AST1002 MCQ Midterm

When the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun there is a

solar eclipse

The far side of the moon cannot be seen from earth because

the moon turns so that the near side is always facing the earth.

Summertime in the northern hemisphere is when the

northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun.

Approximately when does a New Moon rise?

sunrise

A solar eclipse occurs on the Earth when the

Moon casts a shadow on the Earth.

A lunar eclipse does not occur at every full Moon because the

moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly tilted away from the Earth's orbit around the sun.

The nightly motion of objects across our sky from horizon to horizon is caused by the

rotation of the Earth on its axis.

Which of the following statements about eclipses in the Sun-Earth-Moon system is correct?

A total eclipse of the Sun occurs only at new Moon.

Stars rise in the East and set in the West due to the

Rotation of the Earth

Different constellations are visible at different times of year due to the

Revolution of the Earth

The ecliptic can be defined as the

path traced out by the Sun in our sky over one year against the background stars.

One essential condition for “seasons” to occur on a planet is that the planet's

rotation axis is tilted away from a direction perpendicular to it's orbit.

For the Moon to appear as a crescent shape to an observer, the

Moon must be closer to the Sun than the observer is and somewhere between the Sun and the observer.

The full Moon always occurs

when the Moon is farther from the Sun than the Earth is.

If the moon rises in the East at the same time the Sun sets in the West, the moon must be in the _ phase.

Full

What phase is the moon in during a Solar Eclipse?

New

What phase is the moon in during a Lunar Eclipse?

Full

Why do we see different phases of the Moon?

The motion of the Moon in its orbit around Earth causes us to see different amounts of the sunlit side of the Moon.

Precession causes

the earth's axis to point to different parts of the sky over long periods

The difference between a solar day and a sidereal day happens because of

the motion of the earth around the sun

Solar eclipses

are always shorter than lunar eclipses

The eccentricity of a planet's orbit describes

how different its orbital path is from a perfect circle.

Kepler's second law states that a planet moves fastest when it

is closest to the Sun.

Kepler's third law can be described in which of the following ways?

The larger the orbit of a planet, the longer the planet takes to complete one revolution.

Mercury

is a Terrestrial Planet

Uranus

is a Jovian Planet

Ceres

is a Dwarf Planet

Which pair of planets are closest in size?

Earth and Venus

Which pair of planets' orbits are closest to each other in the Solar System?

Mercury and Venus

Which planet's orbit is closest to the Earth's orbit?

Venus

An Astronomical Unit is defined to be

the average distance between the Sun and the Earth

Which planet is closest to Jupiter?

Saturn

Most of the planets orbit the Sun on or close to the

ecliptic plane.

The Jovian Planets

are made of very large rock cores surrounded by huge amounts of gas.

The region between Mars and Jupiter contains a belt of what kind of objects?

asteroids

A doughnut-shaped region outside the orbit of Neptune contains many large icy bodies, and is the source of short-period "repeating" comets. This region is called the

Kuiper belt.

The main difference between asteroids and meteoroids is

Asteroids are larger.

Comets are important objects to study because

they are very old and give important clues about the origin of the Solar System.

The asteroid belt is made up of

rocky bodies with diameters from less than a kilometer to hundreds of kilometers.

Comets are responsible for what other phenomenon?

Meteor showers

The most probable theory for the formation of the solar system is

The cloud that collapsed to form the sun contained dust particles which stuck together and grew larger and larger, eventually forming planets.

Which statement best describes the interior of the Earth?

The crust of the Earth is a thin covering on top of molten and liquid layers.

Tectonic Motion

is only possible when a thin solid crust floats on top of a molten layer with convection

Convection

is a circulation of upward moving hot material mixed with downward moving cold material.

Tides on the Earth

are caused by the gravitational effect of the moon and, to a lesser extent, the sun.

The moon

rotates so that the same part of the moon always faces the Earth, but only part of this face is lit up at any time.

The greenhouse effect

describes how gasses in the Earth's atmosphere hold some of the Sun's heat in the atmosphere, warming it.

The Lunar interior

is much more solid than the interior of the Earth

The lunar maria are

areas that were filled by lava from the moon's interior billions of years ago.

