Patterns In Solar System

Question 1

What do you call Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars?

Answer 1

Terrestrial

Question 2

What do you call Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune?

Answer 2

Jovian

Question 3

Diameter of planets close vs far from sun

Answer 3

Close to sun: thousands of miles
Far from sun: tens of thousands of miles

Question 4

Solar nebula definition

Answer 4

Rotating cloud of interstellar gases (helium and hydrogen mainly) and dust

Question 5

Explain nebular theory

Answer 5

1. Solar nebula formed
2. Gravity contracted solar nebula
3. Material collected in center
4. condensation sparked nuclear fusion to create photosun
5. Remains formed flat rotating disk
   - matter cooled and condensed into icy, rocky stuff that collided to form planetismals
6. Collisions and accretion formed protoplanets
7. Protoplanets accumulated most of the debris in their orbit to be planets

Question 6

Planetismals

Answer 6

astroid-sized objects from beginning of solar system

Question 7

What accounts for the differences in compositions of the inner and outer planets?

Answer 7

formed from planetismals that had compositional differences according to their proximity to the protosun

Question 8

compositions and temp of inner planetismals

Answer 8

high temps
materials near melting points (metals and rocky substances)

Question 9

How did the four outer planes form?

Answer 9

from the outer planetismals

Question 10

outer planetismals composition and temp

small amounts of …

Answer 10

cool
High percentages of ices - water, co2, ammonia, and methane, small amounts of rocky and metallic debris (iron +nickel)

Question 11

The accumulation of ices accounted for…

Answer 11

large size and low density of outer planets

Question 12

What is the plane that all planets occur in? Why?

what does it pass through

Answer 12

ecliptic
all planets formed from the same rotating disk

Earth and the Sun’s orbit

Question 13

What are the lightest elements? What planets were massive enough to attract and retain large quantities of them?

Answer 13

hydrogen and helium
Jupiter and Saturn

Question 14

When I say what is the largest or smallest planet, what am I referring to? What about when I’m saying which is more massive?

Answer 14

the diameter of the planet
relative mass

Question 15

What is the largest terrestrial planet?
smallest Jovian planet?

Answer 15

Earth
Neptune

Question 16

What divides the terrestrial and the jovian planets?

Answer 16

astroid belt

Question 17

Terrestrial spacing vs jovian spacing

Answer 17

Terrestrial: closer to each other and the sun
Jovian: farther from each other and the sun

Question 18

Which Jovian planet varies the most from the general pattern of spacing?

how can you figure this out

Answer 18

Neptune

find difference of AUs btw each planet

Question 19

AU of terrestrial vs jovian planets

Answer 19

terrestrial: less than 1 (Earth=1)
jovian: more than 1

Question 20

Inclination of orbit defintion

Answer 20

how many degrees the orbit of each planet is inclined from the ecliptic

Question 21

Why does Earth have an inclination of 0?

Answer 21

because the ecliptic passes right through Earth’s orbit

Question 22

what is the planet with the largest inclination and what is it? the rest of the planets are inclined to less than __

Answer 22

Mercury: 7 degrees
less than 4 degrees

Question 23

If Pluto’s inclination is 17 degrees, what does it imply regarding its association with the solar system?

Answer 23

isn’t close to the eliptical, didn’t form from

Question 24

What is mass?

Answer 24

measure of quantity of matter in object

Question 25

Relative mass of Terrestrial planets vs Jovian planets

Answer 25

Terrestrial: less than 1 (earth=1) Jovian: more than 1

Question 26

Gravitational attraction of a body is directly related to its __

Answer 26

mass

Question 27

planets with high masses have...

Answer 27

high surface gravities

Question 28

defintion of weight

Answer 28

dependent on the gravitational attraction btw object and planet

Question 29

weight vs mass

Answer 29

weight changes w/planet you're on mass stays the same

Question 30

Density definiton | unit

Answer 30

mass per unit volume of a substance | g/cm^3

Question 31

Least massive planet

Answer 31

mercury

Question 32

Planet with greatest gravitational attraction vs least gravitational attraction

Answer 32

jupiter mercury

Question 33

when given how many times the surface gravity of a planet is of Earth, how do you find the weight of an individual given their weight on Earth?

Answer 33

just multiply their lbs by that #

Question 34

AVG density terrestrial vs Jovian

Answer 34

Terrestrial: much larger than 1 Jovian: cluster around 1

Question 35

Which of the two groups of planets is more likely to attract and hold low-density gaseous material, such as hydrogen and helium?

Answer 35

Jovian planets

Question 36

Number of satellites of terrestrial planets vs number of satellites of Jovian planets

Answer 36

Terrestrial: few Jovian: many

Question 37

What is the relationship btw a planet's number of moons and its mass?

Answer 37

a more massive object will have a greater gravitational attraction, thus it'll hold more moons bc of its stronger pull

Question 38

relationship btw a planet's size and density | how does this relate to the composition of inner and outer planets

Answer 38

larger diameter=less dense (lighter/gas-outer planets) smaller diameter=more dense (heavier-rocky planets)

Question 39

Polar flattening definition and terrestrial vs Jovian

Answer 39

Measure of how squished a planet is from north to South Pole Terrestrial: smaller Jovian: larger

Question 40

Orbital velocity definition Terrestrial vs Jovian

Answer 40

Speed a planet moves on it revolution terrestrial: faster Jovian: slower

Question 41

what could explain the fact that Mars has a somewhat lower density than the other terrestrial planets

Answer 41

farthest from the Sun

Question 42

Densities of the Jovian planets in comparison to the density of water | which planet has a density less than water, so it would "float"

Answer 42

close to the density of water | Saturn

Question 43

What direction do planets rotate about their axis? Exception?

Answer 43

counterclockwise Venus

Question 44

Period of rotation meaning Terrestrial vs Jovian

Answer 44

How long it takes to rotate around axis (how long a day is for that planet) Terrestrial: longer (days) Jovian: shorter (hours)

Question 45

Period of revolution definition aka Terrestrial vs Jovian | what direction

Answer 45

How long it takes for a planet to go around the sun Orbital period terrestrial: shorter Jovian: longer | counterclockwise

Question 46

velocity equation | what's another way to think about it

Answer 46

distance/time | diameter/period of rotation

Question 47

Terrestrial planets vs Jovian planets when asked how many orbits will they go through in 1 Earth yr

Answer 47

terrestrial: more than 1 orbit (except Mars) jovian: less than 1 orbit

Question 48

Kepler's third law of motion

Answer 48

p^2=d^3 p=orbital period d=AUs