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Astronomy 110 > Midterm #2- Planets and the Solar System > Flashcards

Midterm #2- Planets and the Solar System Flashcards

1
Q

Composition of Venus’ Atmosphere

A

Venus’ atmosphere is about 96.5% carbon dioxide and about 3.5% nitrogen. There is also some sulfuric acid.

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2
Q

Atmospheric Pressure on Venus

A

The atmosphere on Venus is a lot thicker than Earth’s. The atmospheric pressure is about 92 bar, whcih is equivalent to being about 1 km underwater

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3
Q

Rotation of Venus

A

Venus has an odd rotation because 1 (Venus) day=243 (Earth) days, and it’s rotation is also retrograde (backwards). This is because at some point during the formation of Venus, there was a giant impact that messed up its rotation and made it spin backwards.

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4
Q

Temperature on Venus

A

Venus is extremely hot with an average surface temperature of about 750 K. It shouldn’t be hotter than Mercury due to its distance from the sun, but it is because of the greenhouse effect, specifically the runaway greenhouse effect.

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5
Q

Greenhouse Effect

A

Visible light comes from the sun into the planet’s atmosphere to warm the planet up, and to keep the planet from getting too hot, infrared light gets radiated away from the planet.

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6
Q

Carbon Dioxide

A

Carbon Dioxide is the most common of the greenhouse gasses, and it is transparent in visible light. Infrared light gets absorbed by carbon dioxide, so it is opaque to infrared light.

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7
Q

What is a blackbody?

A

A blackbody has an albedo of 0, and it absorbs every single photon of light that hits it. It emits light according to its tempurature.

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8
Q

What is the wavelength that the sun is brightest at?

A

518 nm

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9
Q

Greenhouse Gasses on Earth

A

Carbon Dioxide, methane, and water

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10
Q

Runaway greenhouse Effect (On Venus)

A

Water used to moderate the greenhouse effect on Mercury, but then it got too hot and all the water evaporated. So: Venus started out normal, then its water evaporated, which made the temperature go up. Volcanoes released more Carbon Dioxide into the air which made the temperature keep going up. The heat then basically “cooked” carbon dioxide out of rocks, and that release of carbon dioxide into the air made the temperature go up even more. The increase in Venus’ temperature makes the cycle keep happened and it can’t be controlled.

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11
Q

Plate Tectonics on Venus

A

The plates on Venus are locked. This could be because of the lack of water on the planet

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12
Q

Two Continents on Venus

A

Ishtar Terra (northern) and Aphrodite Terra (southern)

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13
Q

Orbital Precession of Mercury

A

Over time, Mercury’s orbit will shift and rotate because of the pull of everything else in the solar system, like the sun and the planets. This is very slow, and it amounts to 574 arcsec/century. It takes about 600 years for the orbit to rotate by 1 degree.

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14
Q

Sunshine on Mercury

A

The sunshine on Mercury is about 9X as bright as it is on Earth

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15
Q

Composition of Mercury

A

Iron-density of 7800 kg/m^3
Granite- density of 2800 kg/m^3
Basalt-density of 3300 kg/m^3
-It is about 65% iron and 35% rock.

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16
Q

Timeline of Mercury

A

1) “Big” Mercury- Mercury used to be a much larger planet than it is today
2) Differentiation- the dense material (iron) all sinks to the core of the planet and the rocky, less dense material (granite) floats to the surface.
3) Giant Impact-a large object hits the side of Mercury and basically splashed off the side of Mercury
- The size of the object was probably about 1/6 and half as large as the original size of Mercury
- The giant impact got rid of a lot of the rock on the outside of Mercury but left the iron core
4) Heavy Bombardment- All of the leftover stuff that hadn’t made planets yet whacks into Mercury and leaves craters
5) Scarp formation-As Mercury’s core of iron cools down, it contracts. As it shrinks, it is going to leave a gap between itself and the crust. Chunks of the crust are going to fall unevenly towards the iron core, which in turn creates cracks and cliffs on the surface of Mercury

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17
Q

Temperature on Mercury

A
  • Average temperature is 700K
  • Mercury has a very wide range of temperatures
  • The hotness of Mercury means that it doesn’t really have an atmosphere
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18
Q

Dynamo

A

There are 3 requirements for a dynamo:

1) a liquid conductor
2) a fairly fast rotation
3) some seed magnetic field

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19
Q

Magnetic Field on Mercury

A

Mercury doesn’t have ANY of the requirements for a dynamo, but it does have a magnetic field.

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20
Q

Craters on Mercury

A

Sunlight can’t get into the craters on Mercury because the complete lack of atmosphere in them

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21
Q

Core of Venus

A

There is a fair amount of radioactive material that is generating heat from the core of Venus.

