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Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Astronomy > 11 Exploring The Solar System > Flashcards

11 Exploring The Solar System Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the planets in our Solar System?

A 
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
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2
Q

What are the four terrestrial planets?

A

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars

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3
Q

What are the similarities between the terrestrial planets?

A

They are all relatively small rocks surrounding iron cores

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4
Q

What are the four gaseous giant planets?

A

Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

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5
Q

What are the similarities between the gaseous planets?

A

The gaseous planets have liquid interiors and substantial atmospheres of hydrogen and Helium with traces of methane and ammonia. They also have complex ring systems and large amounts of Moons

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6
Q

What are the planets that have rings?

A

Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

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7
Q

Why aren’t dwarf planets considered planets?

A

They lack the gravitational force needed to sweep debris out of their orbit.
They also don’t consistently stay in the zodiacal band

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8
Q

Where are the dwarf planets found?

A

All the dwarf planets (except Ceres) are found in the Kuiper belt

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9
Q

Where is Ceres found?

A

Ceres is found in the Asteroid belt

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10
Q

What are the 4 notable dwarf planets?

A

Ceres, Pluto, Eris and Makemake

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11
Q

What are SSSO’s?

A

Small Solar System Objects which include asteroids, meteoroids and comets

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12
Q

Where are most asteroids found?

A

Most Asteroids are found in the Asteroid Main Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

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13
Q

How big are asteroids?

A

Asteroids range from ~10 m to ~1000 km; most have irregular shapes

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14
Q

Where do Short-term comets originate from?

A

Kuiper Belt

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15
Q

What is the life period of a short-term comet?

A

< 200 years

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16
Q

Why do some short-term comets go into elliptical solar orbits?

A

The gravitational influence of Neptune nudge the comets into solar orbits; these have a subset period of < 20 years

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17
Q

Where do Long-period comets originate from?

A

Oort Cloud, a spherical distribution of icy bodies about halfway to the nearest star

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18
Q

What is the life period of a long-term comet?

A

> 200 years

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19
Q

How do long-period comets differ from short-period ones?

A
  • They have unpredictable orbits
  • Highly-inclined to the plane of the Solar System
  • Some orbiting in the opposite sense to that of the planets
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20
Q

What happens as the comet approaches the Sun?

A

Rarefied gasses and dust envelop the nucleus of dust and ice; eventually, one or more tails develop that can be several million kilometres long

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21
Q

What happens as the comet moves away from the Sun?

A

The tail and the comet become less visible. The comet ceases to be influenced by solar radiation, fades from view and returns to the outer Solar System.

22
Q

Describe a comet’s ion tail.

A

A comet’s ion tail is long, straight and predominantly blue in colour

23
Q

What are Meteoroids?

A

Meteoroids are particles of dust, rock and mixtures of stone, ice and metal that are in orbit around the Sun

24
Q

What happens when a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere?

A

When a particle enters the Earth’s atmosphere, air resistance converts kinetic energy into thermal energy, heating the particles. This results in a streak of light visible in the night sky that is called a shooting star or meteor

25
Q

What is a meteor shower?

A

A Meteor Shower is when the Earth passes through a meteoroid stream in the wake of a comet, many more meteors are visible

26
Q

What is the radiant?

A

The radiant is the point where the individual meteors appear to diverge from a vanishing point. This is simply due to perspective. The shower is named after the nearest constellation

27
Q

What are Fireballs?

A

Fireballs are when larger meteoroids enter the atmosphere and produce bright light. These survive their journey, reaching the Earth’s surface as meteorites.

28
Q

What is AU?

A

AU is an astronomical unit that is equal to the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun. 1 AU = 150 million km

29
Q

What are the two types of a telescope?

A

Refractors and Reflectors

30
Q

What is the job of the Objective element?

A

The job of the Objective element is to collect as much light as possible and focus the light to a small bright image

31
Q

What does the eyepiece of a telescope do?

