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121 Cards in this Set
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- 3rd side (hint)
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What is the relationship between the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt and the Cassini division in the rings of Saturn |
Both the Kirkwood gaps in the Cassini division are caused by disruptions of the orbits of small objects by larger planets or moons. In both cases, the periods of the small objects are simple fractions of those of the larger disturbing object. |
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The first satellite discovered in orbit about Pluto was Charon what is unusual about this moon? |
Compared with Planet-satellite systems in the rest of the solar system Charon is very large and very close to Pluto. |
The size of Charon |
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The main gravitational effect that organizes the particles in the rings of Saturn into specific orbits is |
Gravitational perturbations by the large moons orbiting these planets. |
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The internal structure of mercury is |
Dense iron core taking up almost half of the volume of the planet and a rocky mantle surrounding the core. |
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The major chemical constituent of the layers of material continuously being deposited on the surface of IO ,the innermost moon of Jupiter, by volcanic action is |
Sulfur |
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The mass of Jupiter compared with that of Earth is |
About 300 times larger |
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The chemical constituent that absorbs UV radiation in the stratosphere Earth's atmosphere, there by heating these layers to relatively high temperatures, is |
O3, ozone. |
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What is unique about the Pluto-Charon system, compared with all the other planets in the solar system? |
Both Pluto and Charon are in synchronous rotation, so each object maintains the same face toward the other object at all times |
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Rocks lay down at around the time of the Permian/Triassic mass extinction 250 million years ago contain a surprising amount of fullerenes( football shaped carbon molecules). What evidence is there that the fullerenes came from outer space? |
Gases trapped inside the fullerenes could have come only from stars |
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How is nitrogen thought to have become the dominant gas in the atmosphere of the moon Titan a satellite of Saturn? |
From the breakup of ammonia by solar UV into nitrogen and hydrogen; the light hydrogen atoms are the lost to space |
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What evidence is there that plate tectonics may have occurred in very early times on Mars? |
Magnetic fields at the surface of Mars show interlocking patterns similar to those in regions where plates are separating on the earth |
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Viking 1 and Viking 2,the planet exploring spacecraft, were sent to which planet? |
Mars |
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The plumes that were seen rising from the surface of Triton, Neptune's largest satellite are believed to be |
Nitrogen gas driven through fissures from beneath the surface by radioactive heat |
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Which solar system object was found on January 1st 1801 located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter? |
Asteroid Ceres |
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What is the pattern followed by the average densities of the Galilean moons of Jupiter with increasing distance from the planet? |
Average density decreased with distance from the planet |
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Gaymede, largest Galilean moon of Jupiter,is |
Larger than mercury but smaller than Mars |
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The number of times a typical comment can pass close to the Sun before it is completely vaporized or destroyed is about |
100 |
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The region outside the orbit of Neptune in which a large number of objects composed of rock and ice circle the Sun not far from the plane of the ecliptic is called the |
Kipper Belt |
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How many moons are known to orbit Jupiter |
More than 60 |
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which of the following statements about Earth is true |
Life developed in a carbon dioxide rich atmosphere and then converted it into an oxygen-rich atmosphere |
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Where would the Sun appear to rise on Venus if you could see through the clouds |
In the West |
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The Martian moon Phobos orbits near the equator or plain of Mars in just over 7.5 hours in the same direction as the planet's rotation. How then would you see Phobos move across the Martian sky from the surface of the planet? |
Phobos would rise in the West, move rapidly across the sky, set in the east , and appear several times per Martian day |
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Continental drift on earth is now thought to be caused by |
Circulation currency in the deep interior causing slabs of Earth's crust to move slowly |
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How were the first rings of Uranus discovered |
From the earth when each ring momentarily blocked the light from a background star |
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The coldest layer of Earth's atmosphere is located between |
Mesosphere and thermosphere |
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What was the first direct evidence that some other solar-type stars might have planets |
Warped disk of dust and gas around some young stars |
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Which fact first gave Alfred Wegener the idea that continents have drifted and are still drifting over Earth surfaces |
The shapes of the east coast of the North and South America fit nicely against those of the west coast of Europe and Africa |
