Chapter 26: The Solar System

The smallest planet in our solar system is _______.

Mercury

Nebular theory likens the formation of our solar system to _______.

a spinning ball of pizza dough

Sunspots appear within the Sun's _______.

photosphere

What two planets never appear directly overhead in the nighttime sky?

Venus and Mercury

The atmosphere of Mars is made primarily of _______.

carbon dioxide

Galileo was the first to discover the moons of _______.

Jupiter

The Moon has a diameter equal to about _______.

the distance from San Francisco to New York City

Nebular theory pertains to the formation of

the solar system.

Nebula that tend to be reddish in color are the

emission nebula.

In what region of the Sun are most of X-rays generated?

The corona

The solar wind blows in a direction

away from the Sun.

The age of the Sun is about

5 billion years.

The external region of the Sun that tends to be pink is the

chromosphere.

As you read these words, the Sun is

losing mass.

Pretend you are on a morning time mission on the surface of Venus. When looking out the spacepod window you are likely to see

thick and still smog-like cloud cover.

The planet with a mass most like Earth's is

Venus

The predominant gas in the atmosphere of Mars is

carbon dioxide.

How much greater is the atmospheric pressure of Jupiter than Earth's? More than

a million times.

What is the cause of Jupiter's extremely high-energy radiation belts?

an enormous magnetic field that captures high energy particles

Saturn's rings are composed of?

chunks of ice and rock

The materials that compose most of Titan are completely different than those that compose Earth. Therefore, what were scientist surprised to see from space-probe images in a 2005 landing?

a landscape similar to Earth's

Which explanation best describes why Earth observers always see the same face of the moon?

The Moon's rate of spin matches the rate at which the Moon revolves around Earth.

Why is the Moon still visible during a full lunar eclipse?

Earth's atmosphere acts as a lens that refracts light into the shadowed region.

When the alignment of the Sun, the Moon, and Earth produce a solar eclipse, the body between the other two is the

Moon.

To scale, if Earth were the size of a basketball, then the Moon would be about

20 feet away.

At about what frequency is Earth struck by a meteorite large enough (about 10 km in diameter) to cause mass extinctions?

about every 100 million years

Why is the Kuiper belt considered to be a zone of failed planet formation?

There is simply not enough material within the dwarf planet's orbital paths for any of them to ever add up to full planetary status. The dwarf planets found therein have yet to fully accrete all of the material in their orbital paths.

In a museum collection you can likely see a

meteorite but not a meteoroid.

The general direction of a comet's tail is

away from the Sun.

With each pass of a comet about the Sun, its mass

is appreciably reduced.

Pluto is found within the

Kuiper belt.

Listed following are several astronomical objects. Rank these objects based on their diameter, from largest to smallest. (Note that the neutron star and black hole in this example have the same mass to make your comparison easier, but we generally expect black holes to have greater masses than neutron stars.)

(1) main-sequence star spectral type A, (2)Jupiter, (3) a one-solar-mass white dwarf, (4) the moon, (5) a two-solar-mass neutron star, and (6) the event horizon of a two-solar-mass black hole.

Listed following are several astronomical objects. Rank these objects based on their mass, from largest to smallest. (Be sure to notice that the main-sequence star here has a different spectral type from the one in Part A.)

(1) a typical black hole, (2) a typical neutron star, (3) a one-solar-mass white dwarf, (4) main-sequence star spectral type M, (5) Jupiter, and (6) moon.

Listed following are several astronomical objects. Rank these objects based on their density, from highest to lowest.

(1) The singularity of a black hole, (2) a typical neutron star, (3) a one-solar-mass white dwarf, and (4) a main sequence star.

After the discovery of Uranus, astronomers calculated its orbit and predicted its position in the sky using Kepler's laws of planetary motion, which had been known since the early 17th century. However, they soon discovered a small discrepancy between the predicted and actual positions of Uranus. As a scientist, what should you do when presented with such a conflict between prediction and observation?

hink about what else might cause the observed discrepancy, consider whether Kepler's laws need to be modified to account for the new observations, consider that Uranus may not be a planet, and verify that your observations are correct.

