Astro 103 Final (Chapters 10-14)

Front 1

What is the meaning of albedo?

Back 1

The higher the albedo, the more light the surface reflects, and the less it absorbs.

Front 2

Which planet has the most substantial atmosphere?

Back 2

Venus

Front 3

Which planet has the least substantial atmosphere?

Back 3

Mercury

Front 4

What are greenhouse gases?

Back 4

gases that absorb infrared light

Front 5

How does the greenhouse gases effect work?

Back 5

GG transmit visible light, allowing it to heat the surface, but then absorb infrared light from Earth, trapping the heat near the surface.

Front 6

The proper order of the layers of the atmosphere from lowest altitude to highest is

Back 6

troposphere, stratosphere, thermosphere, exosphere.

Front 7

Which planet has a stratosphere?

Back 7

Earth

Front 8

The sky is blue because?

Back 8

molecules scatter the blue light more effectively than the red light.

Front 9

Convection occurs in the troposphere but not in the stratosphere because

Back 9

lower altitudes of the troposphere are warmer than higher altitudes, unlike the stratosphere.

Front 10

What is the difference in weather and climate?

Back 10

Weather refers to short-term variations in conditions, and climate refers to long-term variations in conditions.

Front 11

Why doesn't Venus have seasons like Earth and Mars?

Back 11

Its rotation axis is not tilted.

Front 12

From where did the molecular oxygen in Earth's atmosphere originate?

Back 12

photosynthesis from single-celled organisms

Front 13

Why do jovian planets bulge around the equator?

Back 13

Their rapid rotation flings the mass near the equator outward.

Front 14

How do astronomers think Jupiter generates its internal heat?

Back 14

contracting, changing gravitational potential energy into thermal energy.

Front 15

Why is Jupiter denser than Saturn?

Back 15

The extra mass of Jupiter compresses its interior to a greater extent than that of Saturn.

Front 16

Why is Neptune denser than Saturn?

Back 16

It has a different composition than Saturn, including a higher proportion of hydrogen compounds and rocks.

Front 17

Why do the jovian planets interior differ?

Back 17

Accretion took longer further from the Sun, so the more distant planets formed their cores later and captured less gas from the solar nebula than the closer jovian planets.

Front 18

Why does Jupiter have several distinct cloud layers?

Back 18

Different layers represent clouds made of gases that condense at different temperatures,

Front 19

The four Galilean moons around Jupiter are

Back 19

a mixture of rock and ice, with the ice fraction increasing with the distance from Jupiter.

Front 20

The fact that most moons always show the same face to their planet is

Back 20

a natural consequence of tidal forces acting on the moons.

Front 21

What causes synchronous rotation?

Back 21

A massive planet exerts a tidal force on a moon that causes the moon to align itself such that its tidal bulges always point toward and away from the planet.

Front 22

What is the most important reason why an icy moon is more likely to be geologically active than a rocky moon of the same size?

Back 22

Ice has a lower melting point than rock.

Front 23

Why are Saturn's rings so thin?>

Back 23

Any particle in the ring with an orbital tilt would collide with other ring particles, flattening its orbit.

Front 24

Planetary rings are

Back 24

all of the above

Front 25

Which planet can't be seen with the naked eye?

Back 25

Neptune

Front 26

Which planets location was predicted using calculations of orbital motions?

Back 26

Neptune

Front 27

True of False: Comets are balls of ice and dust.

Back 27

True

Front 28

A rocky leftover planetesimal orbiting the Sun is

Back 28

an asteroid

Front 29

Why do asteroids and comets differ in composition?

Back 29

Asteroids formed inside the frost line, and comets formed outside the frost line.

Front 30

Ceres, the largest asteroid, compares how in size to other solar system worlds?

Back 30

It is about half the size of Pluto.

Front 31

The combined mass of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt is

Back 31

less than that of any terrestrial planet.

Front 32

The large gaps in the asteroid belt are caused by

Back 32

orbital resonances with Jupiter.

Front 33

Why isn't there a planet where the asteroid belt is located?

Back 33

Gravitational tugs from Jupiter prevented material from collecting together to form a planet.

Front 34

What is a meteorite?

Back 34

a fragment of an asteroid from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface.

Front 35

Meteorites can come from

Back 35

comets, cores of asteroids, the Moon, and Mars.

Front 36

When do comets begin to form a tail?

Back 36

In Jupiter's orbit

Front 37

The dinosaurs died off largely because

Back 37

the dust injected into the stratosphere from the impact absorbed visible light from the Sun, causing global temperatures to plummet.

Front 38

When was Pluto discovered?

Back 38

about 80 years ago

Front 39

Why aren't small asteroids circular in shape?

Back 39

The strength of gravity on small asteroids is less than the strength of the rock.

Front 40

Approximately how many other planetary systems have been discovered to date?

Back 40

a thousand

Front 41

The Doppler technique provides a measure of a planet's

Back 41

minimum mass, orbital eccentricity, orbital radius

Front 42

A planet's density can be measured by combining

Back 42

Doppler and transit observations

Front 43

The transit method of planet detection works best for

Back 43

big planets in edge-on orbits around smaller stars

Front 44

Which planet occasionally transits across the face of the Sun?

Back 44

Mercury.

Front 45

Which planet search technique is currently best suited to finding Earth-like planets?

Back 45

transit

Front 46

The repeating pattern of the stellar motion of a detected planet via Doppler tells us

Back 46

the orbital period of the planet

Front 47

The depth of the dip in a star's brightness due to the transit of a planet depends most directly on

Back 47

the planet's size.

Front 48

How do we think the "hot Jupiters" around other stars were formed?

Back 48

Gas giants beyond the frost line and then migrated inwards

Front 49

What is a consequence of the discovery of hot Jupiters for the nebular theory of solar system formation?

Back 49

Modified to allow for planets to migrate inwards or outwards due to gravitational interactions.

Front 50

The Doppler technique only provides a measure of the minimum mass of a planet because

Back 50

only the motion of star toward the observer is measured, not the full motion.

Front 51

What is the Sun made of?

Back 51

70% hydrogen, 28% helium, 2% other elements

Front 52

The phase of matter the Sun is in

Back 52

plasma

Front 53

From the center outward, list the layers of the Sun in order?

Back 53

core, radiation zone, convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona

Front 54

Why do sunspots appear dark in pictures of the Sun?

Back 54

They actually are fairly bright but appear dark against the even brighter background of the Sun.

Front 55

How does the Sun generate energy today?

Back 55

nuclear fusion

Front 56

How much mass does the Sun lose through nuclear fusion per second?

Back 56

4 million tons

Front 57

What are coronal holes?

Back 57

areas of the corona where magnetic field lines project into space allowing charged particles to escape the Sun and become part of the solar wind.

Front 58

What processes are involved in the sunspot cycle?

Back 58

the winding of magnetic field lines due to differential rotation

Front 59

What is the major drawback of the gravitational contraction theory?

Back 59

It predicted that the Sun could last only about 25 million years, which is far less than the age of the Earth.

Front 60

What does the Sun being in gravitational equilibrium mean?

Back 60

There is a balance within the Sun between the outward push of pressure and the inward pull of gravity.

Front 61

What is the average temperature of the surface of the Sun?

Back 61

6,000 Kelvin

Front 62

What happens to energy in the convection zone of the Sun?

Back 62

It is transported outward by the rising of hot plasma and the sinking of cooler plasma.