  • Radioactive means that is has an unstable nucleus, which breaks apart. That process of the nucleus breaking apart releases energy.
  • Because the crust of Venus is so stiff, and lacks volcanism, that means that the heat from this radioactivity can’t get out from the core, which keeps getting hotter and hotter and hotter.
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22
Q

Recycling of Venus’ Crust

A

For Venus, it gets so hot that the crust will melt from the bottom. The entire crust will fracture and sink and melt, so it now has a liquid surface that will slowly cool over a few million years. The crust then reforms and it goes back to having a smooth crust.
-We think that in the case of Venus, about every billion years, enough heat is generated inside of it to regenerate the entire surface of the planet, so the entire surface gets recycled every billion years.

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23
Q

Age of Features on Venus

A

There are not any features on Venus that are older than 700 million years old

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24
Q

How can we look at the surface of Venus?

A

-The surface of Venus is smooth, so we have to look at it with radiowaves. This is because smooth surfaces reflect radiowaves well.

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25
Q

Rocks on Venus

A

Rocks on Venus are very very dry and very, very strong.

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26
Q

Craters on Venus

A

There are not any obvious craters on Venus like there are on the moon.

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27
Q

Clouds Surrounding Venus

A

These clouds are not made of water vapor, they are made of sulfuric acid.

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28
Q

Pancake Volcano

A

-Volcano that is pretty flat because it is so hot that it takes a while for the lava to cool and it continues to flow for a while. So the volcano is not cone-shaped like the ones on Earth.

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29
Q

Coronae

A

Lava was able to leak out and the surface collpased, leaving a sort of crater behind.

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30
Q

How do we know that Venus probably did have water in the past?

A

The D/H Ratio

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31
Q

Mass for electrons, protons, and neutrons

A
  • Electrons-O AMU
  • Protons- 1 AMU
  • Neutrons-1 AMU
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32
Q

Atomic Number

A

The atomic number tells you how many protons the nucleus has

-Example: Hydrogens has an atomic number of 1, because it has 1 proton in its nucleus

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33
Q

Atomic Mass

A

Tells you the total number of protons and neutrons

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34
Q

Isotopes

A

Have varying numbers of neutrons

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35
Q

How do neutrons hold atoms together

A

With Strong force

36
Q

Four Types of Forces in the World

A

1) Strong force
2) Weak force
3) Electromagnetic Force
4) Gravitational force

37
Q

How Does the D/H Ratio Prove that there was Probably Water on Venus in the Past?

A

Most planets have around the same D/H Ratio, but it is dramatically different on Venus (which is like 1 heavy water molecule for every 50 hydrogen water molecules).

  • Basically what happened: we assume that Venus started out with a normal ration (which is 1.6 X 10^-4). Both the heavy water and the regular water can escape, but the regular water can escape much quicker, so the amount of heavy water goes down, and so does the amount of regular water, but the amount of regular water goes down much quicker. Over time, because these two parts of the ratio are changing at a different rate, the ratio then changes and is a lot different from a normal ratio
  • The fact that the D/H ratio has changed says that Venus used to have a lot more water than it does today
38
Q

Heavy Water (D2O)

A

Heavy water has denterium instead of hydrogen molecules. Denterium is a lot heavier than hydrogen is/it is denser.

  • Denterium is an isotope of hydrogen, and its mass is twice as big as hydrogen’s mass
  • The weight of a heavy water molecule is 20 AMU, while the weight of a normal water molecule is 18 AMU)
39
Q

Escape Velocity

A

MEMORIZE FORMULA
Once you have made a planet, the excape velocity doesn’t change.
-FOR VENUS it is possible for water to escape (it is easier for regular water to escape than it is for heavy water)

40
Q

Thermal velocity

A
  • MEMORIZE FORMULA
  • As T gets bigger, the molecules move faster and faster, which creates more heat.
  • ^^^^This depends on both the temperature and the specific type of molecule.
41
Q

Four layers to the Earth’s atmosphere

A

Troposphere, Stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere
(We live in the troposphere)
We have humidity in the troposphere

42
Q

Gasses in the Earth’s Atmosphere

A

In order of most common to least common:

1) Nitrogen–our atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen, which weighs 28 AMU
2) Oxygen–makes up about 21% of our atmosphere
3) Argon–about 1% of our atmosphere
4) Water Vapor–
5) Carbon Dioxide–400 parts per million

43
Q

Tropopause/Cold Trap

A
  • Warm air carries more water, while cold air carries less water
  • The cold trap keeps all the moisture on Earth in the Troposphere and out of the upper layers of the atmosphere.
  • If water escaped into the stratosphere, it would escape
  • As you go higher and higher, it gets colder and colder
  • The density of air is very very low
  • Venus doesn’t have a cold trap
44
Q

Regulated Greenhouse Effect on Earth

A

-If the Earth started to get very hot, then the Urrey reaction would start to go faster and pull carbon dioxide (which is what is making it hot) out of the air and basically “bake” it into rocks, which can’t participate in the greenhouse effect, thus lowering the temperature. If the Earth started to get too cold, then volcanism would kick in and start to release carbon dioxide back into the air, which would raise the temperature.