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Which of the following significant features would be noticed by space travelers approaching earth for the first time |
One hemisphere of the earth is almost entirely covered with water |
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The existence of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter has been known since |
The time of Hooke in Cassini in the 1600's |
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Of the following objects in the solar system which one has the greatest orbital eccentricity and therefore the most elliptical orbit |
Pluto |
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The large amount of free oxygen in Earth's present atmosphere is primarily a result of |
Biological processes such as photosynthesis |
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How do we measure the mass of an extrasolar planet |
We use Newton's law of gravity using the measured distance of the planet from its star in the planets gravitational pull on the star |
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The collision of the Deep Impact probe with the nucleus of the comet temple 1 in 2005 revealed the nucleus as a rubble pile held together by |
Gravitation |
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What is the material that produces the distinct red color of Mars |
Rust or iron oxides |
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Neptunes high cirrus clouds consist of |
Methane ice crystals |
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The Polar caps on Mars are most probably made up of |
Water and carbon dioxide ices |
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So which of the following descriptions would you identify a rock as a fallen meteorite |
Irregular and very heavy solid iron rock with a distinctive crystal structure throughout its interior |
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The Martian magnetic field is |
Weak and localized not at all like the global magnetic field of the Earth |
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Which of the following biochemical materials have been found and identified in carbonaceous chondrites that have hit Earth |
Amino acids or proteins |
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As a result of Huygens-Cassini mission all of the following features except one were detected on the surface of Titan. which one was not detected |
A heavily cratered surface |
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Observations of technical activity different on Venus and on earth. a reasonable explanation is that on Venus |
The crust appears to be thicker and is therefore too rigid to break up into moving plates |
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The albedo of mercury is about 0.1 this means that |
Mercury reflects 1/10of the sunlight falling on it |
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The average age of the surface of Venus has been determined primarily from |
The number of impact craters per unit area of surface |
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What is the principal reason we have no volcanoes on the earth anywhere near the size of Olympus Mons |
Because the tectonic activity on earth, a volcano does not sit over the same spot for a long period And continue to grow |
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Moon produces title disturbances on the oceans of Earth. In general, there are |
Too high and two low tides per day. |
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what did the Magellan spacecraft tell us about Venus's upper atmosphere, before the spacecraft burned up on entry into the atmosphere? |
The density of Venus's upper atmosphere berries markedly from one place to another |
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The most common media rights to hit Earth are |
Stony meteorites |
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The first postulated that continents drift around the Earth's surface |
Alfred Wegener |
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Jupiter has a magnetic field that is |
Much more powerful than that of the earth |
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Which of the following objects was farthest from the Sun in 1990 |
Pluto |
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The highest temperature in the Vensian atmosphere occurs |
At the planet's surface |
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The great dark spot on Neptune |
Disappeared sometime between the Voyager fly by in 1989 and when the Hubble Space Telescope photographed Neptune in 1994 |
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Most extrasolar planets have been found |
Around stars in the disk of our galaxy |
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In the collisions of the fragments of Comet shoemaker-levy 9 with Jupiter the pieces |
We're not able to penetrate deeply into Jupiter's atmosphere ; their impacts disturbed only the high atmosphere |
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The surface of Europa ,one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, appears to be covered with |
A smooth layer of ice crossed by many cracks |
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The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus consists primarily of |
Droplets of sulfuric acid |
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Deep oceanic trenches on earth are locations at which |
Cool surface material on earth 6 below other material at the tectonic plate boundary |
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The shape and dimensions of the magnetosphere surrounding Jupiter are controlled by |
The opposing pressure of the ionized gas of the solar wind and the planets magnetic field |
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The infrared camera of the Hubble Space Telescope was able to see through the haze layers of the atmosphere of Uranus to show |
A system of Jupiter-like bands and zones above which are giant and consistently changing methane clouds |
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Is the basic structure of Earth's interior |
Solid iron inner core, molten iron outer core, rocky mantle, lighter rocky crust |
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The most likely explanation for the retrograde rotation of Venus is that |
