GEO 006: Planets in Science Fiction adjusted

True or False: Almost all large bodies orbit the Sun in a clockwise direction (when viewed from above the Sun's north pole).

False

What is the most massive planet in the solar system?

Jupiter

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

False

How many exoplanets have been discovered orbiting around other stars?

5,000+

On which solar body would you weigh the least?

Pluto (the smaller the body mass, the smaller the gravity and the less you weigh)

Why is Pluto no longer classified as a planet?

It has not cleared its neighborhood

What causes the gaps in the asteroid belt?

Orbital resonances with Jupiter

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

True

What is an orrery?

A model of the solar system

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

Uranus

The architecture of the TRAPPIST-1 system is exceptional because

The entire system would fit within the orbit of Mercury, Three planets could have liquid water, The TRAPPIST-1 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 they were on Earth.

True

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

False

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

Radius

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

False

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

False

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

Twice the size of 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 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

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 purpose of the Drake equation is to provide a precise number of planets with life that want us.

False

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

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

Plate tectonics

Why is Jupiter important for Earth maintaining life over its history?

Jupiter reduces the number of large impacts on Earth

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

True

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

Distance to pulsars

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

False

What is primary ingredient for a planet to be habitable?

Liquid water

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

True

Place these objects in order of decreasing brightness in the sky. 1. Moon 2. Venus 3. Sun 4. Mars

Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars

Mars is commonly known as the god of...

War

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

True

Ideas about life on the surface of Venus persisted until the...

1960s

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

True

Challenges to terraforming Mars are...

Low surface gravity, Atmosphere loss, Low levels of sunlight

Mars is __ the size of Earth.

1/2

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

<1%

War of the Worlds depicts Earth being invaded by...

Martians

Where is the astroid belt located in our solar system?

Between Mars and Jupiter

True or False: Earth has a relatively large moon

True

How many days are in the phases of the moon?

29.5 day cycle

What are the characteristics of the Waxing phase of the moon cycle?

It occurs during the crescent phase to the gibbous phase. The moon is most visible in the afternoon/evening. The moon becomes "fuller" and rises later each day.

What are the characteristics of the Waning phase of the moon cycle?

It occurs after the full moon, starting at the gibbous phase and ending in the crescent phase. The moon is most visible in the late night/morning. The moon becomes "less" and sets later each day.

If it's 9 a.m. and see the moon with half its face bright and the other half dark, what phase is it in?

Third quarter

What is a good representation of gravity in science fiction movies?

The Expanse

What is an exoplanet?

A planet outside our solar system.

What are the types of planet detections?

1. Direct: using starlight reflected from or thermal radiation emitted by the planet. 2. Indirect: uses effects of the planet on the parent star or random background star.

What is the Doppler Technique used for?

It measures the star's Doppler shift, which tells us its motion toward and away from us. Measured in m/s.

What is the approximate maximum size of a terrestrial (rocky) planet?

Twice the size of Earth.

What Apple TV show depicts Kepler 22-b?

Pluribus

What is the center of the Million-Earth solar system 3?

Supermassive black hole

What is the nearest star to the Sun?

Proxima Centauri (4 light years away)

Why is water important for life?

1) Hydrogen and Oxygen are extremely common.

2) Water is a neutral solvent in which biochemical reactions can take place.

3) Water can be in a liquid state at reasonably high temperatures, enabling faster reaction rates.

What lifetime does a blue massive star have?

A short lifetime

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

It would lose the vast majority of its atmosphere.

Explanations for Fermi Paradox.

Intelligent life is rare.

Water worlds are common.

The needed resources do not exist.

Intelligent species remain quiet (c.f. Stephen Hawking).

They are here/everywhere, we just don't see/hear them.

Earth is deliberately isolated (e.g., Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).

The Great Filter

The dominant factor that prevents dead matter from becoming a galactic civilization.

The Tripod Trilogy and Mars Attack depict what type of extraterrestrial beings?

Martians

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

The pressure exerted by the wind is too strong.

What are some challenges to terraforming Mars?

