Lesson 2: The Universe and the Solar Sytem Flashcards
This deck focuses more on the origins of the Solar System.
There are how many inner planets in the solar system? What are they?
a) 5 only - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter
b) 4 only - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
c) 3 only - The first 3 planets from the sun are the only inner planets
d) 2 only - Mercury and Venus
b) 4 only - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
The ______ is at the outer limb of the galaxy (not at the center).
Sun
A huge disc and spiral-shaped aggregation of about at least 100 billion stars and other bodies.
Milky Way Galaxy
Its spiral arms rotate around a globular cluster or bulge of many, many stars, at the center of which lies a supermassive blackhole.
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way is part of what supercluster of galaxies?
Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS)
True or False: Much of the mass of the solar system is concentrated at the sun while angular momentum is held by the outer planets.
TRUE
What happens to the periods of revolution of the planets as the their distance from the sun increases?
It increases as the distance of the planets from the sun increases.
True or False: Not all planets revolve around the sun
FALSE
True or False: Outermost Planets move the fastest.
FALSE. Innermost planets move the fastest.
Inner planets are also called _______
Terrestrial Planets
What are the outer planets of the solar system?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
True or False: All planets are located at regular intervals from the sun
TRUE
Orbits of the planets are ______ and are on the same plane.
Elliptical
Smaller than asteroids; though of as remnants of a “failed planet” - one that did not form due to disturbance of Jupiter’s gravity.
Meteoroids
What is the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy?
100 Million Light Years
1 light year is equivalent to _________
9.4607 x 10^12 km
How many years does it take for the solar system to revolve around the galactic center?
240 million years
How old is the earth and the solar system?
4.6 billion years old
It lies beyond Neptune and comprise numerous rocky or icy bodies a few to hundreds of kilometers in size.
Kuiper Belt
1 AU is equal to
150 million km = Sun-Earth distance
It marks the outer boundary of the solar system and is composed mostly of icy bodies.
Oort Cloud
It lies between Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroid belt.
What are the Jovian planets?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
Consider the following statement: “Rocky asteroids are found primarily in the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt while
icy comets are found primarily in the Oort cloud.” What’s wrong with this statement?
a) Comets are not really icy.
b) Asteroids are not really made of rock.
c) The Oort cloud has nothing to do with comets.
d) The Kuiper belt contains icy comets, not rocky asteroids.
e) The statement is accurate as written.
d) The Kuiper belt contains icy comets, not rocky asteroids.
Which is bigger, the Local Group or the Local Supercluster?
The Local Supercluster is 10x the diameter of Local Group, gathering smaller groups and clusters of galaxies into a galactic megacity.
It is the coming together and cohesion of matter under influence of gravitation to form larger bodies.
Accretion
A reaction between in which two molecules combine to form a larger molecule, producing a small molecule
Condensation
the process of separating out different constituents of a planetary body as a consequence of their physical or chemical behavior
differentiation
It is the circular movement of an object about a point in space
Rotation
It is the movement of an orbiting celestial object, as a star or planet, completely around another object.
Revolution
What is the difference between revolution and rotation?
Rotation refers to the turning of a celestial body, such as a planet, on its axis. Revolution refers to the movement of an orbiting celestial object completely around another object.
True or False: Most planets rotate prograde.
True
These planets are made of materials with high melting points such as silicates, iron and nickel.
Inner planets / Terrestrial Planets
These planets rotate slower, have thin or no atmosphere, higher densities, and lower contents of volatiles-hydrogen, helium, or noble gases.
Inner planets / Terrestrial Planets
Also known as platenoids or minor planets. These are rocky worlds revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets
Asteroids
The outer four planets are also called ______, because of the dominance of gases and their larger size.
Gas giants
These planets rotate faster, have thick atmosphere, lower densities, and fluid interiors that are rich in hydrogen, helium, and ices (water, ammonia, methane)
Outer Planets / Jovian Planets
Inert gases are rare on Earth because
Inert gases are too light for earth’s gravity to hold
True or False: Sun is a second-generation star made by recycling materials.
If this is true, provide proofs.
True. The presence of heavy elements such as lead, silver, and uranium on Earth suggests that it was derived from remnants of a supernova and that the sun is a second-generation star made by recycling materials.
The earth is differentiated into compositional layers - ____, _____, and ____
crust, mantle, and the core
A counterclockwise rotation of a planet or a celestial body’s axis when viewed from above the Earth’s North Pole.
Prograde
In the 1700’s Emmanuel Swedenburg,
Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace
independently thought of a rotating gaseous
cloud that cools and contracts in the middle to
form the sun and the rest into a disc that
become the planets. What is the name of this hypothesis?