Impact of a massive object on it early in its history |
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The heat energy that powers tectonic activity on the surface of Earth originates deep in Earth's core. How does the energy move from the core to the surface |
Conduction through the solid lower mantle and convection in the upper mantle (asthenosphere) |
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Which spacecraft visited Saturn in 2004 to image both the planet and its moons and to send a probe into Saturnian atmosphere emulating the previous Galileo mission to Jupiter |
Cassini |
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How was Neptune discovered |
By a careful application of Newton's laws to the somewhat irregular motions of Uranus |
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If you were standing on Pluto how often would you see the satellite charon on rise above the horizon each day |
Never charon is a synchronous satellite with an orbital period exactly equal to Pluto's rotation periodaron is a synchronous satellite with an orbital period exactly equal to Pluto's rotation period |
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Which of the following places on earth experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location |
Alaska |
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Critters are not a parent on earth at the present time in the abundance seen on the moon because |
Plate tectonics has returned cratered surface layers into Earth's interior and weathering has obliterated the more recent craters |
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what are the most common shapes of lunar craters and why |
Round because the incoming projectiles vaporized and exploded to form the crater |
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A particular star shows spectral lines of the lithium isotope. what conclusion do astronomers draw from this observation |
The star has vaporized one of its planets the spiraled in too close to the star because the stars own lithium isotope was destroyed by nuclear reaction long ago |
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Jupiter's satellite IO has numerous black spots on its surface. What are these black spots |
Volcanic vents |
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What is the most likely cause of the smooth and relatively creator- free surfaces of lunar Maria |
The lava in these basins flowed in the relatively late geological history of the moon, after the period of major bombardment |
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The gravitational effect that can find the particles of the F ring of Saturn to orbit is the |
Gravitational influence of two small shepherding satellites in the orbits adjacent to the ring |
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What is the lunar regolith? |
Layer of fine powder covering the lunar surface |
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The sulfuric acid clouds on Venus |
Are confined to a narrow layer about 60 kilometers above the planet's surface and cover the whole planet |
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Mercury can be seen easily from the earth only |
When Mercury is near the Sun, just after sunset or just before sunrise |
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The severe atmospheric conditions that quickly destroyed spacecraft that soft landed on the surface of Venus were |
High temperatures, high pressures, and corrosive acid clouds and mist |
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The auroral ovals over the magnetic poles of Jupiter and Saturn have been detected and imaged in what kind of light |
Ultraviolet light |
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The polar caps on Mars are most probably made up of |
Water and carbon dioxide ices |
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there are half a dozen large Maria on the side of the Moon facing earth and only one mare on the far side. Which of the following explanations is most likely? |
The crust on the far side is sticker (because of the Earth's pull on the moons core) and thus it is more difficult for lava to flow into large craters on the far side |
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The major difference between the orbital paths of comments that we see in the inner solar system and those of the asteroids in the asteroid belt is that |
cometary orbits are highly elliptical and at random inclinations to the ecliptic plane compared with the circular orbits of asteroids in the ecliptic plane |
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The material from which our solar system formed is believed to be |
A cold dark cloud of gas and dust |
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What is the major constituent of the atmosphere of Mars |
Carbon dioxide |
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The molecular oxygen in Earth's present atmosphere was most probably produced |
By biological activities such as photosynthesis from living things |
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Where in the planetary system is the massive extinct super volcano Olympus Mons |
Mars |
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The average sidereal period for an asteroid moving around the Sun in the asteroid belt, according to Kepler's law, is |
4. 68 years |
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What is the most probable heat source that produced extensive, maybe even total, melting of the moon at an early stage in its history |
Decay of radioactive elements within it and the impact energy of Meteoric bombardment |
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The presence of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is thought to result directly from what type of process |
Biological activity of plants and animals |
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Clouds extend above the surface of Venus to a maximum altitude of |
Almost 70 kilometres |
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Fusion is the process by which |
Elements are transformed into heavier elements by nuclear reaction |
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Most of the weight of our bodies comes from the heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen. This fact immediately tells us that |
