Exam 2

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

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

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

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

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

A  Jupiter

B  Saturn

C  Neptune

D  Uranus

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  longer than an Earth day

B  less than an Earth day

C  many Earth days

D  less than an hour

A  all of these choices

B  none of these choices

C  planets 1 AU from their star

D  planets with a rocky surface

E  planets that could have liquid water

F  planets with an oxygen atmosphere

A  the same age as

B  older than

C  younger than

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

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

B  The giant planets consist mostly of hydrogen and helium,

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

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

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

A  closer

B  now way to tell with available data

C  farther

D  the same distance

A  Triton

B  Uranus

C  Venus

D  Io

A  Venus

B  Earth

C  Mercury

D  Mars

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

B  It fell into Neptune when their orbits crossed.

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

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

A  among comets in the Oort cloud, beyond Neptune.

B  between the Sun and Mars.

C  randomly distributed throughout the solar system.

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

A  astrometric measurements

B  gravitational microlensing

C  the Doppler-wobble method

D  the transit method

E  direct imaging

A  Titan

B  Callisto

C  Europa

D  Io

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

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

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

D  the Moon experiences frequent volcanic eruptions that cause craters.

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

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

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

D  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.”

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

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A  a captured comet

B  early solar system gas & dust

C  Sun ejecta

D  a collision with a rogue planet

E  a chunk broke off of the Earth

A  Mars

B  Uranus

C  Jupiter

D  Mercury

E  Venus

A  hydrogen

B  nitrogen

C  helium

D  methane

E  ammonia

A  Ariel

B  Io

C  Phobos

D  Triton

E  Luna

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  Venus

B  Mars

C  Uranus

D  Earth

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

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

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

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

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

A  Any astronomical object.

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

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

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

A  Earth’s mantle consists of stacked rock plates

B  lava erupts at random

C  continents shifting over a convecting mantle

D  earthquake map

A  Lunar eclipses are predictable.

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  Total lunar eclipses last longer than total solar eclipses

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

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

A  coma

B  nucleus

C  dust tail

D  ion tail

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

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

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

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

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

A  Venus

B  Triton

C  Uranus

D  Io

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

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

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

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 2/3 revolution about the Sun.

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

D  The rotation is counter-clockwise.

A  comets are not gravitationally bound to our Solar System

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

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

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

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

A  coma

B  ion tail

C  dust tail

D  nucleus

A  gravitational attraction to astronomical objects

B  periodic sloshing of liquid water.

C  ocean storms & weather

D  none of these

A  TRUE

B  FALSE

A  a hurricane

B  a volcanic eruption

C  an atmospheric disturbance where a comet landed years ago.

D  a tidal instability