Nebular Hypothesis
What did the nebular theory fail to account, that it was discredited as the theory for how the solar system began?
The Nebular Hypothesis failed to account for the distribution of angular momentum in the solar sytem.
Name the two major flaws of this type of hypothesis:
1) It fails to explain how planets are formed (hot gas from the stars/sun expands and will not form planets)
2) this type of encounters are really rare
A theory that hypothesizes that a spinning cloud of dust made of mostly light elements, called a nebula, flattened into a protoplanetary disk, and became a solar system consisting of a star with orbiting planets.
Nebula Hypothesis
Arrange the order of the following events according to the nebular hypothesis.
a. conservation of angular momentum pulls cloud into a disk
b. disk begins to rotate
c. central mass forms (proto-sun)
d. self-gravity contracts a gas cloud
e. ring forms into a planet
d. -> a. –> b. –> c. –> e.
Who first established/hypothesized the Nebula Hypothesis?
Swedish scientist and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg
_______, who was familiar with Swedenborg’s work, developed the theory further then published it in his __________ in 1955.
Immanuel Kant; Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens
In 1796, _________ published his treatise __________, a smaller and more detailed model to describe the Nebula Theory
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Laplace theorized that the Sun originally had _________ throughout the Solar System, and that this ___________ cooled and contracted. As the cloud spun more rapidly, it threw off material that eventually condensed to form the planets.
an extended hot atmosphere; “protostar cloud”
In what century was the Nebula Hypothesis fully rejected? And what theory replaced as an alternative for the theory, in search of another theory to hypothesize the origin of the solar system?
20th Century; Solar disk Nebula Model (1972)
Who proposed the Solar disk Nebula Model? It can be read in his book titled the _________.
Victor Safronov; Evolution of the Protoplanetary Cloud and the Formation of the Earth and the Planets
Also called “Stellar System”, is a small number of stars which orbit each other, bounded by gravitational attraction.
Star System
He proposed that a comet striking the sun had broken off debris became the planets of the solar system.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
An idea hypothesizing that a comet once strike the sun and the debris that had broken off from the impact formed the planets of the solar system. Initially the Earth was scorching, but gradually it cooled until molten rock turned to dry land and clouds rained to form the oceans.
The Sun-Comet Encounter (1749)
At what speed does the solar system orbit the center of the Milky Way Galaxy?
a) 512, 000 mph
b) 513, 000 mph
c) 514, 000 mph
d) 515, 000 mph
e) 516, 000 mph
d) 515, 000 mph
Locate the solar system in the galaxy.
a) It is located in between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms, near a small, partial arm called the Orion Arm.
b) It is located in between the Norma and Sagittarius arms, near a small, partial arm called the Carina-Sagittarius Arm
c) It is located between Norma and the Outer Arm
d) It is located within the Orion-Cygnus Arm, that is in between Scutum-Centaurus Arm and the Carina-Sagittarius Arms
a) It is located in between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms, near a small, partial arm called the Orion arm.
Name the different components of the solar system.
The Sun and everything bound by its gravity, the planets-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, dwarf planets such as Pluto, dozens of moons, millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.
Name the large scale features of the Solar System.
1) Much of the mass of the solar system is concentrated at the center (sun) while angular momentum is held by outer planets
2) The orbits of the planets are elliptical and are on the same plane
3) All planets revolve around the sun
4) The periods of revolution of the planet increase with increasing distance from the sun; innermost planets move the fastest, the outermost, the slowest;
5) All planets are located are regular from the Sun.
Name the small scale features of the Solar System.
1) Most planets rotate prograde
2) Inner terrestrial planets are made of materials with high melting point such as silicates, iron, and nickel. They rotate slower, have thin or no atmosphere, higher densities, and lower contents of volatiles - hydrogen, helium, and noble gases
3) The outer four planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called “gas giants” because of the dominance if gases and their larger size. They rotate faster, have thick atmosphere, lower densities, and fluid interiors rich in hydrogen, helium, and ices (water, ammonia, methane).
An variation of the planetesimal concept. An encounter hypothesis, suggesting that a huge tidal wave, raised on the sun by a passing star, was drawn into a long filament and became detached from the principal mass. As the stream of gaseous material condensed, it separated from the masses of various sizes, by which further condensation, took the form of planets.
Sun-Star Encounter (1917 or 1918) by James Jeans
An encounter hypothesis involving a star much bigger than the Sun passing by the sun and draws gaseous filaments from both out which planetesimals were formed.
Planetesimal Hypothesis (1904) by T.C. Chamberlain & F.R. Moulton
He proposed that if the Sun had been a companion of a binary system, the other member of which encountered an intruding star to form a proto-planet that breaks up to form Jupiter and Saturn.
