Chapter 14 Flashcards
Based on observations by the Dawn spacecraft, scientists have concluded that Vesta might be:
the only remaining protoplanet in our solar system
Which of the following objects never collide with the Earth?
amor asteroids
The orbits of most comets:
lie almost entirely beyond the orbit of Neptune
What are comets made of?
all of the above
The Oort Cloud is thought to be:
the spherical cloud of comets and some larger icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system
The NASA orbiter that ultimately landed on the surface of the asteroid Eros was:
NEAR shoemaker
When a formal definition of a planet in the solar system was adopted, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. What characteristic of planets does NOT describe Pluto?
planets have cleared the neighborhood around their orbit
Which of the following is definitely NOT a dwarf planet?
pallas
Charon’s orbit:
is highly inclined to Pluto’s orbital plane
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
Meteorites are valuable to astronomers because:
they may provide evidence about the process in which the solar system was born
Large meteoroids are thought to collide with Earth:
a few times in every million-year period
Carbonaceous meteorites are believed to come from:
the crust of a differentiated C type asteroid, now broken up
Meteor shower debris is believed to come from:
the disintegration of a short period comet over many returns to the Sun
Which of the following objects would be found on the Moon’s surface?
meteorites
The body which wiped out the dinosaurs was about:
as big as one of Mars’ moons
The Perseid meteor shower gives us about a meteor every minute in mid:
August
The major impact in the Yucatan wiped out the dinosaurs:
about 65 million years ago
The first hint of the role of asteroids in extinction of the dinosaurs came from:
finding a layer of worldwide iridium enriched dust
What is the typical size of most known asteroids?
a few kilometers
What are Dactyl, Gaspra, Mathilde, Eros, and Ida?
four asteroids that have been explored by spacecraft
