Exploring the Solar System: Moons, Planets, and Beyond, Exams of Astronomy

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LSU ASTR 1101 FINAL EXAM (Geoff

Clayton) complete update

Flattened and grooved bedrock and rocks found hundreds of miles from where they would be supports the theory of ___ - glaciation The Cairn on the comet is like the ___ ___ - rosetta stone A dirty snowball made of ice and rock is a ___ - comet The Rosetta mission was the first spacecraft to rendezvous and orbit a ___ - comet The Sun crosses the equator moving north during the ___ equinox - vernal Last year was the ___ year on record - warmest The Little Ice Age in the 17th Century may be connected to an unusually small number of ___ - sunspots The Kepler telescope searches for Earth-sized planets by looking for their ___ - transits Jovian planets having a ___ ___ ___ leads to the conclusion that are made of light elements such as hydrogen and helium - lower average density The solar nebula collapsed to form the Sun and the planets due to ___ - gravity The atmospheric pressure of ___ is about 100 times that of Earth. - Venus Saturn Moons ___ has a thick atmosphere - titan Mars rovers have found rocks formed in the presence of ___ ___ - liquid water

Infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface is absorbed by the atmosphere in the ___ ___ - greenhouse effect The presence of life on Earth has add ___ to the atmosphere - oxygen The Solar system is approximately ___ billion years old - 4. Valles Marineris is a ___ on mars - canyon The "___ division" is the big gap in Saturn's rings - Cassini The density of Jupiter moons gets ___ as you go farther out - lower Io resembles a big ___ - pizza Io's color is caused by ___ released from volcanoes - sulpher Moons of Jupiter ___ has volcanoes - Io Moons of Jupiter ___ possibly has liquid water - Europa Moons of Jupiter ___ has a little geological activity and appears to have water - Ganymede Moons of Jupiter ___ is very old, has many craters - Callisto Europa has a surface of ___ - ice

The place that has the most potential for life in our solar system outside of Earth is ___ - europa Io and Europa are mostly ___ - rocky Galilean Moons ___ and ___ are a mixture of rock and ice - Ganymede callisto All ___ planets have some sort of ring - Jovian Saturn Moons The moon ___ is bigger than Mercury - titan The ___ probe visited Titan - Huygens Saturn Moons Titan has lakes and rivers of liquid ___ - methane Enceladus is a moon of ___ - saturn Saturn Moons ___ has ice geysers - Enceladus Saturn Moons ___ is mostly covered in fresh, clean ice - Enceladus Saturn Moons ___ is geologically active - Enceladus Iapetus is a moon of ___ - saturn

Saturn Moons ___ is black on one side, white on the other - iapetus Huygens discovered ___ - titan ___ has weather systems similar to Jupiter and Saturn - uranus Saturn has no ___ - phases ___ moons help keep Saturn rings in shape with their gravity - Shepard Uranus was discovered by ___ - herschel Uranus orbits at nearly ___ billion miles - 2 Uranus is tipped on its axis by ___ degrees - 90 Uranus takes ___ years to orbit sun - 84 Oberon is a moon of ___ - uranus Titinia is a moon of ___ - uranus Umbreal is a moon of ___ - uranus ___'s magnetic fields center is offset from the center of the planet - uranus Aerial is a moon of ___ - uranus Miranda is a moon of ___ - uranus Uranus' Moons ___ is the outermost moon - oberon Uranus' Moons

___ is very ancient - oberon Uranus' Moons ___ is the largest moon - Titinia Uranus' Moons ___ is covered in large faults - titinia Uranus' Moons ___ has both young and old terrain - miranda Uranus' Moons ___ is home to Verona Rupes - miranda Uranus' Moons ___ is very dark - umbreal Uranus' Moons ___ has a long fault - aerial Voyager 2 found six new moons around ___ - neptune Triton orbits ___ - neptune Neptune Moons ___ is in constant retrograde orbit - triton Neptune Moons

The polar caps on Triton are made of ___ ___ - frozen nitrogen Neptune Moons Triton has geysers and is geologically ___ - active Neptune Moons Triton is ___ in color - pink ___ has the least circular orbit of any planet - pluto During some parts of Plutos orbit it comes closer to the sun than ___ - neptune ___ is Plutos largest moon - charon Pluto is composed of ___ and ___ - rock ice Pluto orbits in the ___ belt - kuiper Kuiper Belt Objects orbit the sun between ___AU and ___AU beyond the orbit of Neptune - 40 500 Kuiper Belt Objects are composed of ___ and ___ - rock ice Kuiper Belt Objects are not large enough to be ___ - round Dwarf Planets have not cleared their orbits free of ___ - debris The Sun's diameter is ___ times bigger than Jupiter's diameter - 10 The Sun's diameter is ___ times bigger than Earth's diameter - 100 Pluto ___ have geological activity - does Pluto has the most elliptical ___ of all the planets - orbit

