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astron ch 8 and 11
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Halley's Comet last passed Earth in 1986. It will be due back in: | 2061. |
| Which of these spacecraft went into orbit about Saturn in July 2004? | Cassini |
| Which of the following is not a characteristic of the outer planets? | They are primarily made of hydrogen and helium. |
| When it was determined that Sedna has a perihelion distance that is three times further out than Pluto and such an eccentric orbit that it has a period of thousands of years, it was placed in the: | Oort Cloud. |
| According to Kepler's third law, the square of the planet's period in years is: | proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis in A.U. |
| Long period comets are thought to reside mainly in the: | Oort Cloud. |
| Which spacecraft gave or is giving us our best information about Mercury? | Mariner 10 |
| The Apollo and Aten asteroids have orbits that: | cross the orbit of Earth at perihelion. |
| Tycho Brahe's contribution to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion was: | his detailed and accurate observations of the planet's position. |
| Which of these bodies has the lowest density? | a comet |
| Dactyl was photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. It is: | a moon of the asteroid Ida. |
| In composition, asteroids and meteoroids are most like: | terrestrial planets. |
| Scientists today do not accept the Ptolemaic model because: | the work of Tycho and Kepler showed the heliocentric model was more accurate. |
| What is the typical size of most known asteroids? | a few kilometers |
| What factor caused different planets to form out of different types of material? | The variation in temperature throughout the solar nebula; the higher the temperature, the lower the percentage of light elements in the forming planet. |
| The moons of the jovian planets formed by which two processes? | accretion and capture |
| Why do researchers believe that asteroids in the asteroid belt are primal rocks that did not mergeinto a planet? | Jupiter's gravity could have prevented these objects merging into a single body. |
| On its way to Jupiter, Galileo also gave us close-ups of: | Gaspra and Ida. |
| Which of the following is definitely NOT a dwarf planet? | Pallas |
| The Oort Cloud is thought to be: | the spherical cloud of comets and some larger icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system. |
| The Oort Cloud is believed to have been formed by: | planetesimals that were flung far from the Sun in gravitational encounters with the jovianplanets. |
| What is true about solar system densities? | The denser planets lie closer to the Sun. |
| The NASA orbiter that ultimately landed on the surface of the asteroid Eros was: | NEAR Shoemaker. |
| Iron meteorites are believed to come from: | the core of a dense M-type asteroid, now broken up. |
| The largest asteroid, and probably the only one to be a spherical "world," is: | Ceres. |
| When a formal definition of a planet in the solar system was adopted, Pluto was reclassified as adwarf planet. What characteristic of planets does NOT describe Pluto? | Planets orbit in ellipses with low eccentricity. |
| The plane in which almost all planets orbit the Sun is called the: | ecliptic. |
| One of the best known craters on Earth is the Barringer Crater in Arizona. It was formed by: | the impact of an asteroid whose mass was around 200,000 tons. |
| Kepler's second law implies what about planetary motion? | A planet moves faster when it is farther from the Sun. |
| What is the process of accretion? | growth of an object by the accumulation of matter |
| The difference between a meteoroid and an asteroid is the object's: | size. |
| The nucleus, or main solid body, of a comet has a typical size of: | a few kilometers. |
| What happens when a solar nebula contracts? | All of the above. |
| Why is there a two day difference in the sidereal and synodic months? | The Earth is also revolving around the Sun, so the Moon must "catch up" |
| Which asteroid did Dawn visit first and which is second in its planned mission? | Vesta, Ceres |
| The "Grand Tour" of all four jovians was conducted by: | Voyager 2. |
| Which is the densest planet in the solar system? | Earth |
| Conservation of angular momentum means that a spinning body tends to: | keep spinning. |
| According to Copernicus, retrograde motion for Venus must occur around: | inferior conjunction, when it passes between us and the Sun. |
| How do the densities of the jovian and terrestrial planets compare? | All terrestrials are more dense than any of the jovians. |
