astonomy

True or false: Ganymede is the smallest Galilean moon around Jupiter

False

This comet revisits our night sky about every 76 years

Halley's

Bodies at about the same distance as Pluto are being called

Plutinos

A comet may have two tails. One is the ion tail, the other can be made of

dust

True or false: When a comet gives off gases it is said to sublimate

True

The mass extinction that occurred 65 million years ago was likely caused by a 100 km body

False

This part of the comet is solid ice

nucleus

True or false: Titan has an atmosphere thicker than the Earth's

True

A meteor shower occurs when

the Earth passes through the debris-filled orbital path of a comet.

The crater in Arizona is called the _________ crater.

Barringer

True or false: The Tunguska event occurred in Arizona.

False

The probe that landed on Titan's surface is

Huygens

This moon has active geysers and a retrograde orbit

Triton

Despite its small size, Io has retained a molten core because of

flexing by strong tidal forces

A small, solid body floating in space is called a

meteoroid

True or false: Miranda is a strange-surfaced moon orbiting Neptune

False

The fast rotations of Jupiter and Saturn give rise to all but

lower densities

True or false: Most large moons in the solar system are in regular orbits.

True

Saturn is about ________ from the sun.

9.5 AU

The correct sequence of fluid layers for Jupiter and Saturn, from the rocky core to the surface is

water, liquid metallic hydrogen, molecular hydrogen

The largest gap in the rings of Saturn is called

Cassini's division

The Roche limit is about ________ the planet's radii.

2.44

True or false: Uranus and Neptune are known as ice giants

True

Jupiter is about ________ times the Earth's diameter.

11

This planet is tilted on its side relative to its orbital plane

Uranus

True or false: Calculations by Adams helped discover Uranus.

Group starts

False

Jupiter rotates once every

9.9 hours

This probe to Jupiter sent a smaller probe into its atmosphere

Galileo

These satellites hold rings in a narrow stream by their gravitational forces

shepherding moons

This satellite is unusual in that one hemisphere is nearly black, and the other is white.

Iapetus

This spacecraft visited Uranus in 1986

Voyager 2

True or false: Saturn is 318 times the mass of the Earth

False

True or false: Liquid metallic hydrogen is thought to be present within Jupiter's interior.

True

Orbital irregularities, or perturbations, in the orbit of Uranus led to the prediction of the existence of

Neptune

The atmospheric winds on Neptune have speeds around

2200 km/hr

True or false: The giant planets are probably heated internally by gravitational contraction

True

Strangely, the asteroid Ida was found to have

a moon

This asteroid has been classified as a dwarf planet

Ceres

The most massive planets in our solar system are formed beyond the

frost line

True or false: Irregular light patterns in asteroid observations suggest that most rotate in 3 to 10 hours.

True

The dwarf planet Ceres, located in the asteroid belt, was visited by ________ spacecraft.

NASA's Dawn

Most meteorites that are found on Earth are

chrondites

True or false: A planet's mass and radius determine its tectonic activity

True

The Trojan asteroids travel along the orbit of

Jupiter

The distance from the sun where the abundance of ice and gases is prevalent is the

frost line

A planet between Mars and Jupiter likely did not form because

Jupiter's gravitation pull was too disruptive

Small chunks or grains in meteors are called

chondrules

True or false: We think that Venus, Earth, and Mars have had the same atmospheric composition since their origin.

Group starts

False

True or false: Solid surface bodies with atmospheres are located solely within the inner solar system

False

The average time for a radioactive atom to decay into its daughter element is called its...

half-life

Vaporization temperature of an element determines the temperature at which...

both the element condenses into a solid or a liquid and the element becomes a gas.

According to evidence including radiometric age-dating, it is widely accepted that the Earth is roughly ________ years old

4.5 billion

True or false: The term "hot Jupiter" refers to a gas giant that has enough mass to begin nuclear fusion.

