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What is the most distant planet from the sun?
Neptune
The main asteroid belt is found between which two planets?
Mars and Jupiter
What factors determine how long it takes a planet to orbit the sun?
distance from the sun only
Which of the following is more typical of the gas giants?
mean density around 1-2 g/cc
What is the moon’s rotational period
27.3 days
The dominant constituent of the Martian atmosphere is
carbon dioxide CO2
Neptune and Uranus are bluish tine because
their atmospheres contain methane, which absorbs red light
Energy that the ground absorbs in the form of visible sunlight is --
returned upward in the form of infrared light
What gas provides most of the greenhouse effect on earth?
water vapor (h2o)
The presence of a strong magnetic field on a planet requires
rapid rotation
Which of the following processes of erosion occurs today on the moon?
meteoritic impacts
We are able to study the surface of Venus by bouncing -- off the surface
radio waves
How do we know that the southern hemisphere of Mars is older than its northern hemisphere?
it is more heavily cratered
Which has the hottest surface
Venus
What informs us about the sizes of the bodies orbiting in Saturn’s rings
how the rings scatter sunlight at different wavelengths gives the size distribution
Io’s surface appears smooth because it
is continually resurfaced by volcanic activity
What conditions on Europa may be favorable to the development of life?
a liquid water subsurface layer
Which is the largest moon in the solar system?
Ganymede
What substance may exist in the form of liquid lakes on Titan?
hydrocarbons
Which is believed contribute to the creation of Saturn’s E ring?
Enceladus
Which of the following best describes the composition of a cometary nucleus?
“dirty” ices
at what distance from the sun is the classical Kuiper belt found?
40-49 AU
Which is a Kuiper belt object?
Pluto
The inner planets of our solar system are composed of rocky material because
they formed near the sun where its heat had vaporized the lighter elements
Statistically speaking, how often might we expect an event the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor, or Tunguska?
once per century
The Kepler mission used the -- method to detect exoplanet candidates.
transit
a planet in the habitable zone
may have liquid water on its surface
What determines the temperature of an exoplanet?
the luminosity of its star and its distance from that star
what are the orbital periods of how Jupiters?
as short as 1 day
what is the approximate number of currently confirmed exoplanets?
fewer than 7000
What is the hottest part of the sun?
core
What is the temperature of the sun’s photosphere?
5800 K
The average density of the sun is
about that of water (1.4 gm/cm)
The interior of the sun is a
plasma
Where is energy produced in the sun?
within the inner 25% of its radius
How is energy transported in the sun?
convection and radiation
which of the following is a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics?
engines are never perfectly efficient, there is always waste heat
you cannot cool your house by opening the fridge door
left unattended, your coffee will always cool, never heat up
the universe tends toward a state of more disorder with time
ALL of these choices are correct
How does the thermonuclear fusion produce energy in the sun
protons merge in a sequence to form helium and lose some mass in the form of photons and particles, which slowly make their way out of the sun
What is the time interval between the maximum numbers of sunspots? (solar maximum to solar maximum)
11 years
Why are there dark lines in the spectra of stars?
some wavelengths of light are absorbed by elements in the star’s cooler atmosphere
What is a star’s luminosity?
the total amount of energy radiated by the star each second, in watts
which is the closest star?
Proxima Centauri
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