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Space exploration 3010 > Exam 2 > Flashcards

Exam 2 Flashcards

1
Q

How does the diameter of Mercury compare to the diameter of Earth?

A

1/3 of the Earth’s diameter

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2
Q

How many moons in the Solar System are bigger than Mercury? Name them.

A
  • 2 moons
  • Titan, Ganymede
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3
Q

What makes Mercury an inferior planet?

A

Because it’s closer to the sun

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4
Q

What is the ratio of Mercury’s spins to orbits?

A

Spins three times for each of two trips around the sun.

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5
Q

How long is Mercury’s synodic day?

A

176 earth days

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6
Q

How long is Mercury’s Sidereal day?

A

58.6 earth days

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7
Q

How long is mercury’s year in earth days?

A

88 earth days.

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8
Q

Why does the Sun occasionally move backwards in the sky as seen from Mercury?

A

As mercury speeds through its closest approach to the sun, its orbital speed overtakes its rotational speed.

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9
Q

Which theory can accurately describe Mercury’s orbit?

A

Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity

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10
Q

What mission sent back the first images of Mercury?

A

Arecibo (2001)

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11
Q

Why don’t we have images of Mercury taken by the Hubble Space Telescope?

A

It was too close to the sun and couldn’t handle it.

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12
Q

What was the first mission to orbit Mercury?

A

Mariner 10

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13
Q

How did Mercury’s weird terrain form?

A

When the seismic waves from the Caloris impact converged, a process known as seismic focusing.

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14
Q

How do Scarps form on Mercury?

A

Wrinkles from Shrinking mercury.

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15
Q

What are most of Mercury’s craters named after?

A

Deceased musicians, artists, and authors.

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16
Q

Is Venus currently visible in the morning or the evening?

A

In the morning before sunrise, or in the evening after sunset.

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17
Q

How does the diameter of Venus compare to the diameter of the Earth?

A

95%

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18
Q

What is the atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus compared to the Earth’s?

A

90x of Earth’s

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19
Q

What does it mean that Venus’s rotation is in retrograde?

A

It means that it rotates backwards.

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20
Q

What was the first US mission to Venus?

A

Mariner 2

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21
Q

Which mission sent the first image of Venus’s surface?

A

Venera 13

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22
Q

Which US mission sent multiple probes into Venus’s atmosphere – one of which sent data from the surface for over an hour?

A

Pioneer Venus 2

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23
Q

What mission used radar to make high-resolution images of Venus’s surface?

A

NASA’s Magellan mission

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24
Q

How deep in the ocean would you need to go to experience the same pressure as Venus’s atmospheric pressure at its surface?

A

3,000 ft of water

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25
Q

Why is Venus the hottest planet in the solar system?

A

Runaway greenhouse effect, 300,000x more carbon dioxide.

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26
Q

Which mission captured the image of Earth called “the blue marble”?

A

Apollo 17

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27
Q

How far away was Voyager 1 when it took the pale blue dot image of Earth?

A

3.7 billion miles

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28
Q

Before differentiation could occur, what had to happen to the Earth?

A

It would have to have liqiuified.

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29
Q

Why does Earth have a solid core inside its liquid core?

A

The inner core’s intense pressure—the entire rest of the planet and its atmosphere—prevents the iron from melting. The pressure and density are simply too great for the iron atoms to move into a liquid state.

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30
Q

What drives plate tectonics?

A

Tremendous heat and pressure within the earth cause the hot magma to flow in convection currents.

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31
Q

How do colliding plates shape the earth?

A

The crust moves upward, and the crustal material folds, buckles, and breaks. EX) Rocky Mountains, Himalayan mountains.

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32
Q

How do hot spots shape the earth?

A

Create submarine mountains.

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33
Q

How do separating plates shape the earth?

A

magma rises from deep within the earth and erupts to form a new crust on the lithosphere.

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34
Q

How do sliding plates shape the earth?

A

Friction, earthquakes.

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35
Q

How does subduction shape the earth?

A

Crustal thickening, mountain building metamorphism.

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36
Q

What deflects Earth’s winds as they travel from the poles to the equator?

A

The coriolis effect

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37
Q

Why is the Earth’s average temperature so much warmer than the Moon’s?

A

The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere to absorb sunlight like the Earth does so the heat escapes.

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38
Q

How does the CO2 cycle regulate Earth’s temperature?

A
  • Greenhouse effect
  • controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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39
Q

What is found in the Mesosphere? (CMN)

A
  • Coldest temperature in the atmosphere
  • Meteors burn up
  • Noctilucent clouds
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40
Q

What is found in the stratosphere? (NO)

A
  • Nacreous clouds
  • Ozone layer
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41
Q

What is found in the thermosphere? (AISSTT)

A
  • Auroras occur
  • ½ the mass of the atmosphere
  • contains the ISS
  • Satellites
  • temperature increases with altitude
42
Q

What is found in the troposphere? (WW)

A

Weather occurs here.

43
Q

What are the Van Allen belts?

A

Two belts of radiation that surround the earth like donuts.

44
Q

How does the moon cause Earth’s tides?

A

Differential gravitational force.

45
Q

What causes spring tides?

A

When the sun, moon, and Earth are all lined up, the sun’s tidal force works with the moon’s tidal force. The combined pull can cause the highest and lowest tides, called spring tides.

46
Q

What causes Neap tides?

A

between the two spring tides, the moon faces the Earth at a right angle to the sun. When this happens, the pull of the sun and the moon are weak. This causes tides that are lower than usual.

47
Q

How big are Earth’s land tides?

A

10 inches, the earth is somewhat plastic and rises.

48
Q

How is tidal breaking affecting the orbit of the Moon and the rotation rate of the Earth?