False

True or false: In astronomy, it is a common practice to use the term "condensation" to describe both the change from a gas to a liquid and the change from a gas to a solid

True

Kant and Laplace proposed this theory to explain the formation of the Solar System

solar nebula theory

True or false: The distances between Jovian planets is less than the distances between Terrestrial planets.

False

True or false: The average density of a planet can be determined, in part, by the orbital motion of its satellites.

True

True or false: One of the reasons that Mercury has little or no atmosphere is its small mass.

True

These atoms have the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons.

Isotopes

During the collapse of the solar nebula, rotation of the nebula would have caused ________ throughout the entire disk

Flattening

A theory about the orbital distances of planets in star systems, including our own, is that the planets first formed and then ________ to their present position.

migrated

The formation of Earth's moon and the skewed axial tilt of Uranus may be explained by

collisions between planetismals.

Dusty and gaseous material orbiting a newly-formed star is called a(n)

protoplanetary disk.

The redistribution of molten material due to density is called

differentiation.

This method of finding exoplanets relies on detecting periods of lower light output from a distant star.

Transit method

Planets orbiting stars other than the Sun are called

exoplanets.

True or false: Both the orbital characteristics and composition of Solar System objects are largely determined by their distance from the Sun.

true

The Doppler shift method of detecting exoplanets is possible because

a star experiences a "wobble" or change in radial velocity as a planet orbits it.

True or false: We use the Doppler Shift Method to detect exoplanets.

True

A dwarf planet is any solar system body that

orbits the Sun directly, shares its orbit with other objects similar in mass, has become round due to its own gravity.

True or false: Small chunks of asteroids that have landed on the Earth are called meteorites.

True

True or false: The Kuiper Belt, which is composed of Sun-orbiting rocky objects, can be found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

False

True or false: A new model for early solar system formation proposes that planets can migrate inward or outward from their original orbits.

True

In a radioactive sample, if 25% of the original parent atoms remain then it can be assumed the number of half-lives that have passed is

two

There are ________ moons in our solar system more massive than the dwarf planets Pluto or Eris

seven

True or false: Planets with masses ranging from Jupiter's up to brown dwarfs all have similar radii.

True

Current theories about the formation of Earth's atmosphere include

Escaping gases from collisions with Earth's surface and the vaporization of comet material.

The term "superior planet" refers to planets that are

farther from the Sun than Earth.

True or false: Comparing the density of Earth's crust to Earth's average density indicates the crust represents the majority of the mass of our planet.

false

By examining the period and amplitude of the "wobble" or changing position of a star, the ________ and ________ of an orbiting exoplanet can be determined.

mass; orbital distance

True or false: The existence of protoplanetary disks have not actually been observed, they are only supported by indirect evidence.

False

The solar system was born from

an immense interstellar cloud of gas and dust.

True or false: For differentiation to occur, an object must be molten.

True

Airplanes tend to fly in this atmospheric layer, due to increased air stability.

stratosphere

This gas is thought to have contributed to the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica

CFCs

True or false: Earth's inner core is solid due to its temperature.

false

The transfer of heat through ________ creates motion inside the Earth.

convection

This phenomenon acts as a deflection force on fluids and is created by rotating bodies

Coriolis effect

The Earth's magnetic field is caused by

magnetic dynamo.

True or false: At about 12 km above the Earth's surface you would enter the stratosphere.

True

Our weather takes place within this atmospheric layer

Troposphere

True or false: Rocks on the Earth are primarily silicates.

True

The Marias on the Moon are primarily this type of rock

basalt

Craters on the Moon are created mostly by

impact

The process of continental drift can be considered a large part of this broader term

plate tectonics

Global warming over the last century is due primarily to the depletion of ozone in our atmosphere.

false

The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon in which gas molecules in a planet's atmosphere absorb ________, helping to keep planetary surfaces warm.

infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface

Coastal mountain ranges on the Earth can be formed by