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GCSE Astronomy > Topic 11 > Flashcards

Topic 11 Flashcards

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1
Q

Name the 8 planetary bodies in order

A
  1. Merury
  2. Venus
  3. Earth
  4. Mars
  5. Jupiter
  6. Saturn
  7. Uranus
  8. Neptune
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2
Q

WHat are the inner 4 terrestrial planets and what are they made of?

A

-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Rocky with a core of iron

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3
Q

Do terrestrial planets have rings?

A

No

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4
Q

Which terrestrial planet does not have an atmosphere with large molecules

A

Mercury

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5
Q

WHich are the only 2 terrestrial planets with Moons

A

Earth and Mars

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6
Q

WHat are the outer 4 gas giant planets? What are they made of

A

Jupiter, saturn, Uranus, Neptune, they are gaseous with liquid interiors

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7
Q

What are 4 characteristics of gas giants

A

-have many moons
-relatively large diameter and mass
-atmosphere made predominantly of hydrogen and helium with some methane and ammonia
-all have rings

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8
Q

What are some key features of dwarf planets

A

-THey orbit around the Sun
-THey don’t satellite another planetary body
-Have a near spherical or consistent shape
-different to a normal planet due to size and eccentric orbit

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9
Q

What are the 4 closest dwarf planets

A

Pluto, Eres, Ceres, MakeMake

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10
Q

What is an asteroid?

A

iron and silicate based rocks, found inbetween Mars, and Jupiter in the Asteroid belt, with a diameter of less than 10km

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11
Q

What is a comet

A

dust, rock, and ice balls that come from the outer solar system and orbit the Sun,
as the comet approaches the Sun, water evaporates off along with other sublimed gases from the nucleus and produce the ‘coma’ around the nucleus, this is held by weak gravity.

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12
Q

Name the main components of a comet

A

Coma, Dust trail, ion tail, hydrogen cloud, nucleus

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13
Q

What is the dust trail?

A

the most prominent to the observer it is made of dust particles and gases from the interaction with radiation and pressure form the SUn

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14
Q

What is the ion tail

A

caused by ions from the solar wind, interacting with the particles of a comet to forma more coloured and straight tail

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15
Q

What is the hydrogen cloud

A

huge but very sparse envelope of neutral hydrogen

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16
Q

WHat is the coma

A

dense cloud of water, CO2, and other neutral gases sublimed from the nucleus

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17
Q

What is the nucleus

A

relatively solid and stable mostly ice and gas with a small amount of dust

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18
Q

What are the characteristics of the orbit of a comet

A

Comets orbit the Sun at a sharp incline to the ecliptic
-THey can have a prograde or retrograde motion
-Comets have high eccentricity and can be parabolic

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19
Q

WHat eventually happens to comets

A

Eventually comet will burn up, exhausting its materials and orbiting the SUn as a rock/debris

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20
Q

What is a short period comet

A

they have an origin from beyond neptune called the kuiper belt
-they have an orbital period of 10s-100s of years.
-they have low eccentricity
-prograde orbit

21
Q

WHat is a long period comet

A

they have an origin within the Oort cloud (further than kuiper)
-they have an orbital period of thousands to millions of years
-they have high eccentricity
-prograde OR retrograde motion
-They rarely enter the planetary region

22
Q

What is the heliosphere

A

An extended feature of the Sun’s influence, it is a bubble surrounding the solar system created by solar wind. Has a cigar shape due to Sun’s movement.

