Unit 4 Practice Questions Flashcards
What do astronomers think is the origin of the many irregular moons around the outer planets (irregular meaning they are orbiting backwards and/or have eccentric orbits)?
These moons were likely formed elsewhere and captured by the giant planets
Which of the following ways that jovian (giant) planets differ from the terrestrial planets is NOT CORRECT?
jovians (being larger) rotate significantly more slowly than terrestrials
Which of the following is NOT a way that the moon Titan probably resembles the Earth?
at its surface the temperature and pressure are just right for water to exist in all three phases (gas, liquid, and ice)
The four large moons of Jupiter were first discovered by:
Galileo with his early telescope
VMS Eve and VSS Unity flew 6 passengers into orbit in
July 2021
Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE?
on Earth, we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us
Which of the following statements about the planet Venus is true?
It has a thick layer of clouds containing sulfuric acid droplets
The Galileo spacecraft measured that the moon Ganymede had a magnetic field, indicating that its interior was at least partly melted and warm. What do scientists think is the most likely reason for this?
Ganymede is heated by tidal forces from Jupiter
The jovian (gas or ice giant) planet that has the longest year (period of revolution) is:
Neptune
The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:
the runaway greenhouse effect
The rings of the outer planets consist of
billions of chunks (of various sizes) that all orbit the equator of each planet
Which of the following is NOT one of the key reasons that so many spacecraft from Earth have visited Venus and Mars?
their atmospheres are very similar to the Earth in terms of their chemical make-up
The first human being to step out onto the surface of another world was
Neil Armstrong
We believe the maria on the Earth’s Moon are:
ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon
Which of the following statements about the geysers on the moon Triton is true?
they involve plumes of nitrogen on the sunlit side of Triton
The rate at which a collection of the same radioactive atoms will decay depends on:
only on internal processes within the atoms; nothing external matters
The James Webb Space Telescopes has imaged very young galaxies perhaps as young as
600 million years after the Big Bang.
What formation or formations are evidence that the planet Mercury may have shrunk (gotten a bit smaller) as it cooled?
the long scarps or cliffs
Which of the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?
the difference in temperature between Mercury’s daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planet in the solar system
What is one way that astronomers have actually gotten an idea of the age of the surfaces of terrestrial planets other than the Earth?
counting craters
Which statement is _CORRECT _regarding early universe galaxy formation?
Galaxies much smaller than the Milky Way with predominantly blue stars were expected to be present in the early universe.
The planet closest to the Sun in the solar system is:
Mercury
The planet that orbits “on its side” (i.E. has its rotation axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit) is:
Uranus
During the process of differentiation,
heavier materials sink to the centers of molten planets
Astronomers estimate that the plains of Venus are only about 500 to 600 million years olD. How do they estimate dates like this?
by counting the craters visible on the surface and comparing crater counts to other worlds
A planet in our solar system whose composition resembles that of our Sun is:
Jupiter
What method was used to discover Pluto in 1929-1930?
take pairs of photographs several days apart and “blink” them
According to the giant impact hypothesis about the formation of the Moon, why did the Earth not break apart into many pieces when the giant impact happened?
the impactor was about the size of Mars or smaller, so it ejected material from the Earth but did not break it
The lakes found in the north polar region of Titan are filled with liquid
methane
What is the most important implication arising from the Hayabusa2 mission?
Prebiotic organic compounds have survived the very harsh environment of Ryugu.
In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:
the Earth’s crust and mantle
These days the theory of the Earth’s Moon’s origin that best fits with the facts we have about the Moon is:
a large object hit the Earth and the collision produced a filament of material that condensed to make the Moon
Which statement concerning the Hayabusa2 mission is CORRECT?
The spacecraft visited the near Earth asteroid Ryugu and deployed numerous additional payloads to investigate the object.
Which of the following spacecraft is NOT leaving the solar system?
Galileo
The element that can act like a metal when it is under tremendous pressure and is probably responsible for Jupiter and Saturn’s magnetism is:
hydrogen