Low light levels (~60% of energy received at Earth surface).

Low surface gravity (~38% Earth gravity).

Long-term sustainability.

Atmospheric erosion from solar wind.

Possible impact risks.

Phobos & Deimos

Venus is known as what to the Romans and Greeks?

The goddess of beauty and love. (Roman = Venus, Greek = Aphrodite)

What type of environment does Venus have?

Venus is still volcanically active.

What are the 2 NASA Venus missions (DAVINCI and VERITAS) studying?

DAVINCI will study the atmosphere, whilst VERITAS will investigate the surface and interior. Both aspects are critical pieces of the habitability and evolution narrative.

True or False: A fundamental problem that science-fiction movies have to solve is doing interstellar travel in a reasonable amount of time.

True

True or False: A solution to interstellar travel that allows the original travelers to survive the entire journey is generational ships.

False

A parsec is a unit of __________.

Distance

True or False: Research conducted during the production of the movie "Interstellar" lead to several scientific publications.

True

At the velocity that Voyager 2 is traveling (15 km/s), approximately how long will it take for the spacecraft to reach our nearest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri?

100 thousand years

True or False: Einstein's famous equation, E = mc2, relates energy, mass, and the speed of light.

True

The Astronomical Unit (AU), which is the average distance bewtween the Earth and the Sun, is most appropriately used where?

Distances between planets

True or False: Cryogenically freezing people works best when people are thawed out quickly.

False

Which of these is a solution to the problem of traveling interstellar distances?

Treat all of space and time as a singularity

Travel faster than the speed of light

Travel through a hole in space-time

All of these are correctly

True or False: A wormhole is often described as bending space-time so two very distant regions become neighbors, creating a much shorter path than traveling normally.

True

Which of the following is not a source of energy for a moon?

Nuclear fusion in the core

True or False: Earth has more liquid water than any rocky body in the solar system

False

True or False: Most stars are not in multi-star systems.

False

When a planet orbits both stars in a binary system, it is called a _____ orbit.

P-Type

Which of these stars are in a multi-star system?

Sirius

Alpha Centauri

Proxima Centauri

All of these answers

In order for the Death Star to be suspended over the same location of Endor's moon's surface, it needs to be in a _____ orbit

Geo station

True or False: The Issac Asimov story Nightfall implies that we should only be considering Earth-like planets in the search for life.

False

What is the name of the four main moons of Jupiter?

Galilean moons

When a moon is tidally locked it means _____.

The same side always faces the parent body

True or False: We know the surface of Enceladus is relatively young because it lacks a substantial amount of craters.

True

True or False: The tilt of Mars' rotational axis is approximately the same as Earth's.

True

True or False: Due to a lack of land on water worlds, their climate is more dependent on latitude than Earth's climate.

True

Approximately what percentage of energy received from the Sun makes it to the Earth's surface?

50%

True or False: Approximately 70% of the Earth's surface is covered in oceans.

True

True or False: The primary cause of Earth's seasons is because its orbit is slightly elliptical.

False

True or False: If a planet has substantially more water than Earth, then it means that the planet is even more likely to have life.

False

Earth's water primarily originated from ___

A. material it gathered during its formation

B. deposits from comets and other impactors

Neither A nor B

Both

Both A and B

The giant wave portrayed in Interstellar was likely caused by ___

tidal forces from the black hole it orbits

A serious problem of Arrakis (planet from Dune) orbiting Canopus, a star 8x more massive than the Sun, is ___.

the lifetime of the star is very short

Why are desert planets so popular in Sci-Fi movies?

Deserts are extreme and unfamiliar to most people

It provides an interesting backstory for the evolution of a planet

It is a harsh environment which allows for character development

All of the above

A Dyson Sphere is a megastructure that, in theory, would capture all the energy from a ___.

star

What is terraforming?

The intentional modification of planetary properties

At the present point in time, Earth's radio transmissions have traveled a approximate distance of ___.

100 light years

A city planet is called a __________.

Ecumenopolis

True or False: The Arecibo Message sent a signal to Proxima Centauri that was written in Latin.

False