A
  • Drags tidal bulge slightly ahead of the point directly below the moon
  • the Moon’s gravitational attraction pulls Earth’s tidal bulge “backward” slowing Earth’s rotation.
  • Moon pulled forward
  • Earth slowed down.
49
Q

What causes seasons on earth?

A

Obliquity: the tilt of the earth’s rotational axis (23.5)

50
Q

When it is winter in Cache Valley what season is it in Australia?

A

Summer

51
Q

If the shape of the Earth’s orbit were unaltered but its rotation axis was shifted so it had no tilt concerning its orbit, how would seasons be altered?

A

It would be the same.

52
Q

What is the period of Earth’s axis precession?

A
  • 25,772 years
  • Makes seasonal contrasts more extreme in one hemisphere and less extreme in the other.
53
Q

How fast do satellites travel in low Earth orbit (LEO)?

A

17,500 MPH

54
Q

About how long does it take for a satellite to make an orbit in LEO?

A

About 90 minutes

55
Q

How long does it take for a satellite to make an orbit in medium Earth orbit (MEO)?

A

12 hours

56
Q

Why do satellites require shielding in MEO?

A

Because it is in the middle of the Van Allen radiation belt.

57
Q

How long does it take for a satellite to make an orbit in geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO)?

A

One day

58
Q

What is within Lower Earth Orbit (LEO)?

A
  • Starlink
  • International Space Station (ISS)
  • Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
59
Q

What is within Middle Earth Orbit (MEO)?

A
  • Global Positioning System (GPS)
60
Q

What is within Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO)?

A
  • Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
  • Satellite TV
61
Q

What is within L1?

A
  • Solar Heliosphere Observatory (SOHO)
  • Deep Space Climate Observer (DSCOVR)
62
Q

What is within L2?

A
  • James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
63
Q

What is within L3-L5?

A

nothing! :’)

64
Q

How does the diameter of Mars compare to the diameter of the Earth?

A

½ the diameter of the earth, 1/10 the mass of earth

65
Q

What causes the wind on Mars to blow from the summer pole to the winter pole?

A

Temperature differences between one area and another cause air to flow between them, producing winds.

66
Q

How often are missions sent to Mars? Why?

A

Once every 26 months, Earth and Mars are aligned in a way that minimizes travel times and expense.

67
Q

What spacecraft sent the first pictures of Mars?

A

Mariner 4

68
Q

What mission sent the first color images from the surface of Mars?

A

RIMFAX

69
Q

What was the first rover on Mars?

A

Sojourner

70
Q

Which Mars rovers landed with the aid of airbags?

A

pathfinder

71
Q

Which Mars rover holds the record for the longest space drive?

A

NASA’s Perseverance rover

72
Q

Which orbiter has given us beautiful, high-resolution images of Mars?

A

Mars Odyssey orbiter

73
Q

How did Opportunity’s solar panels get cleaner?

A

Strong winds blowing over the rim of Endeavour Crater

74
Q

Which mission landed closest to Mars’s north pole?

A

Phoenix spacecraft

75
Q

Which rovers used skycranes to land on Mars?

A

Curiosity and Perseverance

76
Q

Which Mars lander had a seismometer that detected a large meteoroid impact (490-foot crater)?

A

Insight Lander

77
Q

Which rover had a companion helicopter? What is the helicopter’s name?

A

Perseverance, ingenuity ;(

78
Q

What is the name of the enormous canyon on Mars that dwarfs the Grand Canyon on Earth?

A

Valles Marineris

79
Q

What is the name of the largest volcano in the Solar System?

A

Olympus Mons

80
Q

What makes Mars’s atmosphere pink?

A

Rocks on Mars are full of iron and they rust, then the dust gets kicked into the atmosphere.

81
Q

What are the names of Mars’s moons?

A
  • Phobos
  • Deimos
82
Q

Which of Mars moons is the largest?

A

Phobos

83
Q

Which of Mars moons rises in the West?

A

Phobos

84
Q

Which lander found ice exposed by its rockets on Mars?

A

Phoenix Mars Lander

85
Q

Why did Mars lose its protective magnetic field?

A

Chemical changes inside Mars’s core.

86
Q

Which mission has shown that Mars is still losing its atmosphere?

A

MAVEN

87
Q

What evidence of life on Mars cannot be explained by something other than life?

A

Impactite is shown to preserve signs of life on Earth.

88
Q

Will Mars ever be warm and wet again?

A

It is very unlikely.

89
Q

Define Meteor

A

A bright trail of light is created when a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere.

90
Q

Define Meteorite

A

Solid remains of a meteor that falls to Earth.

91
Q

Define Meteroid

A

Small, solid body moving within the solar system.

92
Q

In which layer of Earth’s atmosphere do meteors burn up?

A

Mesosphere

93
Q

What is the total mass of the asteroids?

A

1,100 tons

94
Q

Which spacecraft visited Vesta and Ceres?

A

Dawn

95
Q

Where is the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft today?

A

Rests silently on Eros

96
Q

Which spacecraft returned 1,500 particles from the asteroid Itokawa?

A

Hayabusa Spacecraft

97
Q

Which spacecraft recently brought a 121.6 gram sample of asteroid material back to Earth?

A

OSIRIS-Rex from asteroid Bennu

98
Q

The Psyche mission launched in October 2023. What is unique about the asteroid it is headed for?

A

It may have an iron core.

99
Q

How big was the crater found in the Tunguska event?

A

No impact crater leveled a lot of trees.

100
Q

What did the DART mission do?

A

Dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion in space through kinetic impact.

101
Q

What is the name of the crater believed to be the site of the impact that ended the reign of the dinosaur?

A

Chicxulub

Space exploration 3010 (4 decks)

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