23
Q

WHat is the Oort cloud

A

a theoretical spherical region around 10,000AU-20,000AU
-consists of long period comets and can be disturbed by other Stars (not our Sun)

24
Q

How can you deduce the orbit of a comet using its trajectory around the Sun

A

If the comet travels at a velocity of elss than the escape velocity required to leave the solar system, it will have an elliptical orbit around the Sun
>Comets travelling through the escape velocity can be captured by the Sun or thrown out of orbit by its gravitational pull, giving a parabolic orbit

25
Q

What can a comet be described as simply

A

a dirty snowball

26
Q

What is a meteoroid

A

a fragment of a comet or asteroid which is travelling in space

27
Q

What is a meteor

A

meteoroids that have entered the atmosphere, and burn up dues to friction with large particles in the atmosphere
-these are commonly known as shooting stars

28
Q

What is a meteorite

A

meteors that survive their journey through the atmosphere and end up on Earth’s surface

29
Q

How did Halley find the AU?

A

> Halley measured the times of the ingress and the egress of the transit of Venus across the Sun, from Northern and Southern locations on Earth
The observation of the path of transit in the South will be higher than the Northern observation
Therefore, two chords across the Sun’s face will have different lengths, he sued the different times for transit to find the different in length.
Then Halley used trigonometric ratios and Kepler’s laws to find the value of 1AU
The person on the South Pole will see Venus following a slightly higher path shifted North.
This is because the Sun is seen as a circle, the two points having a different length

30
Q

Why do we use telescopes?

A

Our eyes have limited sensitivity and a tiny aperture

31
Q

Name 2 theories for water on Earth

A

Condensation theory
Comet delivery thoery

32
Q

Explain condensation theory for water on Earth

A

-Water was part of the Earths composition when is was first formed as the Earth cooled down, water leaked out of the rocks and condensed to form water

33
Q

Explain the comet delivery theory for water on Earth

A

-In the early stages of the Earth’s evolution it was heavily bombarded with comets, which contain ice, the ice melted away to form the water we know today

34
Q

What were galileo’s 4 major discoveries leading to teh helio-centric model

A

-Jupiter has 4 moons, meaning that not everything orbits the Sun
-The phases of Venus could not happen if Venus orbited Earth, there must be light incidents on different sides due to heliocentricity
-Moon has uneven craters and mountains
-Nature of Sunspots on SUns

35
Q

What do telescopes use to gather light and enlarge the image, and focus to an image

A

lenses and mirrors

36
Q

WHat is a refractor

A

uses a convex lens to capture and focus light

37
Q

WHat is a reflector

A

use a concave lens to capture and focus light

38
Q

Objective lens

A

collects light and brings to a focus

39
Q

eyepiece

A

magnifies image for observer

40
Q

resolution

A

detail able to be seen, the wider the objective the better the resolution

41
Q

aperture

A

diameter of the objective element (lens of mirror)
-the larger the aperture, the more light enters the scope, therefore the image is brighter

42
Q

Why are our eyes not suited for solar observations

A

The small aperture of the pupil and the limited sensitivity of the retina in low light gives us limited ability to make detailed astronomical observations

43
Q

Newtonian Reflector

A

-collects light and reflects it offa concave mirror to a secondary mirror
-this is at 45 degrees to reflect light towards the eye piece lens
-the eyepiece is convex and enlarges the image

44
Q

Cassegrain Reflector

A

-uses a concave mirror at the end of the barrel to reflect light towards the secondary mirror
-a convex mirror facing the primary mirror, which reflects light towards an eyepiece
-through a hole in the centre of the primary mirror

45
Q

Galilean Refractor

A

-convex primary lens
-this concentrates parallel light rays towards a focal point
-the eyepiece is concave, this makes rays parallel when entering the eyes, this then magnifies the image
-typically fixed focus with a limited field of view

46
Q

Keplerian Refractor

A

-uses two convex lenses to achieve the same effect as Galilean
-the telescope is heavier
-they are focussable
-the image produced is inverted

47
Q

light grasp of a telescope..

A

is directly proportional to the area of the objective element.
THerefore the square of the diameter of the objective element

48
Q

How can light grasp be used to compare telescopes

A

USing the inverse square law.
A 160mm telescope collects 4x more light than a 80mm.
160^2 = 25600
80^2 = 6400
25600/6400 = 4

GCSE Astronomy (19 decks)

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