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(my Own Info) astronomy > 2.1 Our Solar System > Flashcards

2.1 Our Solar System Flashcards

1
Q

What are the gas giants?

A

Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

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2
Q

What are the terrestrial planets

A

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars

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3
Q

What is the sun the host to?

A

8 planets, over 160 moons, satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids

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4
Q

Name some dwarf planets

A

Ceres
Pluto
Eris
Makemake

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5
Q

What is an asteroid

A

Minor planets, small mostly less than a few hundred km but must be larger than 10m and are solid, the majority orbit the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

Must be orbiting the sun too

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6
Q

What’s a comet

A

A relatively small nuclei of ice, dust and rock, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in sunlight forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas when close to the sun very elliptical orbit

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7
Q

What’s a centaur

A

Half asteroid half comet, generally orbit between Jupiter and Neptune

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8
Q

What’s a trans-Neptune object (TNO)

A

An object orbiting the sun beyond Neptune

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9
Q

How do we classify if an object could be a planet

A

Is on orbit around the sun

Is large enough to spherical

Has cleared its orbit of other objects

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10
Q

Name some features and describe Mercury

A

Mercury is Heavily cratered

Mercury has highlands

Mercury has lava filled basins

Average temp 170 degrees c

Rotation period: 59 days

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11
Q

Name and describe Venus

A

Venus is similar to earth size

Venus is backwards spinning (retrograde)

Venus has a surface temperature of 470 degrees

Venus has Dense atmosphere containing carbon dioxide - prevents IR radiation leaving so surface and atmosphere heat up

Venus has Clouds of sulphuric acid

Rotation period: 243

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12
Q

What’s Mars like?

A

Mars has iron rich rocks

Mars has seasonal ice caps

Mars has a carved canyon that’s water and 450km long stretching east to west across surface

Mars has highest volcano in solar system - Olympus mons and causes violent dust storms

Temperature : -50 degrees

Rotation period: 1 day

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13
Q

What’s Jupiter like?

A

Jupiter spins on axis in 10 hours so it has a equatorial bulge causing the atmosphere to split into a series of red-brown belts, yellow-whit zones

Jupiters Great Red Spot is a anticyclone weather system that has been happening for 350 years

Average temperature: -150 degrees c

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14
Q

What’s retrograde motion?

A

Planets appear to do a loop the loop because planets orbit the sun at different speeds - both angular and actsully with the speed decreasing distance as the distance from the sun increases, we see planets from different view points sometimes overtaking and undertaking planets making them appear to move backwards

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15
Q

What’s Saturn like?

A

No long term features

Saturn has rings built up of dust and rock

Rotation period 0.43 days

Temperature: -180

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16
Q

What’s Uranus like

A

Made up of hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia

Spins on its side

Surface is featureless

Rotation period 0.72 days

Temperature -210

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17
Q

What’s Neptune like

A

Many surface markings
- great dark spot

Cirrus like clouds of frozen methane

Rotation period 0.67 days

Temperature; -220

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18
Q

What are the problems of astronauts venturing further than the moon

A

Space adoption syndrome, may become disorientated and suffer from poor concentration

Zero gravity environment can cause brittle bones, muscle fatigue, reduced red blood cells

Communication delays - radio signals travel at the speed of light

Radiation risk - subject to ionising radiation from sun, solar radiation can increase risk of cancer

Life expectancy

19
Q

What are Mars moons

A

Deimos and Phobos

20
Q

Name some charecreristics of Deimos

A

Smaller, more distant, irregular shape, Heavily cratered, density roughly half of Mars

Astronomers believe it’s captured from asteroid belt

21
Q

Name some characteristics of Phobos

A

Irregeluar shape, heavily cratered, density half of Mars, composition similar to asteroids

Astronomers think it originates fro asteroid belt

22
Q

What’s the largest moon in Neptune

A

Triton - neptunes moon

23
Q

Name some features of Triton

A

Orbits Neptune

High incline orbit

Revolves around Neptune opposites way to way Neptune spins - suggest triton is a captured body but Becuase if size could be a result of a collision of Neptune or another of neptunes moons

24
Q

What’s the second largest moon in Neptune

A

Dark proteus, neptunes moon

25
Q

What’s the largest moon

A

Ganymede - bigger than Mercury

Diameter - 5300km

26
Q

Name some features of nereid

A

360 days orbital period to Neptune

Most likely a captured Kuiper Belt Object

27
Q

Which planets have rings

A

All four gas giants - Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune ABOVE THERE EQAUTORS

28
Q

What are ring systems like

A

Each system divided into several distinct rings, each contagion ONG billions of individual particles of ice rock and dust that range from a few micrometres to several metres in size

29
Q

How wide can ring systems be

A

Up to hundreds of thousands of KM

30
Q

How thick can a ring system be

A

1.5km thick

31
Q

What is the origins of rings

A

They are uncertain - possible they formed from debris left over of formation of the planet or large impacts between moons

Or a moon that was torn apart through tidal gravitational forces

Or material ejected from surfaces of moons by meteor impacts

32
Q

What shape do the planets orbit in

A

Ellipses

33
Q

Where do the planets appear to move through

A

The zodiac Band

34
Q

What are the inferior planets

A

Mercury and Venus

35
Q

What are the superior planets

A

Mars to Neptune

36
Q

What is greatest elongation

A

The angle between s sun and a planet with earth as its reference point - Mercury and Venus have 90 degree angle between earth and sun

37
Q

What’s the best position to observe an inferior planet

A

Greatest elongation

38
Q

What’s inferior conjunction

A

a conjunction of Mercury or Venus with the sun, in which the planet and the earth are on the same side of the sun.

39
Q

What’s superior conjunction

A

a conjunction of Mercury or Venus with the sun, when the planet and the earth are on opposite sides of the sun.

When Mercury and Venus are behind the sun

40
Q

What’s transit

A

When a smaller body passes in front of a larger body

41
Q

What’s occultation

A

When an object moves behind another and is hidden

42
Q

When is the best time to observe a superior planet and why

A

At opposition Becuase they are closest to earth offering best resolution and full illuminated so visible through the night

43
Q

What’s opposition

A

When 2 celestial bodies are in opposite ends of sky eg a lunar eclipse

44
Q

What is the order of dwarf planets from sun

A 
Closest
Ceres
Pluto 
Haumea
Makemake
Eris
Furthest

(my Own Info) astronomy (17 decks)

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