| The last quarter phase of the Moon: | crosses the meridian at sunrise. |
| Carbonaceous meteorites are believed to come from: | the crust of a differentiated C type asteroid, now broken up. |
| The tail of a comet always points: | away from the Sun and becomes longest and brightest at perihelion. |
| About what percent of all asteroids are S-type asteroids? | 15% |
| Which planet has the highest average surface temperature, and why? | Venus, because of its dense carbon dioxide atmosphere. |
| The Kuiper Belt objects have orbits that: | stay out just beyond Neptune and close to the ecliptic. |
| When the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, its phase is: | full. |
| If new moon fell on March 2nd, what is the Moon's phase on March 14th? | waxing gibbous |
| The smallest sort of interplanetary matter is called: | interplanetary dust. |
| What part of a comet has only been seen by a space probe? | nucleus |
| The most metal-rich terrestrial planet is | mercury |
| In light of modern solar system theory, why do the orbits of the planets all lie in the same plane? | The early solar nebula flattened into a disk. |
| What are comets made of? | All of the above. |
| What was the primary role of dust in the formation of the solar system? | Dust acted as condensation nuclei; platforms to which other particles could attach and formlarger particles of matter. |
| he three largest asteroids are: | Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta. |
| Before it arrived in orbit about Eros, the NEAR spacecraft also flew past: | asteroid Mathilde. |
| About what percent of all asteroids are C-type asteroids? | 75% |
| Which of the characteristics below describes the terrestrial planets? | possessing weak magnetic fields |
| A meteorite is: | a chunk of space debris that has struck the ground. |
| The first hint of the role of asteroids in extinction of the dinosaurs came from: | finding a layer of worldwide iridium enriched dust. |
| The Amor asteroids have orbits that: | cross the orbit of Mars, but not Earth, at perihelion. |
| What are Dactyl, Gaspra, Mathilde, Eros, and Ida? | four asteroids that have been explored by spacecraft |
| Meteor shower debris is believed to come from: | the disintegration of a short period comet over many returns to the Sun. |
| In composition, mass, and density, Jupiter is most like: | the Sun |
| Which of these observations of Galileo refuted Ptolemy's epicycles? | the complete cycle of Venus' phases |
| The jovian planets: | all have rings around their equators. |
| The major impact in the Yucatan wiped out the dinosaurs: | about 65 million years ago. |
| The Trojan asteroids have orbits that: | stay sixty degrees ahead of or behind Jupiter. |
| Compared to Ida, Eros, and Gaspra, what was odd about Mathilde? | It was less dense than rock, but more than ice, suggesting a porous structure. |
| The place in a planet's orbit that is closest to the Sun is called: | perihelion. |
| The body which wiped out the dinosaurs was about: | as big as one of Mars' moons. |
| Which of the following objects never collide with the Earth? | Amor asteroids |
| Which of these was NOT seen telescopically by Galileo? | Stellar parallax |
| Which of the following is NOT icy in composition? | asteroids |
| Most asteroids are found: | between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. |
| Which characteristic listed below describes the jovian planets? | low density |
| Which of the following is not a characteristic of the inner planets? | They all have substantial atmospheres. |
| The planet which shows us the widest range of surface temperatures between day and night is | Mercury. |
| The planet ________ has the least variation in temperatures on the surface between day and night. | Venus |
| In terms of axial tilt, which of the jovian planets shows us the largest inclination? | Uranus |
| Of all the planets, the axial tilt and rotation period of ________ is most like our own. | Mars |
| If you could find a bathtub big enough for Saturn, the planet would | float. |
| Essentially, the Great Red Spot is | a large cyclonic storm (hurricane). |
| What is thought to lie at the center of Jupiter? | a massive core of rocky materials with some iron mixed in |
| In Ptolemy's geocentric model, the normal eastward motion of the planets was along | a deferent. |
| According to Copernicus, the retrograde motion for Mars must occur | at opposition, when the Earth overtakes Mars and passes between Mars and the Sun. |
| Kepler's first law worked, where Copernicus' original heliocentric model failed, because Keplerdescribed the orbits as | elliptical, not circular. |
Created by:
pinstripe