The Earth has a magnetic field because its core is

electrically conductive and spinning

The surface of the moon

changed the most during the early days of the Solar System when planetesimals and large meteoroids were still present

Which of the following gasses is most important for explaining the greenhouse effect?

carbon dioxide

The dark patches on the lunar surface that make the image of the "man in the moon" are

maria

Which of the following planetary features does NOT need a molten interior to exist?

an atmosphere

Volcanoes are very important because they

cover old features like craters on a planet's surface

The most likely theory for the origin of the moon is

the Moon formed from debris caused by a collision of the Earth and a very large planetary body.

The greenhouse effect

keeps the temperature from changing by extreme amounts between night and day

If a planet did not spin at all, you would expect that it would not have

a magnetic field

Metals are common throughout the solar system, but ammonia ices are generally not seen inside the orbit of Saturn because

the temperature of the solar nebula would evaporate light ices close to the sun

Planets with earth-like properties

have been found around other stars, and are believed to be relatively common.

Most of the mass of the Earth is contained in the

mantle

The most significant difference between the near and far sides of the moon is that

the far side of the moon has very few maria

The term "tidal forces"

describe how the pattern of gravity from one body deforms the shape of another body

Over the last half billion years, the effect of lunar tides

has slowed the Earth's rotation on its axis to make an Earth day longer

The moon's maria are dark in color because

they are made from a type of rock that is darker in color than the rest of the surface.

Which planet most resembles the Moon in visible surface features and atmosphere?

Mercury

The internal structure of Mercury is most likely a

dense iron core taking up almost half of the volume of the planet and a rocky mantle surrounding the core.

Mercury is unique among the inner planets in having

an iron core that occupies almost half its volume.

Venus rotates

in the opposite direction from the Earth but very slowly.

The surface temperature of Venus has been found by radio observations and by remote exploration by spacecraft to be approximately

750 K.

The surface pressure of the atmosphere of Venus compared with the surface pressure of the atmosphere of Earth is

about 90 atmospheres.

Which of the following physical properties of Venus are very similar in value to those of the Earth?

mass and radius

The conditions on the surface of Venus are

a high-pressure, high-temperature, carbon dioxide atmosphere.

The most common surface features on Venus are

volcanoes and lava flows.

Venus has

no magnetic field.

What is the material that produces the distinct red color of Mars?

rust, or iron oxides

What are the Valles Marineris?

large rift valley system associated with the great volcanoes on Mars

In which of the following physical characteristics are the Earth and Mars most similar to each other?

length of solar day

Olympus Mons is a

volcano on Mars.

What is the major constituent of the atmosphere of Mars?

CO2 (carbon dioxide)

The rotation rates of Mercury and Venus were first measured by using

the doppler effect in reflected RADAR signals

When seen in the night sky, Mercury and Venus always appear

relatively close to the position of the sun at sunset or sunrise

Olympus Mons is a(n)

extinct volcano

The Caloris basin is a(n)

immense crater

Gula Mons is a(n)

recently active volcano

A corona is a(n)

bulge caused by upwelling magma

The Valles Marineris is a(n)

rift valley

The current atmospheres of the terrestrial planets

came from inside the planets through the process of outgassing

The balance between what two processes explains the differences in the current atmospheres of Earth, Venus and Mars

"absorption of atmospheric CO2 by rocks or water" and "CO2 released by volcanism"

Why is the Earth the only terrestrial planet to have an atmosphere containing large amounts of oxygen?

the creation of oxygen through photosynthesis

Jupiter, the largest planet has a mass about _ times as large as the Earth

300

Uranus has a mass approximately ___ times the mass of the Earth

16

Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, is approximately how far from the sun?

30 Astronomical Units

What feature of the planet Uranus is strikingly different than the other Jovian planets?

Its axial tilt is almost perpendicular to what is expected.

On which of the Jovian planets would you see a dark spot, some dark blue bands, and white clouds over a strong bluish-green primary atmosphere?

Neptune

On which of the Jovian planets would you see a dark spot, and white clouds over a strong bluish-green primary atmosphere?

Neptune

On which of the Jovian planets would you expect to see a light cream-colored surface with some hint of cloud bands, crossed by a wide belt where huge thunderstorms often appear?

Jupiter

Which of the Jovian planets would you expect to look almost featureless, like a smooth blue-green ball?

Uranus

Which two gasses make up almost all of the atmosphere of each Jovian planet?

Hydrogen and Helium

The banded structure of "belts" and "zones" is present on

All Jovian planets