Ch 10 Adaptive Quiz Flashcards
The largest asteroid in the inner solar system is named _____, which is also classified as a dwarf planet.
Ceres
No comets exist in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter because the asteroid belt is inside the Sun’s _____.
snow line
What is one of the more unusual facts about Pluto and its moons?
All of Pluto’s moons have a retrograde orbit around the dwarf planet.
Pluto has more moons orbiting it than the larger terrestrial planets.
Both Pluto and all of its moons have very tenuous atmospheres.
Pluto was able to gravitationally capture all these moons.
Pluto has more moons orbiting it than the larger terrestrial planets.
The only planet with a planet-to-moon mass ratio that is even close to that of Pluto and Charon would be _____.
Earth
As most asteroids are observed, they seem to vary regularly in brightness. Which of these statements explains why?
Different surface features scatter different amounts of sunlight as the asteroid rotates.
Most asteroids are volcanic, and large sections of an asteroid are typically covered with glowing lava.
Asteroids are in synchronous orbits around the Sun, with Sun-facing sides composed of rock and “dark” sides covered with ice. When one sees the back side, less reflection is seen than when the Sun-facing side is seen.
Because there are so many asteroids, they are constantly passing into and out of each other’s shadows.
Different surface features scatter different amounts of sunlight as the asteroid rotates.
Which region of the solar system does NOT include at least one dwarf planet?
the Oort cloud
the Kuiper belt
inside Mars’s orbit
the asteroid belt
inside Mars’s orbit
What significant findings did the Rosetta spacecraft uncover about the water content on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko?
The water was almost perfectly pure and had no other compounds dissolved in it.
The total amount of water on the comet was significantly less than what astronomers predicted.
The isotope ratio of the cometary water was very different from that on Earth.
The water’s deuterium ratio of the water on the comet was just a little lower than on Earth.
The isotope ratio of the cometary water was very different from that on Earth.
The orbits of classical KBOs in the Kuiper belt extends from 30 au (near the orbit of Neptune) outward to _____ au.
50
What would be the fate of a comet that had an orbit with aphelion at about 2.0 au and perihelion at 0.5 au?
It would orbit the Sun and periodically warm up, create a tail, then refreeze as it moved to aphelion.
It would never fall in toward the Sun to create a tail visible from Earth.
It would never stop outgassing and would very quickly lose all its ices and eventually fall apart.
It would only show a moderate coma and tail and would last a very long time.
It would never stop outgassing and would very quickly lose all its ices and eventually fall apart.
Consider a comet with an orbital period of 80 years that was first documented 1600 years ago. Astronomers would expect this comet to continue its visits to the inner solar system for another _____ years.
6400
If a comet enters the inner solar system with an orbital plane far from the plane of the ecliptic, it probably originated:
in the Oort Cloud.
When the Rosetta spacecraft studied Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it found that the ratio of _____ isotopes of water were about 3 times higher than are typically found on Earth.
deuterium
What type of meteorite was the Allende meteorite?
carbonaceous chondrite
How do astronomers estimate the actual number of meteorite falls and their types (stony, iron, or stony-iron)?
They count the number of each type of meteorite that has been discovered across Earth.
Astronomers survey the icy polar regions of Earth where no other terrestrial rocks are typically found.
They survey the sky watching for meteors to catalog each type that enters the atmosphere.
They survey the solar system using telescopes and probes to count the number and types of meteorites.
Astronomers survey the icy polar regions of Earth where no other terrestrial rocks are typically found.
Why do geologists suspect that the Great Dying, the mass extinction event associated with the end of the Permian period, coincides with a celestial impact like the one that ended the dinosaurs?
Evidence has been uncovered of massive volcanic activity corresponding to the end of the Permian period.
Fullerenes have been discovered with celestial gases trapped in them that could only have been created by a supernova.
A 250-million-years-old crater has been discovered off the coast of Australia that dates to the end of the Permian period.
Another iridium layer was found deeper underground than that associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Another iridium layer was found deeper underground than that associated with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
