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Instructions and questions for a geology homework assignment focused on mars, outer planets, and their moons. Students are required to explore google mars to answer questions about spacecraft landing sites and martian features, and to provide explanations for why certain features are interesting. Additionally, students are asked to determine if a fictional gas giant planet would have a magnetic field based on its layers and rotation, and to compare the sizes of various solar system bodies.
Typology: Assignments
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Answers to the questions must be given in complete sentences (except where indicated), using correct grammar and spelling. Please be as brief and to-the-point as possible ( more is not necessarily better).
You are encouraged to explore the web for help but DO NOT COPY DIRECTLY FROM WEBSITES. If you obtain information from a website, please provide the reference.
Homework assignments must be legible. Handwritten or typed responses are permitted. Make sure that your assignment is stapled!
1. Google Mars (18pts)
The Google guys recently teamed up with NASA researchers at Arizona State University to create one of the most detailed online scientific map and image archives ever made of Mars – Google Mars. For this question, you will explore the data and images available on Google Mars to answer the questions below.
To begin, navigate to the following website:
http://www.google.com/mars/
Note: If Internet Explorer does not properly load the page, try an alternative web browser (ie., Firefox, Safari, etc.)
After the page finishes loading, you’ll see a colorful image of Mars’s topography, similar to the screen snapshot below (without the numbers). Depending on the size of your computer screen, you may need to use the zoom in/out buttons on the left side of the website to view Mars in its entirety. Note that you can also slide the topography image around on your screen by simply clicking and dragging your mouse over the image.
2. Mystery Gas Giant Planet (4pts) Suppose that a fictional planet Prometheus has four layers, shown below. Also suppose that Prometheus rotates twice as fast as Earth and that it transports heat through convecting fluid motions.
Based on this information, would you expect Prometheus to have a magnetic field? If so, which of the following layers (1-4) would the magnetic field be generated and why?
Layer 1) Small rocky core Layer 2) Ice layer Layer 3) Liquid metallic hydrogen Layer 4) Gas & liquid molecular hydrogen
3. Moons & Planets: Size Comparison (12pts)
Indicate the radius (in km) of each of the following solar system bodies and list them in order of DECREASING size: Mercury, Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Pluto
Mercury Moon Io Europa Ganymede Callisto Titan Pluto Radius (km)
4: Midterm 2 Review (6 pts)
4.1) Which planet has the largest volcano? ( Do you remember the name? ) a. Jupiter b. Mercury c. Venus d. Mars e. Earth
4.2) About how old is the Earth? a. 500 thousand years b. 4.6 million years c. 500 million years d. 4.6 billion years e. 4.6 hundred years
4.3) The dominant constituent of the Venus atmosphere is a. Oxygen b. Nitrogen c. Carbon dioxide d. Sulfur dioxide e. Water
4.4) Which planet(s) rotates around its axis in a retrograde direction? a. Pluto b. Venus c. Uranus d. Neptune e. a, b, and c
4.5) How many geologists have landed on the moon? a. 1 b. 2 c. 4 d. 6 e. 8
4.6) The half-life of uranium-235 is 700 million years. If a rock that formed in the early Precambrian era (about 2100 million years ago) originally contained 20 grams of uranium-235, about how much uranium-235 would be left in that rock today? a. 1.25 grams b. 2.5 grams c. 5 grams d. 10 grams e. 40 grams