Exam 2

A  Is caused by the “backward” rotation of Venus about its own axis

B  Is caused by the motion of Venus along an epicycle whose center orbits the Sun

C  Is caused by the gravitational tug of other planets on Venus

D  Is caused by the change in perspective as Venus catches up with, and passes, Earth while both planets orbit the Sun

E  Was used by Galileo to explain the complete set of phases of Venus that he observed through his telescope

A  Jupiter

B  Saturn

C  Uranus

D  Neptune

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  less than an Earth day

B  longer than an Earth day

C  less than an hour

D  many Earth days

A  planets that could have liquid water

B  planets 1 AU from their star

C  planets with a rocky surface

D  all of these choices

E  planets with an oxygen atmosphere

F  none of these choices

A  the same age as

B  older than

C  younger than

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  Neptune and Uranus appear greenish blue because they are covered by a liquid water ocean

B  Saturn’s rings rotate as a solid body, like a bicycle wheel and its spokes; all particles have the same orbital period.

C  Jupiter’s volume is roughly 10 times Earth’s volume

D  The giant planets consist mostly of hydrogen and helium,

E  Of the four giant planets, only Saturn and Uranus have rings.

A  closer

B  the same distance

C  farther

D  now way to tell with available data

A  Venus

B  Io

C  Triton

D  Uranus

A  Mercury

B  Mars

C  Earth

D  Venus

A  It fell into Neptune when their orbits crossed.

B  It doesn’t revolve about the Sun like planets.

C  If it was a distant planet, it would be a gas giant planet.

D  It’s orbit is not clear of other orbiting objects.

A  between the Sun and Mars.

B  among comets in the Oort cloud, beyond Neptune.

C  randomly distributed throughout the solar system.

D  tidally-disrupted icy rock debris between Mars and Jupiter.

A  gravitational microlensing

B  the Doppler-wobble method

C  direct imaging

D  astrometric measurements

E  the transit method

A  Titan

B  Europa

C  Io

D  Callisto

A  the Moon is more distant than the Earth, causing incoming rocks to hit it first.

B  the Moon experiences frequent volcanic eruptions that cause craters.

C  the Moon experiences almost no erosion compared to the Earth, causing craters to remain much longer.

D  the Moon is much more deficient in iron relative to the Earth, causing craters to form more easily.

E  the Moon has been around longer than the Earth and has been exposed to more periods of meteor bombardment.

A  By observing the Moon long enough from Earth, night after night, we are able to draw a map of its entire surface.

B  At any given location on Earth, there are two high tides each day – one caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun, and the other by the gravitational pull of the Moon.

C  The same half of the Moon’s surface is perpetually dark (craters on that side never see sunlight), leading us to call it the “dark side of the Moon.”

D  High tide occurs on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon, while low tide occurs on the opposite side of the Earth.

E  The orbital period of the Moon around the Earth and the rotation period of the Moon around its axis are equal.

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  Ignition of the Sun,Formation of the protosun,Formation of the Jovian Planets,Formation of the Terrestrial Planets,Late Heavy Bombardment

B  Formation of the protosun,Ignition of the Sun,Formation of the Jovian Planets,Formation of the Terrestrial Planets,Late Heavy Bombardment

C  Formation of the Jovian Planets,Formation of the Terrestrial Planets,Formation of the protosun,Ignition of the Sun,Late Heavy Bombardment

D  Formation of the protosun,Formation of the Jovian Planets,Formation of the Terrestrial Planets,Ignition of the Sun,Late Heavy Bombardment

A  Mercury,Venus,Earth,Mars,Asteroid Belt,Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,Neptune,Kuiper Belt

B  Kuiper Belt,Mercury,Earth,MarsVenus,Jupiter,Uranus,Neptune,Saturn,Asteroid Belt

C  Neptune,Saturn,Mercury,Venus,Earth,Mars,Jupiter,Uranus,Kuiper Belt,Asteroid Belt

D  Mercury,Asteroid Belt,Venus,Earth,Mars,Kuiper Belt,Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,Neptune,

A  Sun ejecta

B  early solar system gas & dust

C  a captured comet

D  a collision with a rogue planet

E  a chunk broke off of the Earth

A  Mars

B  Venus

C  Jupiter

D  Uranus

E  Mercury

A  nitrogen

B  methane

C  ammonia

D  hydrogen

E  helium

A  Phobos

B  Ariel

C  Io

D  Triton

E  Luna

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  Earth

B  Venus

C  Mars

D  Uranus

A  They generally have the thickest atmospheres of all the planets in the Solar System

B  They are the largest of all planets in the Solar System, with diameters up to nearly 1/10 the diameter of the Sun.

C  Despite their size, they rotate about their axis very rapidly, in fewer than 24 hours.

D  They are the most massive of all the planets in the Solar System since they are mainly composed of heavy elements like iron.

E  They have many moons, probably due to their large gravitational fields.

A  Any astronomical object.

B  Meteorites falling on a radiant from the Perseid star cluster.

C  Objects smaller than comets; most between Mars and Jupiter.

D  Groupings of stars in the sky that are smaller than constellations.

A  lava erupts at random

B  continents shifting over a convecting mantle

C  Earth’s mantle consists of stacked rock plates

D  earthquake map

A  The Moon is still visible during a total lunar eclipse because of light going through the Earth’s atmosphere.

B  Lunar eclipses don’t occur monthly, because the inclination of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth relative to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

C  At a given time, a total lunar eclipse is visible only from a small part of the Earth’s surface.

D  Total lunar eclipses last longer than total solar eclipses

E  Lunar eclipses are predictable.

A  ion tail

B  dust tail

C  coma

D  nucleus

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  there is too much material to have fit into the ball of each planet

B  tidal forces prevent the material in rings from forming into moons

C  Jovian planets rotate very rapidly, and some material near the equator of these planets was flung outward, forming the rings

D  tidal forces cause volcanic eruptions on some moons, and part of this material subsequently escaped the gravity of the moons, forming the rings.

E  their thick gaseous atmospheres would disintegrate any small rock that enter them

A  Io

B  Venus

C  Triton

D  Uranus

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  The greenhouse effect occurs when an atmosphere is transparent to optical or visible light but translucent to infrared light, thus trapping the heat.

B  If we dump much more carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, Earth will become hotter because of the greenhouse effect.

C  An extreme, possible runaway, greenhouse effect occurred on Venus, making its planetary surface the hottest in the Solar System.

D  No greenhouse effect currently occurs on Earth, and this is a good thing for humans.

E  Venus’s atmosphere is much thicker than that of Earth – but some of Earth’s gases are trapped in rocks and oceans.

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  The rotation axis is almost in line with the solar ecliptic

B  The planet rotates once every 243 days, but the atmosphere rotates faster.

C  The planet rotates once every 2/3 revolution about the Sun.

D  The rotation is counter-clockwise.

A  comets burn quite rapidly, using up all their fuel within a few decades

B  most comets only pass close to the Sun 2 or 3 times, and then they disintegrate

C  it is impossible to tell when most comets will return close to the Sun

D  orbits of comets are highly eccentric and their semimajor axes are large

E  comets are not gravitationally bound to our Solar System

A  coma

B  ion tail

C  dust tail

D  nucleus

A  ocean storms & weather

B  gravitational attraction to astronomical objects

C  periodic sloshing of liquid water.

D  none of these

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  a volcanic eruption

B  a hurricane

C  an atmospheric disturbance where a comet landed years ago.

D  a tidal instability