SBCC KELLY ERTH 101 EXAM 2

What is the reason that Io, the moon of Jupiter, is the most

volcanically active body int he solar system?

Tidal forces from Jupiter flex (stretch and relax) it continuously.

Maria (plural for mare) are:

Dark basaltic seas on the lunar surface with relatively few craters

What is so amazing about the Trappist-1 exoplanetary system?

It has a number of Earth-sized terrestrial planets, including three in the habitable zone

C-type asteroids differ from S-type asteroids in that C-type

asteroids

Never underwent differentiation

the most widely accepted theory for the formation of the Moon is

the _____hypothesis.

Giant impact

Comets are made up of all of the following except

basaltic lava material

7) NASA had a recent mission known as the Double Asteroid

Redirection Test (DART) that impacted a small moon asteroid orbiting

another asteroid. These asteroid are not in a ny danger of hitting the

Earth, but the orbital period orbit would be shortened by 73 seconds.

After several weeks of careful observation, NASA reported the results

of the head-on collision. Which statement is correct?

The moon orbit was shortened by about 32 minutes.

Uranus instilled at an angle of 98 degrees to the vertical and has

an orbital period of 84 Earth years. As measure din Earth years, how

long is the summer season in the "Northern Hemisphere" of Uranus?

21 years

The rains of Venus are composed of droplets of _____, but the high

temperature means that the liquid droplets never make it to the planet

surface

Sulfuric acid

A meteor shower occurs when:

Earth passes through the debris left in a. Comet's orbital path

How does the intensity of sunlight at the orbit of Saturn (10 AU

from the sun) compare to the intensity of sunlight at the orbit of the

EARTH (1 Au from the sun)?

1/100 =1%

Which of the following has most strongly shaped Venus's surface?

Volcanism

Neptune's moon Triton is unique among the large moons in our

solar system because it:

Has a retrograde orbit

Which of the following spacecraft was purposely crashed into the

planet Saturn after orbiting the planet for 13 years? This was done to

avoid contaminating any of the moons of Saturn. It also dropped the

Huygens probe on the surface of Saturns's largest moon, Titan.

Cassini.

an atomic nucleus tha ttransofmr from one element into another

has undergone:

Radioactive decay

Most of the dwarf planets in our Solar System reside within the:

Kuiper Belt

Why does Mercury have a thin layer of hydrogen and helium near

its surface?

Mercury temporarily traps solar wind particles

The asteroid belt:

Is the leftover material from the early solar system that was never swept up.

According to NASA, Mercury is still alive geologically (but only a

little bit) What is the evidence that NASA has seen?

New wrinkle ridges (lobate scarps) have formed as Mercury's core continues to shrink.

We believe that all of the terrestrial planets had primary

atmospheres of carbon dioxide. Only the Earth shows a secondary

atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. What happens to most of the

carbon dioxide that was once in the Earth's atmosphere?

It is still here, but locked into Earth's rocky material

The latest NASA mission to Mars included the main rover,

Perseverance, and also Ingenuity. What as the primary role of

Ingenuity not he mission?

To test powered flight int he Martian atmosphere. It is a small

helicopter with a camera.

When an exoplanet passes in front of its star, the light from that

star dims for a short while before returning to normal. This method of

"seeing" an exoplanet is called the

Transit method

The figure below shows two stars. Star A has a mass the same as

that of our Sun, while Star B has a mass twice times that of our Sun.

Which labeled point identifies the center of mass of the system?

3/4 to D (in the diagrams case the answers is C)

Linear graph with Star A on one end and D at the other and B and C between the ends.

The Trojan Asteroid

All of the other statements are true

-are co-orbiting the sun with Jupiter with the same orbital radius s Jupiter.

-are found at the Lagrange poison, L4 and L5

-have been trapped by the combined gravitational field of the Sun and

Jupiter

-are found 60 degrees ahead of Jupiter and 60 degrees behind Jupiter

When there is an earthquake, which type of earthquake wave

arrives first?

P-waves

This mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) visited the

comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (also known at 67P) and learned a

great deal bout the comets that we did not previously understand.

Rosetta

How do earthquakes reveal that the outer core of the Earth is

molten, rather than a solid?

S-waves cannot pass through the molten outer core, so there is a shadow region behind the core where no direct S-waves appear

Typical meteors are the size of

A grain of sand

Which of Jupiter's Galilean moons contains a liquid water water

oceans under the crust?

Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

A radioactive material has a half-life of about 100 years. If I start

with 8 kg of radioactive material then after 200 yers, how much of the

radioactive material remains?

2 kg

Which of the following particles would be the primary components

in the solar wind?

Protons, electrons and alpha particles, but NOT photons

Which of the following statements is true about the Earth's crust?

The oceanic crust is much younger Thant he continental crust

Saturn's rings are composed primarily of:

Water ice

Earth's magnetic field is created by:

Electric currents in the molten outer core.

