ASTRONOMY Ch. 4 ONLINE QUIZ TEST 2 – Flashcards
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All planets orbit in the same direction around the Sun.
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True
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The Jovian planets are made of lighter elements than the terrestrial planets.
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True
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Asteroids are the remnants of an ancient planet that somehow broke apart or exploded.
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False
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Because our solar system contains heavy elements, it must be that at least some of its material was once inside other stars.
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True
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Most comets are thought to originate from within the Kuiper belt.
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False
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Our planetary system consists of...
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Large and small planets, some accompanied by small moons, none of which are as large as a planet
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In our solar system, which of the following planets is NOT a member of the Jovian group?
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Mars
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The best way to measure the mass of a planet is to measure the...
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Gravitational pull of the planet on an orbiting satellite or a nearby spacecraft
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The average density of which of the following planetary groups is close to that of water (1000 kg/m3)?
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Jovian planets, because of their H and He composition
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We have discovered moons around...
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All the planets except those nearer to the Sun than Earth is
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The four inner, terrestrial planets have...
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Very high average densities
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Which of the following statements is NOT true for asteroids?
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The asteroids in the asteroid belt are a minority of all asteroids
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What is the Kuiper belt?
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A relatively flat distribution of objects in the plane of the ecliptic, extending from around the orbit of Pluto out to about 50 AU from the Sun
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How has the present mix of chemical elements in the universe been produced?
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H and some He were formed in the Big Bang, while the heavier elements have been slowly formed by collisions in cold interstellar gas clouds
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A T Tauri wind...
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Sweeps away dust and gas at the end of the creation of a protoplanetary disk
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The most likely mechanism for the solar system's formation appears to be...
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That a cloud of gas and dust condensed to form the Sun, while planets formed later by condensation and accretion within the nebular disk
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In a rotating physical system (ie: a star formation region or a skater), what happens to the rotation rate (or angular speed) when the mass of the system condenses toward the center of rotation?
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It increases
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The formation of terrestrial-type planets around a star is most likely to have occurred by what process?
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Accretion, or slow accumulation, of smaller particles by mutual gravitational attraction
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The Oort Cloud is...
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A spherical solar system halo of icy objects far beyond the orbit of Pluto
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What method of detection has found most of the extrasolar planets currently known?
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The transit method
