Geo 006

Which planet in the solar system is tilted on its side?

Uranus

What causes the gaps in the asteroid belt?

Orbital resonances with Jupiter

Why is Pluto no longer classified as a planet?

It orbits the Sun, has sufficient mass to be round but has not cleared its neighborhood

What is an orrery?

A model of the solar system

True of False: You can see a crescent moon at midnight

False

True or False: Almost all large bodies orbit one Sun in a clockwise direction

False

What is the most massive planet in the solar system?

Jupiter

How many exoplanets have been discovered orbiting around other stars?

5,000+

True of False: The moon is bright because it reflects light from the sun

True

On which solar system body would you weigh the least?

Pluto

True or False: Observations of other planetary systems have shown that the distribution of planets in the solar system is normal

False

The architecture of the TRAPPIST-1 system is exceptional because

3 planets could have liquid water, the entire system would fit within the orbit of Mercury, the star is much fainter than the Sun

True or False: If a person were to stand on Kepler-22b, they would be heavier than if there were on Earth

True

True or False: Direct detection is responsible for most of the currently known exoplanets

False

True or False: The main result from the Kepler mission is that giant planets are more common than rocky planets

False

What is the main planetary property that we measure with the transit method

Radius

What is approximately the maximum size of a terrestrial/rocky planet

Twice the size of the Earth

Astrometry and Doppler techniques can be used to detected planets when

The planet causes the star to wobble

Within our solar system, the size gap between terrestrial and gas giant planets exists between

Earth and Neptune

An example of an exoplanet is TRAPPIST-1b. TRAPPIST-1 is the name of the star, but what determines the letter that the planet is given

The order of discovery

True or False: The Habitable Zone is the region around a star where planets are guaranteed to have life

False

Why is Jupiter important for Earth maintaining life over its history

Jupiter reduces the number of large impacts on earth

Earth's ability to recycle carbon from its atmosphere into its interior is enabled by

Plate tectonics

True or False: The Fermi paradox is based on the apparent contradiction between an assumed number of space civilizations and our lack of contact with those civilizations

True

True or False: The purpose of the Drake equation is to provide a precise number of planets with life that want to communicate with us

False

What is the primary ingredient for a planet to be habitable

Liquid water

What message is attached to both the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft?

Distances to pulsars

What is the final variable in the Drake equation?

The length of time that civilization can communicate on an interstellar

The dominant factor that serves as an explanation for the Fermi paradox is

The great filter

True or False: The more massive the star, the shorter its lifespan

True

It’s 9 A.M. You look up in the sky and see a moon with half its face bright and half dark. What phase is it?

Third quarter

What is an exoplanet?

A planet outside our solar system

What is the nearest star to our Sun?

Proxima Centauri

What would happen to Mars if we moved it to the orbit of Earth?

It would lose the vast majority of its atmosphere

What is the major scientific problem with the intro scene for The Martian?

The pressure exerted by the wind is too strong

Mars is commonly known as the god of

War

True or False: From Earth, we see Venus go through phases similar to the Moon

True

Ideas about life on the surface of Venus persisted until the

1960s

War of the Worlds depicts Earth being invaded by

Martians

Present day atmospheric pressure on Mars is __ of the atmospheric pressure on Earth

<1%

True or False: Runaway greenhouse occurs when greenhouse gases produce a positive feedback loop that further increase greenhouse emissions, resulting in a continual increase in surface temperatures

True

Mars is __ the size of Earth

1/2

Challenges to terraforming Mars are

Low levels of sunlight, low surface gravity, and atmosphere loss

True or False: Venus may have had surface liquid water in the past.

True

Whats the order of decreasing brightness in the sky of the Sun, Moon, Mars, and Venus?

Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars