassini mission to Saturn consists of?
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An orbiter that orbits Saturn and a probe that descended to the surface of Titan.
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Which planet (besides Earth) has been visited by the largest number of robotic spacecraft?
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Mars
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When we say that jovian planets contain significant amounts of hydrogen compounds, we mean all the following chemicals except _________.
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carbon dioxide
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our solar system formed from the collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust. What theory is this?
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the nebular theory
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According to modern science, what was the approximate chemical composition of the solar nebula?
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98% hydrogen and helium, 2% everything else
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The terrestrial planets are made almost entirely of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. According to modern science, where did these elements come from?
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They were produced by stars that lived and died before our solar system was born.
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According to our theory of solar system formation, what three major changes occurred in the solar nebula as it shrank in size?
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It got hotter, its rate of rotation increased, and it flattened into a disk.
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Which of the following types of material can condense into what we call ice at low temperatures?
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hydrogen compounds
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According to our theory of solar system formation, what are asteroids and comets?
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Leftover planetesimals that never accreted into planets
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What do we mean by the period of heavy bombardment in the context of the history of our solar system?
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The first few hundred million years after the planets formed, which is when most impact craters were formed
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What is the giant impact hypothesis for the origin of the Moon?
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The Moon formed from material blasted out of the Earth's mantle and crust by the impact of a Mars-size object.
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Suppose you start with 1 kilogram of a radioactive substance that has a half-life of 10 years. Which of the following statements will be true after 20 years pass?
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You'll have 0.25 kilogram of the radioactive substance remaining.
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In essence, the Kepler mission is searching for extrasolar planets by____________.
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monitoring stars for slight dimming that might occur as unseen planets pass in front of them
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The terrestrial planets are made almost entirely of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. According to modern science, where did these elements come from?
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They were produced by stars that lived and died before our solar system was born.
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According to our present theory of solar system formation, which of the following lists the major ingredients of the solar nebula in order from the most abundant to the least abundant?
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hydrogen and helium gas; hydrogen compounds; rock; metal
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What do we mean by the frost line when we discuss the formation of planets in the solar nebula?
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It is a circle at a particular distance from the Sun, beyond which the temperature was low enough for ices to condense.
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What do we mean by accretion in the context of planet formation?
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The growth of planetesimals from smaller solid particles that collided and stuck together
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Compared to the distance between Earth and Mars, the distance between Jupiter and Saturn is _________.
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much larger
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How is Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2, important in understanding the Sun?
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the Sun generates energy to shine by losing 4 million tons of mass each second
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In what way is Venus most similar to Earth?
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both planets are nearly the same size
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Imagine that an alien spaceship crashed onto Earth. Which statement would most likely be true?
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it would crash in the ocean
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Mars has two moons that are most similar in character to:
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small asteroids
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Which planet listed below has the most extreme seasons?
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uranus
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In what way is Pluto more like a comet than a planet?
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its made of mostly rock and ice
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Which of the following is not a major pattern of motion in the solar system?
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Nearly all comets orbit the Sun in same direction and roughly the same plane.
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Which of the following is not a major difference between the terrestrial and jovian planets in our solar system?
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Terrestrial planets contain large quantities of ice and jovian planets do not.
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The following statements are all true. Which one counts as an "exception to the rule" in being unusual for our solar system?
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The diameter of Earth's Moon is about 1/4 that of Earth.
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According to our theory of solar system formation, which law best explains why the solar nebula spun faster as it shrank in size?
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The law of conservation of angular momentum
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According to our theory of solar system formation, which law best explains why the central regions of the solar nebula got hotter as the nebula shrank in size?
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the law of conservation of energy
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According to our present theory of solar system formation, which of the following best explains why the solar nebula ended up with a disk shape as it collapsed?
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It flattened as a natural consequence of collisions between particles in the nebula.
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What is the primary basis upon which we divide the ingredients of the solar nebula into four categories (hydrogen/helium; hydrogen compound; rock; metal)?
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The temperatures at which various materials will condense from gaseous form to solid form.
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According to our present theory of solar system formation, which of the following statements about the growth of terrestrial and jovian planets is not true?
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The jovian planets began from planetesimals made only of ice, while the terrestrial planets began from planetesimals made only of rock and metal.
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According to present understanding, which of the following statements about the solar wind is not true?
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It is even stronger today than it was when the Sun was young.