Starting with the hypothesis that a planet near Uranus was the cause of the orbital discrepancy, scientists had to develop a plan to find the unidentified planet. They started with what they knew about the discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus. Rank the steps in the order that scientists would take to discover the planet.

Rank the steps in the appropriate order from first to last.

(1) Calculate the mass, orbit, and likely position of the unidentified planet. (2)Use optical telescope to search a region of the sky where the unidenified planet is predicted to be.(3)Compare current observations to existing star charts to locate any new object. (4) Make continued observations to determine if the new object changes position relative to background stars.

Saturn’s rings look bright because __________.

light from the Sun reflects off the material in the rings

Which of the following statements correctly describes the motion of the particles in Saturn’s rings?

Particles in the inner rings orbit Saturn at a faster speed than particles in the outer rings.

What is about 30 times as far from the Sun as our own planet.

Neptune

What is the planet with the highest average surface temperature.

Venus

The planet with the lowest average density is _____.

Saturn.

The planet that orbits closest to the Sun is _______.

Mercury

The only rocky planet to have more than one moon is ______.

Mars

What is the jovian planet that orbits closest to the Sun.

Jupiter

_______ has a rotational axis that is tilted so much it lies nearly in the plane of its orbit.

Uranus

Most of the surface of _______ is covered with liquid water.

Earth

The following images show six objects in our solar system. Rank the objects from left to right based on their average distance from the Sun, from farthest to closest. (Not to scale.)

(1) Pluto, (2) Saturn, (3) Jupiter, (4) Mars, (5) Earth, and (6) Mercury.

The following images show six objects in our solar system. Rank these objects from left to right based on their mass, from highest to lowest. (Not to scale.)

(1) Sun, (2) Jupiter, (3) Earth, (4) Mars, (5) Mercury, and (6) Pluto.

The images below show six objects in our solar system. Rank these objects by size (average equatorial radius), from largest to smallest. (Not to scale.)

(1) Sun, (2) Jupiter, (3) Earth, (4) Mars, (5) Mercury, and (6) Pluto.

Provided following are stages that occurred during the formation of our solar system. Rank these stages from left to right based on when they occurred, from first to last.

(1) large cloud of gas and dust, (2) contraction of solar nebula, (3) Condensation of solid particles, (4) accretion of planetesimals, and (5) clearing the solar nebula.

Listed following are characteristics of the atmospheres of Venus:

Sulfuric acid clouds, runaway greenhouse effect, and no wind.

Listed following are characteristics of the atmospheres of Earth:

Atmospehere composed primarily of nitrogen and ultraviolet-absorbing stratosphere.

Listed following are characteristics of the atmospheres of Mars:

Global dust storms and extremely low density atmosphere.

What is Venus greatest thing than Earth.

Altitude of atmosphere, altitude of troposphere, surface pressure, and surface temperature.

The following characteristics describe the composition, structure, and features found in the atmospheres of Earth and/or Venus. Sort the various statements as describing Venus, Earth, or both.

Earth: Oxygen present as a primary component and water vapor cloud layer.

Venus: Sulfuric acid cloud layer and carbon dioxide as a primary component

Both: Atmospheric jet stream and polar vortex.

The following images show Earth and the four jovian planets of our solar system. Rank these planets from left to right based on their distance from the Sun, from closest to farthest. (Not to scale.)

Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranu, and Neptune.

The following images show Earth and the four jovian planets of our solar system. Rank these planets from left to right based on their size (average equatorial radius), from smallest to largest. (Not to scale.)

Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter.

The following images show Earth and the four jovian planets of our solar system. Rank these planets from left to right based on their mass, from lowest to highest. (Not to scale.)

Earth, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and Jupiter.