Parts of Plutos orbit bring it closer to the sun than ___ - neptune When Voyager was near Neptune signals took ___ hours to reach Earth - 4 ___ ___ from Jupiter produce the volcanoes on Io & the liquid oceans on Europa - Tidal forces Planetary orbits are ___ - ellipses If the distance between two objects is tripled the force of gravity between them is ___th as much - 1/ Tidal force of the Moon on Earth occur because the Moon pulls more strongly on the ___ side of Earth - near Galilean moons in order - IEGC Neptune's rings are thought to be caused to ___ - collisions Kepler's First Law? - Planetary orbits are ellipses Definition of an Astronomical Unit? - The mean distance between the Earth and the Sun Why is it summer in Baton Rouge in July? - The Earth is tipped 23^1/2 degrees toward the Sun On the Vernal Equinox, day and night are each 12 hours long________ - Everywhere on the Earth except the Poles Who was the first person in history to measure the size of the Earth? - The ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes If you were an astronaut on the Moon, in what position close to the Moon's equator would you have to stand in to be in perpetual darkness? - You cannot do this. There is nowhere near to the Moon's equator where you can be in perpetual darkness.

The temperature on the Sun's surface is about 5800 K. At what wavelength does the sun's spectrum peak? - Visible The plane of the ecliptic is - a flat plane containing the Earth's orbit Which of the following is NOT information we can extract through the study of the pattern of lines in the spectrum of an astronomical source? - The distance between the source and the observer. Which of the following ojects has no net (total) force exerted on it? - A car traveling at 70 miles per hour on a long straight interstate highway What effect will occur when we receive light from a source that is moving relative to Earth at high speed? - Doppler Shift The procedure of writing numbers as a decimal value between 1 and 10 times 10 raised to an integer power (e.g. 2.4 x 10^3) is called? - scientific notation In the model of the Universe introduced by the Ptolemy around A.D. 140, the planets actually moved on small circles as well as revolving around the Earth. The circles are called? - epicycles The ecliptic is: - the path of the sun across the sky Which of these astronomers believed in a heliocentric model of the Solar System?

• ALL OF THE ABOVE Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, & Aristarchus How far does the earth move around the sun each day? - 1 degree For the northern hemisphere, the earth's orbit brings it closest to the sun in, - Winter the Sidereal Period of Uranus is 84.01 years. What is the size of the Semimajor Axis of Uranus' orbit in AU's? - 19.

The Galileo Spacecraft was in orbit around Jupiter. Radio signals from Jupiter travel for 52 minutes before reaching the Earth. How far away is Jupiter from the Earth? - 6.2 AU How long does it take the Earth to rotate once around its axis, compared to the distant stars? - 23 hours and 56 minutes Of the following planets, which was known in Greek times? - Mercury Suppose the Sun had the temperature of 17,400 K (three times the present temperature) but had the same size that it has now. How much more energy would the Sun emit per second? - 81 times more SHORT ANSWER: Give an example of someone who used the Scientific Method. Give a short answer stating who the person was, what problem they were investigating, and how he/she used the scientific method? - Short Answer Planets from closet to Sun to furthest - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, & Pluto Almost all the mass in our solar system is contained in ___ - the sun What is the major reason Mars lacks a significant atmosphere today (as opposed to Earth and Venus) - Carbon Dioxide went in the rocks then the water froze and Mars didn't have sufficient gravity to hold on to even the heavier gases, like water, Nitrogen, and Oxygen. Which of the following explains why the Earth has a different composition than the Sun? - The lightest elements escaped the Earth's gravity Among the important charateristics that have led to such different conditions (e.g. temp., atmospheric pressure, and compostition) on Venus, Earth, and Mars today are: - ALL OF THE ABOVE

• Distance from the Sun
• Their sizes (& masses)
• The presence or absence of life
• Tectonics

More than 400 planets have been discovered around other stars. How were these planets detected? - - Pictures taken with Hubble Space Telescope

• The Doppler Effect
• Eclipses The length of each of the Martian season, compared to those on Earth, is_________ - about twice as long because of Mar's orbital period If Earth's surface temperature increased to that of Venus' temperature, Earth's atmosphere would be most likely to - Lose most of its water Which planets show significant evidence of past large-scale plate tectonic activity are - Earth Which of the following is true about the planetary feature know as Olympus Mons? - It is a volcanic peak on Mars nearly as big across as Texas What is the approximate age of the Solar system, according to the best available scientific evidence? - 4.6 billion years ago What is one reason that the outer planets contain so much more volatile gaseous material than the terrestrial planets? - They formed at cooler temperatures than the terrestrial planets The distance to Venus was determined by bouncing radar off its surface. If a radar takes 6 minutes to get to Venus and back, how far away is Venus? - 54 million kilometers Venus in 0.75 AU from the Sun. Mars is 1.5 AU from the Sun. How much weaker is the force of gravity from the Sun that Mars feels compared to Venus: - one quarter The presence of life on Earth has made its atmosphere unique. What effect has life had? - added oxygen

The radius of Mars in 1/2 that of the Earth and it's mass is 1/10 that of Earth. What is the force of gravity on the surface of Mars as a fraction of the force of gravity on the surface of the Earth? - 0. The theory that plates are being driven around the surface on the Earth by convective currents in lava below is - plate tectonics After the Earth's primordial hydrogen atmosphere was lost in space, it was replaced by - Carbon dioxide out gased by volcanoes. Most ultraviolet radiation from space doesn't reach the surface of the Earth because of the effects of the - ozone layer The new Mars rover have found evidence for - Rocks formed in the presence of liquid water Global Warning may be caused by - Adding Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere & Changes in the Sun's brightness The ozone layer about Antarctica has been depleted by - Chlorofluorocarbons such as Freon The majority of the extrasolar planets discovered so far are: - very large, and there does not appear to be a particular pattern in their distance from their parent star. The clouds of Venus are made up of droplets of - sulfuric acid The atmosphere pressure at the surface of Mars is about - 1 percent that of Earth As the solar nebula contracted, much of its material formed into a disk. This happened because - the nebula was spinning An asteroid orbits between Mars and Jupiter at a distance of 3 AU from the sun. What is its orbital period? - 5.2 year

Which of these properties leads one to the conclusion that the Jovian planets are made of light elements such as hydrogen and helium? - low average density Which of the following has not been found on Mars? - moving tectonic plates What are the most abundant elements in the solar system? - Hydrogen and Helium, as shown by the great mass and low density of the giant planets and the Sun The early universe appears to have contained only light elements, predominately hydrogen and helium, yet at the present stage in the evolution of the universe, there are significant amounts of heavier elements such as those from which the Earth (and ourselves) are made of. Where did these heavy elements originate? - in nuclear fusion and element synthesis in the deep interiors of stars and in supernova explosions. What is the Goldilocks Theory? - Perfect distance that a planet has to be away from the Sun in order for the planet to be habitable. For example, Jupiter is too far to support life (have liquid water), but Venus is too close to have water. The Earth is the right distance away to have liquid water, supporting life. Drake Equation - N = NhpFLF1Fc (L/Ls), estimate of intelligent extraterrestrial life

• Frank Drake SETI - search for extraterrestrial life, started with Frank Drake Galilean Moons & Characteristics - Io-volcanic activity Europa-ice, oceans Ganymede-a little activity but then froze Callisto-lots of craters Saturn's Rings - made up of ice and is brightly colored Uranus and Neptune's Rings - made up of carbon/dust and dark Titan - Saturn's moon, has methane atmosphere

Triton - Neptune's moon, has geysers Io (Jupiter), Triton (Neptune), Enceladus (Saturn) - has volcanoes and geysers The Moon - helps understand how solar system formed, volcanoes, eclipses, ocean tides (Sun and Moon) Pluto - doesn't fit into Terrestrial or Jovian planets, possibly made of rock and ice, dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt(KBO), discovery of Eris ruined Pluto's spot as a planet Mercury - larger iron core, very dense, very little geological activity Jovian Planets - similar because they're all big balls of gas but different due to different distances from the sun