The solar system did not form directly from the material created by the big bag |
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The planet with the greatest mean density is |
Earth |
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What is believed to be the basic structure of the interior of Uranus |
Rocky core, thick layer of highly compressed liquid water, thick outer layer of liquid hydrogen, thin gaseous atmosphere |
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Where are the 5 moderate sized satellites of Uranus in relation to the rings |
All five are well outside the ring system |
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The cause of the meteor showers seen at regular times each year on earth is most probably |
Earth moving through the remnant dust and rock fragments of an old comet that are orbiting the Sun in the comets old orbit |
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Earth's stratosphere is warmer than the layers above and below it because |
Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs specific wavelengths of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun |
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Which of the following statements correctly describes how Neptune differs from Uranus |
A number of storms and ice clouds are visible in Neptune's atmosphere, whereas Uranus's atmosphere appears almost featureless |
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the low average density of large, outer planets, which have high masses and hence high gravitational fields, is an indication of what fact about their interiors? |
The large, outer planets are composed mainly of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium |
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Dust grains released by the melting of ice in a comet nucleus |
Become a uniform, curved tail moving away from the comment under radiation pressure from the sunlight |
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The rings of Saturn are seen by |
Reflected and scattered sunlight |
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what is the most probable Micheal mechanism to have caused the very long cracks and streaks that criss cross the surface of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter? |
Title flexing by Jupiter cracked the icy surface, allowing subsurface fluids to gush out and freeze in place |
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Comments are typically |
Chunks of ice that begin to vaporize if they pass close to the Sun |
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What is the cause of the great mountain ranges on earth, such as the Rockies, the Andes, and the Himalayas? |
Two tectonic plates that are moving at different velocities across the face of the earth collide |
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The rotation period of Jupiter is |
Relatively short, on the order of 10 hours |
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The Kuiper belt is |
A flat or doughnut shaped distribution of distant comets around the Sun, extending about 500 AU |
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How long is a lunar day that is, the time between sunrise and sunset on the moon |
About 1 month |
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Caps on Mars are now noon to consist of |
Carbon dioxide ice, which evaporates easily, overlaying sicker and more long-lived water ice |
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What evidence is there that Mars may have had an internal magnetic dynamo in its youth |
Magnetic fields at the surface of Mars show interlocking patterns similar to those produced on Earth by magnetic reversals in the Earth's internal dynamo |
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What are neap tides? |
High tides that are significantly lower than the average high tide |
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The exploratory life sciences experience abroad the Viking spacecraft Landers found evidence of |
Very reactive chemistry in the Martian surface rocks, but no evidence of life or remnants of life forms |
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what fraction of the total mass of earth atmosphere is contained in the troposphere, the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere |
75% |
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Which of the following chemicals is the most abundant in the outer atmosphere of Jupiter |
Ammonia (NH3) |
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Pluto was discovered in |
1930 |
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The age of the moon rocks have been determined primarily by what method |
Measurements of radioactive elements in the rocks |
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The reason there are very few impact craters on the surface of Venus compared to the surface of mercury and Mars is thought to be that |
the sick atmosphere of Venus has protected it from most incoming objects, and the surface has melted periodically to obliterate old craters |
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The physical mechanism that is thought to control the motion and position of material in the narrow F ring around Saturn is the |
Confining gravitational interaction between this material and to shepherd satellites |
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Asteroids whose orbits carry them across Earth's orbit are known as |
Apollo asteroids |
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The surface temperature of Venus has been found by radio observations and by remote exploration by spacecraft to be approximately |
750 K |
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Which of the following kinds of materials is not found on the moon |
Limestone |
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The tail of a comet |
Is longest when the comet is closest to the Sun |
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What were the results of the impacts of the fragments on comet shoemaker-levy 9 into Jupiter |
Fireballs hotter than the sun's surface made dark splotches that lasted for months |
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Miranda is a satellite of |
Uranus |
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