Belt and zone circulation

All of the above

-occurs on Saturn

-occurs on Jupiter

-is evidence of convection

-is more obvious on Jupiter than on Saturn

___is a very long and deep canyon on Mars

Valles Marineris

Why does Mars have season similar to the Earth?

Mar's rotational axis is tilted relative to its orbit like the Earth's

A comet with an orbit near the ecliptic plane and an orbital period

of 120 years most likely comes from the:

Kuiper Belt

As the cloud of gas and sun collapsed to form our solar system, it

began to rotate faster rand flatten out. This is related to conservation

of _____, and is similar to an ice skater who spins faster when they

pull their arms in.

Angular momentum

The blue color of Uranus and Neptune is due to the presence of

methane in the atmosphere which

Absorbs red lightened reflects green and blue light

The earth magnetic field is generated nit he molten outer core of

the Earth and

All of the above

-traps some of the Solar wind particles and produces the Auroras

-protects the Earth from he solar wind by deflecting most of it

-is nearly aligned with the Earth axis

According to the accretion model of planetary formation, when

dust grains being to stick together to form larger particles in the

protoplantary disk, the force that initially holds the grains together is

Static electricity

a piece of material from space that falls through the atmosphere

and manages to land not he ground where it can be picked up is

called a

Meteorite

The ion tail of a comet points:

in the direction of the solar wind.

The atmosphere of the Earth is approximately

78% Nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon

Although it is only a tiny fraction of the Earth's atmosphere, this

chemical compound plays a steadily increasing role in the EArth's

"Greenhouse Effect". It is a byproducts of the combustion of fossil

fuels and natural gas.

Carbon dioxide

The most likely reason that Venus's magnetic field is weak is the

Slow rotation

Venus has a much thicker atmosphere than Earth. The

composition is almost entirely carbon dioxide. The surface pressure of

Venus is about____times that of the surface of Earth

10

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a:

Powerful storm that has existed for hundreds of years.

What is the origin of Mar's moons, Phobos and Deimos:

Currently an area of active research

The crust of the Earth is made form both continental and oceanic

crust. How are oceanic and continental crusts different?

The oceanic crusts are thinner than continental crust and made for higher density basalt

the solar system planet is the LOWEST average density is:

Saturn

Why were the rings of Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune not

discovered until the 20th century?

They are made of particles with low albedos and don't reflect light well

It was recently announced that scientists had observed 20 more

moons around Saturn. What is the current number o known moons

orbiting Saturn (as of October 2026)?

285

The iron cores of terrestrial planets were formed:

In the very early stages of differentiation

The figure below shows the Earth-Moon system. At which of the

marked locations do low tides occur/ in this picture, we are looking

down on the North Pole of the Earth

2 and 4

(Image) is of the moon on the left and the earth rotating counter clockwise with the numbers 2 is the North, 3 East, 4 South and 1 is West).

Which of the following is closest to the snow/ice line in our Solar

System?

4.5 AU

A planet cools by losing its heat energy. Which method of heat

transfer allows planets (and other bodies) to cool in space?

Radiation

A comet is best described as a:

Dirty snowball

Spring tides occur:

During new and full moons

The largest moon of Saturn called Titan is amazing because it has

Lakes and rivers of hydrocarbons

The principal component of Venus' atmosphere is (*Hint: NOT

the clouds):

Carbon dioxide

Nasa launched a planet-finding telescope in 2009 named ______.

It found nearly 6000 exoplanets with more than 3000 of them

confirmed. This telescope used the transit method to detect

exoplanets. This telescope completed its mission in 2018.

Kepler

In April 2018, with date from the Mars Express Mission, the

European Space Agency (ESA) announced the detection of

Liquid water beneath the Martian surface

Which of the following is NOT a reason that the Earth core is still

hot?

Solar energy

The coma of a comet forms because:

Of heating and sublimation of the comet's nucleus by solar radiation

In which of the following ecological periods did Mars have liquid water

on the surface, a substantial atmosphere and a magnetic field? This is

also the most likely period to have life at the surface of Mars.

Noachian

Which of the following situations has the smallest variation in the

tide (high tide is very close to low tide)?

A, B and C are all possible

-neap tide

-3rd quater moon

-1st quarter moon

Tidal locking is responsible for:

The Moon always having one face toward the Earth

Both Jupiter and Saturn have powerful magnetic fields, but it is

likely that their cores are completely solid. Which layer of the gas

giants produces the magnetic field?

Liquid metallic hydrogen

Which of the following Solar System moons has dry-volcanoes

spouting liquid water? Some of the water escapes from the moon and

turns into ice crystals that then orbit the planet.

Enceladus

The Himalayan Mountains are forming as a result of which plate

tectonic process?

Continental collision

Which planet rotates in the opposite direction than it orbits the

Sun, a "retrograde rotation"?

Venus

The most common type of planet that is found by the Radial

Doppler technique is a large mass planet orbiting close to its star. This

type of planet is called a

Hot Jupiter

The planet in our solar system with the most powerful magnetic

field is:

Jupiter