45
Q

Urrey Reaction

A
  • Is what explains the regulated greenhouse effect on Earth

- Needs liquid water to work (why Venus doesn’t have it)

46
Q

Inner Core of the Earth

A
  • 1200 km in radius
  • Made of solid iron and nickel
  • Temperature of the center of the earth is about the same as the temperature of the surface of the sun, which is about 5000 K
47
Q

Outer Core of the Earth

A
  • 2100 km in radius
  • Composed of molten iron and sulfur
    • Should be solid iron but the sulfur in it makes is eutectic solution
48
Q

Eutectic Solution

A

If you melt two materials together, you can change the freezing point of the solution

49
Q

Mantle of the Earth

A
  • Much thicker than the crust
  • Almost 3000 km thick
  • Made of “plastic” rock, which is molten-ish rock, kind of like the consistency of toothpaste
50
Q

Crust of the Earth

A
  • Between 6-50 Km thick
  • Oceanic crust is thinner than continental crust. It is about 6 km thick and made of basalt (which is going to float lower because it is denser)
  • Continental crust is thicker, about 50 km thick, and is made of granite. Granite is less dense so it floats higher on the mantle
51
Q

Volcanism on the Earth

A
  • Volcanism is what recycles the surface of the earth

- Why we don’t have many craters on the surface of the earth

52
Q

Subduction Zone

A

The crust that forms the ocean floor gets pushed down into the earth where is hot, gets melted, and that rock is then re-emitted with volcanism

53
Q

Pressure Waves

A

AKA P waves

  • The energy is moving along the direction that the wave is traveling
  • Need some medium to travel through
  • Important that p waves can travel through something
54
Q

Surface Waves

A

AKA S Waves

  • Like ripples on a pond
  • The motion of the wave is at a right angle to the direction that the energy is being transferred
  • S waves can only travel on a surface
55
Q

Earthquakes

A
  • Produce both S waves and P waves
  • Produces and P wave which travels through the crust, and eventually hits the boundary between the crust and the mantle.
  • When you shake that boundary, it is going to create s waves on it.
  • Those s waves on the boundary are going to create new p waves that radiate up the center of the earth.
  • Basically anywhere a p-wave touches a boundary, it creates s-waves, and everywhere on that boundary, the s-waves are going to create new p-waves*
56
Q

Dynamo/Magnetic Field on Earth

A
  • Earth has all the requirements for a dynamo
  • The magnetic field creates a “donut” around the earth, which protects us from the charged particles coming from the sun
  • Those charged particles can potentially get into where the “donut” has “holes”, which are at the north and south poles, but the particles would have to be at an exactly perfect angle in order to do so
  • Our magnetic field isn’t symmetrical because the sun is pushing on it
  • The Earth reverses its magnetic field every hundred million years or so but we dont know how long it takes to reverse it
  • right now we are way overdue for a reversal
57
Q

Albedo of the Moon

A
  • 0.136
58
Q

Spin:Orbit resonance of the moon

A
  • 1:1
  • The moon is tidally locked
  • The moon always points the same side towards earth
59
Q

Four main things that we see on the Moon

A

Maria, Craters, Rays, and highlands

60
Q

Maria (on the Moon)

A
  • Relatively circular
  • At some point (billions of years ago) there were impacts on the moon and basaltic lava was able to flow up into the craters
  • These are big and smooth areas of basaltic lava
61
Q

Highlands on the Moon

A
  • Brighter areas that we see on the moon
  • Much more cratered and saturated
  • Much older than the maria (as old as the heavy bombardment which was 3.8 billion years ago)
62
Q

Rays

A

Basically just splash marks on the moon, where things have hit the moon and splashed things like rock across the moons surface
-EXAMPLE-the rays coming from the tycho crater

63
Q

Regolith

A
  • Broken-up rock that covers the surface of the moon
  • the regolith reflects light very differently depending on which direction the light is coming from
  • If the light is coming from an angle, it is possible for it to get “trapped” in the regolith, meaning that it is less bright because of the shadows
  • If the light is coming straight-on, it is much brighter because you don’t see any shadows
  • A full moon is about 10x bright than a first quarter moon (this is called the opposition effect)
64
Q

Why are there only maria on the side of the moon that is pointing towards earth?

