Final: Ch 7, 15, 17, and 18 Flashcards
how long ago did most of the objects in our solar system form?
4.5 BYA
how much of the mass in the solar system is contained in the sun?
99.8%
order of the planets from the sun
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
mnemonic for the order of the planets
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos
what is the most massive planet
Jupiter
what direction do all the planets orbit the Sun
counter-clockwise from above the Sun’s N pole
trans-Neptunian objects
objects farther out in the solar system
dwarf planets
the largest trans-Neptunian objects including PLuto and the largest asteroids
qualities of a planet
(a) is in orbit around the Sun
(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape
(c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
qualities of a dwarf planet
(a) is in orbit around the Sun
(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape
(c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit
(d) is not a satellite.
what are the only planets without a moon
Mercury and Venues
name the planet that the moon orbits:
- the moon
- the Galilean moons: Lo, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
- Titan
- Triton
- Earth
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Neptune
asteroids
rocky bodies that orbit the Sun, mainly in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
the Trojan (and Greek) asteroids
asteroids that share their orbit with Jupiter (because Jupiter’s gravity keeps them there)
comets
small, icy bodies made of frozen gases that spend most of their time far from the Sun
cosmic dust
countless pieces of “dust” (usually broken rocks) littered across the solar system
meteor
when cosmic dust enters the atmosphere, it burns up, causing a brief flash
meteorites
larger pieces of meteors that make it to the surface without burning up completely
what are the planets named after
Roman deities
what are the planet’s moons named after
Greek and Roman mythological figures somehow connected to the planet-deity (except Uranus, whose moons are named after characters in English literature)
what are comets and asteroids named after
comets are usually named after their discoverers, while asteroids are named by their discoverers after whatever they like
the giant planets
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
- Uranus and Neptune are much small than Jupiter and Satun
composition of Jupiter and Saturn
- mostly H and He
- Very small solid core of rock, metal, and ice
- Much of the H and He is compressed until it becomes liquid, so the next layer is “spherical ocean”
- Gaseous atmosphere that we see
terrestrial planets
- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
- All 4 are much smaller than the outer planets
- Composed of rock and metal
- Most of the heavier metals are in the cores
- The layered structure of terrestrial planets indicates that they were molten at some point
what is the most common rock in the terrestrial planets
Silicates (compounds of silicon)
what is the most common metal in the terrestrial planets
Iron
differentiation
The process in which materials are separated into layers according to density by gravity
what is the composition of moons?
- similar to that of their planets
- most are differentiated
are asteroids and comets differentiated?
no
Greenhouse effect
- Visible light easily passes through an atmosphere then planets absorb the light, heat up, and emit IR; the atmosphere blocks IR, keeping it in
- water and COs are molecules that absorb/block IR
what happened to Venus’s atmosphere
had a “runaway” greenhouse effect
why are there no impact craters on Earth?
- internal forces that can change surfaces as well:
- Plate tectonics and volcanism
- Collectively, this is called geological activity
geological activity
- Driven by heat in the interior of a planet: heat escaping (or at least trying to) is what causes tectonic plate movement, volcanic eruptions, etc
- most terrestrial bodies were molten at one time, and a molten interior is what leads to geological activity
what is the correlation between impact craters and age of a planet?
- The more craters there are, the older the surface is
- The bigger the crater is, the more likely it is to be older
- If there is no geological activity, the age of the surface is the age of the planet
- If there is geological activity, the age of the planet will be older than the surface
- We can count craters on different parts of a planet’s surface to get the relative ages of those parts
radioactive decay
Some atoms are not stable, so over time, they decay into other, more stable atoms, giving off particles or gamma rays
half life
the time it takes for half the atoms in a sample to decay
how does the hald life dating process work
- Once we determine the half-life of a substance and its decay products (what it decays into) we can find the age of any sample
- From the original amount of the original substance to the decay product, we can find how many half-lives have passed, and then age
what is the relationship between a sun’s rotation and its planets’ orbits?
All planets orbit the sun in the same direction, which is also the direction of the sun’s rotation
solar nebula
rotating cloud of dust that the sun and all the planets formed from
building of a solar system
- solar nebula became a rotating disk, which then became the sun, planets, etc.
- Terrestrial planets and asteroids are all in the inner solar system (hot enough for gases and liquids to evaporate, but rocks and metals could survive)
- Giant planets, their moons, and comets are further out and have much more gas (cooler)
building a giant planet
clumps of gas move together randomly, their increased gravity pulls in more clumps, until you have a giant planet
building terrestrial planets
- rocks and metals form small clumps called planetesimals
- planetesimals combine to form planets via collisions that make them stick together
- eventually, an incredible multitude of planetesimals have combined, heated by their collisions and radioactive decay
- as the collection of planetesimals settles, differentiation occurs, and eventually the surface cools and solidifies into the crust of a terrestrial planet
planetesimals
rocks and metals from small clumps
what can explain the abnormal rotations of Venus, Uranus, and Pluto
the “abnormal” rotations of Venus (slow retrograde rotation), Uranus (on it side), and Pluto (on its side) can also be explained by these collisions: in the later stages of formation, a large (but not planet-sized) chunk of planetesimals might have hit the planet, reorienting its rotation axis
what is the size relationship between the sun and earth
it has a diameter equal to 109 times the diameter of the Earth, and thus a volume of about 1.3 million Earths
chemical makeup of the sun
73% hydrogen, 25% helium, 2% everything else
plasma
- hot ionized gas
- positively charged nuclei and negatively charged electrons
sun’s core
- incredibly dense due to gravity
- it takes up about 20% of the Sun’s interior, has a temperature of about 15 million K, and it is where all the Sun’s energy is generated
source of the sun’s energy
- nuclear fusion
- mainly occurs in the form of the proton-proton chain, a series of reactions involving collisions of hydrogen nuclei
- four hydrogen nuclei become one helium nucleus, giving off gamma rays and neutrinos
- the reason so much energy is released is that one helium nucleus has ever so slightly less mass than four hydrogen nuclei; about 0.71% less mass
layers of the sun
- core
- radiative zone
- convection zone
- solar photosphere
- chromosphere
- transition region
- corona