• all have atmospheres with hurricanes and storms, rotate quickly with fast winds, magnetic fields Jupiter's Red Spot - 300 years old and is a hurricane larger than Earth Curiosity rover - on Mars to study rocks, the atmosphere/production of Methane habitable zone - The region around a star in which planets could potentially have surface temperatures at which liquid water could exist Voyager - Mission that went to the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, The spacecraft that photographed Neptune New Horizons - the unnamed space craft that will reach Pluto in 2015. Pioneer 10 - went to Jupiter, launched in 1972, transmission failed in 2003, it was the first probe to travel through an astroid belt Cassini mission - exploring Saturn and it's moons since 2004

asteroid - a piece of rock or metal made up of material similar to that which formed the planets; mostly found in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter comet - has elliptical orbits, made of a lot of ice (unlike asteroid) Kuiper Belt - A flat disk of millions of small bodies (icy comets) orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune, includes Pluto and Eris A hot star is ____________________ than a cool star? - brighter and bluer If an object is a perfect blackbody then: - it emits energy with a continuous distribution that peaks at a certain wavelength dependent upon temperature. What is the definition of the Astronomical Unit? - The mean distance between the Earth and the Sun In 1923 Hubble was able to use the new 100 inch telescope for his observations of Cepheids in M31. The mirror in the new telescope was twice as big as the previous telescope. What was his advantage? - The new telescope could see stars 4 times as faint Two weeks after a New Moon, the phase of the moon will be... - Full Moon If the distance to the Moon was increased by a factor of three, what would the force of gravity between the Earth and the Moon be? - One ninth as much If an Alien arrived and said that he had travelled 250 million miles to get to Earth, where did he come from? - Our Solar System Who was the first person in history to measure the size of the Earth? - The ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes Which is the Cold Equation that cannot be changed? - Newton's 2nd Law of Motion The blackbody spectrum is an example of what kind of spectrum? - Continuous

In Nightfall, what happens every 2,500 years? - All the Suns are below the horizon except one which is eclipsed by a moon. Galileo started using his telescope in 1609. What did he see? - Moons around Jupiter, Mountains on the moon, spots on the sun, and phases of venus (all of the above) A huge discovery in astronomy was recently made in Louisiana. What was it? - The discovery of gravitational waves. A "light-year" is a unit used for what kind of measurement? - Distance The radius of Pluto is 1/5th that of the Earth and its mass 1/600th that of Earth. What is the force of gravity on the surface of Pluto as a fraction of the force of gravity on the surface of the Earth? - 0. F=G(m1m2/r^2) 1/600(1)/1/5(1)^2 ----> 1/600/1/ =. =. What effect will occur when we receive light from a source that is moving relative to Earth at high speed? - Doppler Shift Which of the following numbers has the same meaning as 8,670? - 8.67 X 10^ The tidal force of the Moon on the Earth occurs because... - the Moon pulls more strongly on the near side of the Earth than the far side. For any location on the Earth there is a point directly overhead in the sky called the: - Zenith The ecliptic is: - the path of the sun across the sky When planets drift backward with respect to the stars, the motion is called: - retrograde motion

What kind of spectrum only shows small areas of the spectrum across empty space? - Emission Line What kind of spectrum shows the full spectrum following evenly across the line? - Continuum line In a spectrum, dark bands set against a bright background are called: - absorption lines Which of these astronomers believed in a heliocentric model of the Solar System? a) Copernicus b) Kepler c) Newton d) Aristarchus e) All of the above - All of the above Tyco Brahe's greatest scientific contribution was: - measuring accurate positions of the stars and planets. How far does the earth move around the sun each day? - 1 degree Two planets are in circular orbits around similar stars. Each is the same distance from its parent star. One planet is Jupiter's size, whereas the other is Earth's size. Which of the following is true? a) The Jupiter-size planet has a much longer period than the Earth-size planet. b) The Earth-size planet has a much longer period than the Jupiter-size planet. c) Both planets have the same period. d) The Earth-size planet has a period exactly twice that of the Jupiter-size planet. e) Not enough information is given to determine the correct answer. - Both planets have the same period. The semimajor Axis of Uranus' orbit is 19.2 AU. What is the orbital period of Uranus is years? - 84. p^2=a^ p^2= 19.2 Au^

p^2=7077. p=84. The Galileo Spacecraft was in orbit around Jupiter. Radio signals from Jupiter travel for 35 minutes before reaching the Earth. How far away is Jupiter from the Earth? - 4.2 AU 35 min 60 sec/min =(3 x 108 m/s)/(1.5 x 10^11 m) 35 x 60 x 3x10^8 x 1.5x10^11 = 4.2 AU Why is the sun at its highest maximum altitude in Singapore on March 21st and September 21st as opposed to the solstice dates? - It's on the Equator Why don't lunar and solar eclipses happen every month? - The Moon's orbit is inclined 5 degrees You are standing somewhere on Earth on a bright, sunny day when you notice that a tall, vertical telephone pole has no shadow. From that observation by itself, what do you know about where you might be standing? - Anywhere between latitude - 23 1/2 and +23 1/2. How long does it take the Earth to rotate once around its axis, compared to the distant stars? - 23 hours and 56 minutes When does the new Moon rise, approximately? - At sunrise Of the following planets, which was known in Greek times? a) Neptune b) Uranus c) Mercury d) Pluto e) Xena - Mercury The Jovian planets in the solar system in order from closest to the sun to furthest from the sun are: - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune

Almost all of the mass in our Solar System is contained in the Sun. Where is the most of the rest of the Mass? - Jupiter Why hasn't the Earth lost its water? - The Earth is cool enough and massive enough txt most water cannot escape. Why does the Earth has a different composition than the Sun? - Hydrogen and helium escaped the Earth's gravity. What is the source of the heat that produces the volcanoes on Io and the liquid oceans on Europa? - Tidal forces from Jupiter The origin of the Moon in the early history of the solar system appears to have been... - a Mars-sized planet collided with the Earth and the debris formed into the Moon. The length of each of the Martian seasons is ___________. - six months How did the giant impact 65 million years ago of an asteroid result in the extinction of most of the dinosaurs (among other species)? - Clouds of dust and smoke blocked out the Sun. Which planets show no significant surface evidence of past large-scale plate tectonic activity? - a+b+d Which of the following is true about the planetary feature known as Valles Mariners? - It is a canyon on Mars much bigger than the Grand Canyon. The majority of the craters on the Moon were caused by... - Meteors and Asteroids After it landed, Curiosity sent a signal back to Earth. It was received 14 minutes later. How far was Mars from the Earth? - 1.7 AU Jupiter is about 5 AU from the Sun. How much greater would the force of gravity from the Sun be if Jupiter was in Earth's orbit? - 25 times greater

The Runaway Greenhouse Effect on Venus is caused by... - too much carbon dioxide The presence of life on Earth has made its atmosphere unique. What effect has life had? - added oxygen The radius of Mercury is 0.4 that of Earth and its mass os 1/20 that of Earth. What is the force of gravity on the surface of Mercury as a fraction of the force of gravity on the surface of the Earth? - 0. F=G (1/20)^2 (1)^2 / .4(1)^ F=6.67x10^-11 ( (1/20)(1)^2/.4(1)^2 ) ) F=.05/. F=0. In the greenhouse effect... - infrared radiation emitted by the Earth's surface is absorbed by the atmosphere. Which is the only moon with a thick atmosphere? - Titan The surface of Venus shows many other familiar features but no... - oceans The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is about - 100 times that of Earth Why did the solar nebula collapse to form the Sun and the planets? - Gravity An asteroid orbits between Mars and Jupiter and takes 5.2 years to go around the Sun. - 3 AU Which of these properties leads one to the conclusion that the Jovian planets are made of light elements such as hydrogen and helium? - low average density If a moon of a planet shows very few craters, we can immediately conclude that...

• the moon is geologically active. There are far more impact craters on the surface of Mars than there are on the surface of Earth. Why is this? - Volcanic activity and recycling of Earth's crust and

erosion from water have obliterated all but the most recent impact craters, whereas Mar's volcanic activity ceased and liquid water disappeared much earlier in its geological history. Extrasolar planets are not seen directly very often. An observation that has been used to indirectly show they exist is... - a) The regular back and forth movement of the position of spectral lines of the parent stars AND b) the change in luminosity of the parent star when a planet moves in front of it. (Both A and B) What is the Goldilocks theory? - That the Earth's temperature is "just right" for liquid water What is Geoff's favorite moon? - Iapetus What is happening in the Solar System? - *New Horizons is flying past Pluto *Curiosity and Opportunity are roving on Mars *Rosetta is orbiting Comet 67P *Scott Kelly spent a year on the Space Station (all of the above) The Kepler telescope was launched in 2008. What does it do? - Searches for Earth- sized planets by looking for their transits in front of a nearby star. What happens on the Vernal Equinox? - The Sun crosses the equator moving North. (Planet #1 bigger than Planet #2) Compared to planet #1, planet #2 has 1/2 the radius, 1/4 the surface area, and only 1/8 the volume of #1. Compared to planet #1, planet #1... - - will cool off more rapidly

• will sustain less geologic activity.
• will be more heavily cratered What aspect of the story, Hop-Friend, do we know is NOT true about Mars? - There was breathable air.

What evidence did geologist Louis Agassiz use to support his theory of glaciation?

• Flattened and grooved bedrock and rocks found hundreds of miles from where they should be. Why was the congressman wrong when he compared the ice in his drink to Climate Change theory. - The melting ice on Earth is on land, not in water.