A

The eyepiece magnifies the image of the objective element so the images can be observed in a higher resolution and are much brighter

32
Q

What is a telescope’s aperture?

A

The telescope’s aperture is the size of the hole that light goes through

33
Q

How does the telescope’s aperture affect the telescope?

A
  • The more light enters the telescope, making images brighter
  • The higher amount of detail that can be resolved
34
Q

What does resolution depend on?

A

The resolution depends on the wavelength of light entering the telescope: the longer the wavelength, the poorer the resolution. So, red nebulae are not as good as that in blue nebulae surround young stars

35
Q

What is a telescope’s light grasp?

A

The light grasp is a measure of how much light is captured by the objective element; this depends on the cross-sectional area. The area depends on the square of the diameter of the objective lens or mirror.
light grasp α area α (diameter of the objective element)²

36
Q

what does magnification depend on?

A

Magnification depends on the ratio of focal length of the objective (fo) and eyepiece (fe)

37
Q

How do you calculate magnification?

A

magnification = focal length of objective = fo
. . . . . . . . . . . . . ————————————- . .—
. . . . . . . . . . . . . focal length of eyepiece . . fe

38
Q

How can you increase the magnification of a telescope?

A

The shorter focal length, the greater the magnification

39
Q

What is a Barlow lens?

A

A Barlow Lens allows eyepieces to be slotted into it. The optical elements of a Barlow lens increase the magnification by a factor of 2 or 3.

40
Q

What is Field of View (FOV)?

A

Field of View of a telescope is the circle of sky that is visible through its eyepiece.

41
Q

What is Field of View measured in?

A

Field of View is measured in degrees or minutes of arc (arcmins) where 1°=60’

42
Q

Why do astronomers prefer to use reflector telescopes?

A

Astronomers prefer to use reflector telescopes as they can have larger objective apertures that can be supported by the telescope. Also, it is possible for mirrors to reflect light with almost no loss in intensity or chromatic abberation

43
Q

What is chromatic aberration?

A

Chromatic Aberration is when lenses tend to focus different wavelengths of light to slightly different points. This causes images to be blurred and unclear

44
Q

What are the problems with Refractor telescopes?

A
  • Chromatic Aberration

- Long in size which makes viewing impractical

45
Q

What are the 4 main types of space probes?

A
  • Fly-by Missions
  • Orbiters
  • Impactors
  • Landers
46
Q

What are fly-by missions? (Give an example)

A

Fly-by missions are missions that analyse and explores many targets, without getting caught in the gravitational pull of the target. Missions include 𝘝𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘐 and 𝘐𝘐 (that visited the outer planets) and 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘴 (that explored Pluto and the outer Solar System)

47
Q

What are orbiter missions? (Give an example)

A

Orbiter missions are probes that get caught in the gravitational fields of the target. Missions include the 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯 probe that mapped the planet Venus using radar, 𝘋𝘢𝘸𝘯 (that made detailed studies of asteroids Ceres and Vesta) and 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘰 that measured Jupiter’s composition and magnetosphere

48
Q

What are Impactor missions?

A

Impactor missions are missions that are planned to crash onto a target to create an artificial quake. Examples include the third stages of 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘝 spaceship that were impacted onto the lunar surface to cause artificial moonquakes and the 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 probe which crashed on Comet Temple 1 to study the internal composition of a comet

49
Q

What are lander missions?

A

Missions where the impact is controlled and the probe touches down intact on the surface. Example include 𝘏𝘶𝘺𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴 landing on Saturn’s moon Titan, the 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 and 𝘖𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 on Mars and 𝘗𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘦 onto the comet 67P/Chunyumov-Gerasimenko in order to perform a chemical analysis of its water content

50
Q

Why can we see a Comet’s ion tail?

A

A comet’s ion tail consists of charged ions that have been excited by the particles in the solar wind and emit light by fluorescence when they de-excite

51
Q

What is a stationary point?

A

A stationary point is when a planet’s motion changes direction

Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Astronomy (20 decks)

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