Ray Lyttleton (1940)
He proposed that the Sun passed through a dense interstellar cloud and emerged with a dusty, gaseous envelope that eventually became the planets.
Otto Schmidt, Soviet planetary scientist (1944)
An encounter hypothesis proposing that the sun passed through a dense interstellar cloud and emerged with a dusty, gaseous envelope that eventually became the planets.
Accretion Theory by Otto Schmidt (1944)
An encounter hypothesis where the sun drags from a near proto-star a filament of material which becomes the planets. Collisions between proto-planets close to the Sun produced the terrestrial planets ; condensations in the filament produced the giant planets and their satellites.
Capture Theory by M.M. Woolfson
Which of the following is true about M.M. Woolfson’s Capture Theory?
a) The Capture Theory is a variation of James Jeans’ near-collision hypothesis.
b) different ages for the sun and planets is predicted by this theory.
c) It led to the conclusion that meteorite constituents have changed very little since the solar system’s early history and can give clues about their formation.
d) All are true except for c.
d) All are true except for c.
Whose works in the 1950s led to the conclusion that meteorite constituents have changed very little since the solar system’s early history and can give clues about their formation?
Harold Urey, Nobel Prize winner
Arrange the following events in order according to the Protoplanet Hypothesis.
f) As most of the mass move to the center to eventually become a proto-sun, the remaining materials form a disc that will eventually become the planets and momentum is transferred outwards.
g) In the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, a slowly-rotating gas and dust cloud dominated by hydrogen and helium starts to contract due to gravity.
h) The proto-sun is established as a star, as this happens, its solar wind blasts hydrogen, helium, and volatiles from the inner planets to beyond Mars to form the gas giants leaving behind a system we know today.
i) Collision of the earth with large objects produces the moon.
j) due to collisions, fragments of dust and solid matter begin sticking to each other to form larger and larger bodies from meter to kilometer in size.
k) High-speed collision with large objects destroys much of the mantle of Mercury, puts Venus in retrograde rotation.
g –> f –> j –> k –> i –> h
In the Protoplanet Hypothesis, ____________ are accretions of frozen water, ammonia, methane, silicon, aluminum, iron, and other metals in rock and mineral grains enveloped in hydrogen and helium.
Proto-planets
Surface features (e.g. canyons and drainage system) interpreted from the photographs of the surface of Mars suggests
a) the presence of craters were once active.
b) that Mars was not a planet before.
c) the presence of flowing water in the past.
d) that Mars was only an asteroid not a planet as previously perceived.
c) the presence of flowing water in the past.
Objects in the Solar System were subject to bombardment and collision early in its evolution. What were the proofs of this?
a) the presence of flowing water in Mars
b) the presence of thick atmospheres in outer planets
c) the presence of craters
d) the presence of life on Earth
c) the presence of craters.
The first successful landing and operation on the surface of Mars occurred in what year?
1975
The first successful landing and operation on the surface of Mars was under what program of NASA?
Viking program of NASA
Recently, using high resolution imagery of the surface of Mars, NASA presented evidence of _________ on the surface of Mars.
seasonal flow liquid water (in the form of brine - salty water)
A space probe built by the European Space Agency and launched on 2 March 2004.
Rosetta
A probe from Rosetta that successfully landed on a comet on 12 November 2004.
Philae
A probe from Rosetta successfully landed on what comet on 12 November 2004?
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
What is the name of NASA’s spacecraft provided mankind the first close-up view of the dwarf planet Pluto.
New Horizon
When did NASA’s New Horizon spacecraft capture the first close-up view of Pluto?
July 14, 2015
Enumerate the most recent advancements in the understanding of the Solar System.
Exploration of Mars | Rosetta’s Comet | Pluto Flyby
What images were captured by the Pluto flyby?
Images revealing a complex terrain - ice mountains and vast crater free plains
What did we recently learn about Pluto based on the images captured by the Pluto flyby?
Images captured by the Pluto flyby, vast crater free plains, suggests that for the last 100 millions of years there has been geologic activity happening to the dwarf planet.
What’s peculiar about Mercury?
a) Mercury’s orbit is highly elliptical. Its orbit is very eccentric compared to other planets’ orbit.
b) Mercury’s orbit around the sun behaves the same to how other planets’ orbits considering it is the closest planet to the sun.
c) The measured rate of Mercury’s perihelion shift was the same to what the classical (Newtonian) gravitational theory predicted.
d) The mean orbital velocity of Mercury is 30 km/s (Earth’s is 48 km/s)
a) Mercury’s orbit is highly elliptical. Its orbit is very eccentric compared to other planets’ orbits.
The Earth can be differentiated into compositional layers. What are these layers?
Crust | Mantle | Core
