GEOL 0870 - Final

Hydrocarbon

What are the dunes of Titan thought to be made of?

Its a small active moon that hides a global ocean under its icy crust

What is so special about Enceladus?

Tholins

Hydrocarbon particles that cause Titan's atmosphere to be orange

N2, CH4, H2

What elements make up Titan?

YES

Does Titan have Seasons?

Methane Ice

What are the mountains on Titan made of?

Liquid Ethane

What are the rivers on Titan carved from?

Great lakes of natural gas

What bodies of liquid do we see on the surface of Titan and what are they made of?

It's too cold for most liquids and water

What is the problem with the surface temperature of Titan?

Dunes, surface liquid, and lakes

What are the major surface features of Titan?

Sublimation

solid to gas

Titan

What is Saturn's biggest moon?

It closely resembles earth with its global oceans

What is so special about Titan?

Cassini

Orbiter around Saturn and Titan

Huygens

Probe on Saturn and Titan

Xanadu

Large continent-sized bright spot on Titan

90,000 years

In theory, how long did it take for the Dunes of Titan to form?

Tidal heating and some internal heat source

How is Enceladus heated?

NO

Does Enceladus have an atmosphere?

Ganymede

What moon does Enceladus's terrain closely resemble?

Snow

What do the volcanoes on Enceladus erupt?

Ice particles from Cryovolcanic activity on Enceladus

What causes the E Ring of Saturn

Iapetus

What is the 3rd largest moon of Saturn?

Two hemispheres have different colors

What is so special about the colors of Iapetus?

-Early convective activity

-It consumed one of Saturn's rings

-Asteroid impact

What are the theories to explain the formation of the equatorial ridge?

Mimas

Moon of Saturn, called the Death Star moon

Atlas and Pan

Moons of Saturn, UFO Moon

Powerful gravitational forces from Saturn

How did Atlas and Pan get their shape?

Its tilted, looks like its tipped on its side

What is so special about Uranus's axis?

Impact with an Earth sized object

What caused Uranus's axial tilt?

Eternal sunlight, other side gets eternal darkness

What happens to the northern hemisphere of Uranus during the summer?

H2, He, CH4

What elements make up Uranus's atmosphere?

Methane

What causes the blue color of Uranus and Neptune?

Ices

What is Uranus mainly composed of?

Rock

What is the core of Uranus made of?

It is tilted off axis and is off center from the the planet

What is so unique about Uranus's magnetic field?

Methane rich mixes of ices and dust

What is Uranus's rings mainly composed of?

11

How many rings of Uranus are there?

Epsilon Ring

What is the brightest ring of Uranus called?

Occultation

The passage of one body in front of another, temporarily blocking its light

Shepherd moons that flank the ring

What causes the shape of the epsilon ring?

Verona Rupes

Cliff on Miranda

Titania

What is Uranus's largest moon?

Water Ice, Methane Ice, and Silicate Rock

What is Titania made of?

Messina Chasma

Largest canyon on Titania, comparable to Valles Marineras on Mars

Oberon

Which moon of Uranus is tidally locked and has the most craters?

Chasmata

prominent canyons

H2, He, CH4

What is the atmosphere of Neptune made of?

YES

Does Neptune have seasons?

There's 16 hours in a day

What factor of Neptune contributes to its oblate shape?

Urbain Le Verrier

Who predicted Neptune's location using gravity disturbances?

Hydrogen, Helium, and Methane

What makes up Neptune's atmosphere?

Convecting gas rising from the interior

What causes the Great Dark Spot on Neptune?

Methane

What are the clouds of Neptune made of?

NO, they are VERY VERY FAST

Are Neptune's winds slow?

The hydrogen rich atmosphere

What causes the mantle of Neptune to be Water, methane, and ammonia slush?

Neptune

What planet does Diamond Rain occur on?

Immense pressure in the atmosphere

What causes Diamond Rain?

Its tilted and offset from the center planet

What is so strange about Neptune's Magnetic Field?

14

How many moons does Neptune have?

Kuiper Belt objects

Where are the moons of Neptune thought to come from?

Non-spherical shape and NO geologic activity

What are some unique features about Proteus and Larissa?

Triton

What is Neptune's largest moon?

Triton

Which moon orbits backwards?

Originally a planetesimal and was captured by Neptune

How did Triton end up as a moon?

Volcanoes on Triton

Active and spew liquid nitrogen

Triton

Which moon has an astronomically low atmospheric pressure?

H2O, CH4, N2, and CO2

What is Triton composed of?

Ice caps of frozen nitrogen and methane

What is located across the Southern Hemisphere of Triton?

Trans Neptunian Objects

Any minor or dwarf planet that orbits the sun at a greater average distance than Neptune

Neptune

What planet is the Kuiper Belt located beyond?

Kuiper Belt

Where is the potential location of short-period comets?

Astronomers think its remnants left over from the formation of the solar system

How was the Kuiper Belt formed?

Roman god of the underworld

Where does Pluto get its name from?

Its tilted and elliptical

What is so unusual about Pluto's orbit?

NO

Does Pluto have an atmosphere?

Sunlight sublimating ices on surface

What can cause Pluto to have an haze?

Tholins

What makes Pluto red?

NO

Does Pluto have a magnetic field?

Mainly nitrogen ice, with methane and carbon monoxide ices also present

What is Pluto's surface made of?

Tombaugh Regio

The heart of Pluto

Sputnik Planitia

Smooth western lobe of Tombaugh Regio

Mountains of Nitrogen, Methane, and Carbon Monoxide

What feature is on the Eastern lobe of the Tombaugh Regio?

-During the day, a thin layer of this nitrogen ice warms and turns into vapor.

-At night, the vapor condenses and once again forms ice.

The cycling of nitrogen across Tombaugh Regio is...

Macula

"Brass Knuckles", Spaced out dark regions that are intersected by topographic highs

Cthulhu Macula

The largest Macula on Pluto

Tholins mixing and creating ices

What causes the dark color of Macula on Pluto?

Montes

Mountains of ice found on Pluto

Tenzing Montes / Norgay Montes

Highest mountain range on Pluto, made of water ice

Charon

What is Pluto's largest moon?

It is tidally locked

What is unusual about Charon's orbit around Pluto?

Tholins

What causes the red regions on Charon?

Chasma

Canyon systems, of which Serenity Chasma is the largest

In a moat, cryovolcano

Where does Kubrick Mons sit and what is it?

From two separate progenitor objects that formed over time from a rotating cloud of small, icy bodies.

How did Arrokoth form itself?

Eris

dwarf planet similar to pluto

Oort Cloud

A spherical region of comets that surrounds the solar system

Small nudges from gravitational pulls

How can comets enter the inner solar system?

Hundreds of Thousands of Years - Millions of Years

How long is the orbit of most comets?

Short period comets

Comets that take less than 200 years to orbit the sun