A

If an object is coming from the direction of the earth towards the moon, the gravitational force from the earth changes the path of the asteroid and points it towards the moon

65
Q

What are the theories about where the moon came from?

A

1) Co-formation
2) Capture
3) Fission
4) Giant Impact

66
Q

Theory #1- Co-formation

A
  • The earth and the moon were formed at the same time

- They should be made out of the same stuff/have the same composition

67
Q

Theory #2- Fission

A
  • The earth used to be much bigger, but a chunk of it came off and became the moon
  • this would explain the similarities in their compositions
68
Q

Theory #3- Caption

A

Moon formed somewhere else in the solar system, floated around and got “captured” by the Earth’s gravity
-The flaw in this theory is that it is REALLY hard to capture and object

69
Q

Theory #4- Giant Impact

A
  • This is our best theory so far
  • Spinning out all this molten material which is very hot, which makes all the volatile elements leave it
  • Over time, gravity pulls all the refractory elements that are left into a ball over a few million years, which becomes the moon
70
Q

Refractory Elements

A

Elements that are pretty hard to melt

71
Q

Volatile Elements

A

Elements that are very easy to evaporate
Aluminum is volatile
Anything that is a gas is volatile
Some volatile elements on the moon are missing
The volatile elements dont match at all between the earth and the moon

72
Q

Evidence that supports the giant impact theory

A
  • Age of moon rocks (4.5 million years old)
  • Volatile and refractory elements (could explain why there isnt a match between the refractory and the volatile elements on the earth and the moon)
  • could also explain why a lot of volatile elements are missing on the moon
73
Q

Tides

A
  • Caused by the moon
  • Tidal bulges on both sides of the earth
  • Reason for bulge on the side towards the moon—the moon is pulling the water towards it/water wants to flow towards the moon
  • Reason for bulge on side away from moon—the moon is pulling the itself towards it, which is pulling the earth slightly away from the water.
74
Q

Rotation of the Moon and its effect on earth

A

The combination of the moon moving away (moves away from us about 1.5 inches every year) and the earth causing this, the moon is taking energy out of the earth’s rotation and slowing it down .

  • Every few years we have to add a leap second because of this.
  • Eventually this will cause the earth to become tidally locked
  • this will also weaken the earth’s electromagnetic field, which will allow more charged particles from the sun to get in, and that will hurt humans
75
Q

Moon’s Effect on Earth’s Rotation

A

Planets without moons tend to wobble

-Having it locked in a uniform position helps stabilize seasons

76
Q

Tidepools and the moon

A
  • The moon helps us with tidepools
  • Tidepools provide a place for the formation of life. They have a high concentration of amino acids, because water evaporated and left behind large amounts of amino acids, which life could then form from
77
Q

Schiaparelli

A

drew maps and saw a bunch of lines on mars

78
Q

Percival Lowell

A
  • Was inspired by Schiaparelli
  • Created the Lowell Observatory
  • Saw that the lines on Mars were changing with the seasons and decided that the martians were farming
79
Q

Vallus Marinaris

A

Huge crack on the surface of mars

  • Tectonic feature
  • 200 km wide, 4000 km long, and 7 km deep
  • Named after the mariner telescope because it was the first feature that the people in the spacecraft saw after a really long dust storm finally cleared
80
Q

Dust on Mars

A

-Mars has a really fine dust that is the product of saltation. This is why the winds in the super thin atmosphere can it pick it tup and have dust storms

81
Q

Olympus Mans

A

Super big volcano on Mars

  • Biggest volcano in the solar system
  • 24 km tall
  • On an area called a tharsis bulge which is home to other large volcanoes
  • Mars is home to the largest volcano because it does not have plate tectonics
82
Q

Atmosphere on Mars

A
  • Very very thin
  • 96% carbon dioxide
  • 2% argon
  • 2% nitrogen
  • .15% oxygen
  • The atmosphere on Mars is about 0.69% as thick as the atmosphere on earth
  • There is essentially no greenhouse effect on earth
83
Q

Temperature on Mars

A

Not very hot

  • About 210 K (-63 C)
  • Can get pretty cold on Mars becausr the atmosphere is so thin
  • Gets cold enough that the atmosphere freezes
84
Q

Mantle on Mars

A
  • The Mantle is flowing–the hot parts rise, cool off at the top, then fall back down (this continues happening)
  • the plume in the mantle isn’t moving
85
Q

Ice Caps on Mars

A
  • Summertime Ice caps-made out of “water ice”

- Wintertime ice caps-made out of dry ice

86
Q

Seasons

A
  • Caused by the tilt of the planet

- Mars has a very similar tilt to the earth, so it has very similar seasons to the earth

Astronomy 110 (1 decks)

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