Planets Flashcards
1
Q
Which are the terrestrial planets?
A
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
2
Q
What defines terrestrial planets?
A
metallic rocky cores, some have atmospheres but thin and transparent
3
Q
Which are the Gas Giants/Jovian Planets?
A
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
4
Q
What defines Gas Giants/ Jovian Planets?
A
metallic rocky cores, huge gaseous atmospheres (H/He)
5
Q
Why doesn’t Pluto fit in, and become a dwarf planet?
A
- pluto is a small and icy, elliptical orbit inclined to ecliptic.
- remnant of planet building phase tf PLANETESIMAL
- other bodies similar size
6
Q
Asteroid facts
A
- 1000s
- orbit near ecliptic plane in asteroid belt, 2-3.5AU
7
Q
Kuiper belt fact
A
- collection of cometary nuclei located in plane of ecliptic
- located past orbit >30 AU
- source of short period comets
8
Q
oort cloud facts
A
- spherical symmetric cloud of cometary nuclei
- radius 3-100kAU
- source of all long period comets
