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50 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
The following statements are all true. Which one counts as an "exception to the rule" in being unusual for our solar system? |
The diameter of Earth's Moon is about 1/4 that of Earth. |
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Which planet listed below has the most extreme seasons? |
Uranus |
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Which jovian planet does not have rings? |
All the jovian planets have rings. |
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What is the primary basis upon which we divide the ingredients of the solar nebula into four categories (hydrogen/helium; hydrogen compound; rock; metal)? |
the temperatures at which various materials will condense from gaseous form to solid form |
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No spacecraft has landed on a Jovian planet moon. |
False |
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The terrestrial planets in our solar system are ________. |
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars |
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Why is Venus so much hotter than the Earth? |
because it has much more carbon dioxide in its atmosphere |
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A planet is most likely to have tectonic activity if it has |
high internal temperature. |
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Titan's surface may contain lakes of liquid methane. |
True |
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In essence, the nebular theory holds that ________. |
our solar system formed from the collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust |
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Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a low-pressure storm, like a hurricane on Earth. |
False |
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Which of the following statements about Titan is not true? |
It is the coldest moon in the solar system. |
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Which of the following statements best explains why the planets orbit in nearly a single plane and in the same direction around the Sun? |
the planets formed from a disk of rotating gas. |
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Which of the following is not a piece of evidence supporting the idea that Europa may have a subsurface ocean? |
Astronomers have detected small lakes of liquid water on Europa's surface. |
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Most of the Moon's surface is densely covered with craters, but we find relatively few craters within the lunar maria. What can we conclude? |
The maria formed after the heavy bombardment ended. |
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Why is the radiation so intense in the region that traces Io's orbit around Jupiter (the Io torus)? |
The region is full of gases that become ionized after they are released from volcanoes on Io. |
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Which of the following statements about asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, and Oort cloud objects is true? |
Objects in the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane as the planets, but objects in the Oort cloud do not |
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Jupiter and the other jovian planets are sometimes called "gas giants." In what sense is this term misleading? |
They actually contain relatively little material in a gaseous state. |
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Which of the following is not a characteristic of the outer planets? |
They have very few, if any, satellites. |
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What is the most abundant gas in Titan's atmosphere? |
Nitrogen |
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Ganymede is larger than Mercury, but it is not classified as a planet because it orbits Jupiter as opposed to the sun. |
True |
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Which internal energy source produces heat by converting gravitational potential energy into thermal energy? |
accretion differentiation |
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Where did comets that are now in the Kuiper belt originally form? |
near the radius at which they orbit today |
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Meteorites can come from |
the Moon. the crusts and mantles of asteroids. Mars. the cores of asteroids.
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Which two factors are most important to the existence of plate tectonics on Earth? |
mantle convection and a thin lithosphere |
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Observations of young stars (as well as theory) tell us that when the Sun was young, the solar wind |
was stronger than it is today. |
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A rock found on Earth that crashed down from space is called ________. |
a meteorite |
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What type of stresses broke Earth's lithosphere into plates? |
the circulation of convection cells in the mantle, which dragged against the lithosphere |
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Which of the following gases is not a significant ingredient of the jovian planet atmospheres? |
carbon dioxide |
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Why would the weather become more severe as the greenhouse effect increased? |
Warming would increase the evaporation of the oceans, leading to more water in the atmosphere and more frequent and severe storms. |
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The asteroid belt is located ________. |
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter |
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Which of the following statements about the moons of the jovian planets is not true? |
Most of the moons are large enough to be spherical in shape, but a few have the more potato-like shapes of asteroids. |
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Which of the following best explain what we think happened to outgassed water vapor on Venus? |
Ultraviolet light split the water molecules, and the hydrogen then escaped to space. |
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Why do the jovian planet interiors differ? |
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. |
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Suppose you view the solar system from high above Earth's North Pole. Which of the following statements about planetary orbits will be true? |
All the planets orbit counterclockwise around the Sun. |
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In what way(s) has Pluto long been known to be different from the planets? |
It is far smaller than the terrestrial planets. It has a highly eccentric orbit. Its orbit is more inclined to the ecliptic plane. It is composed primarily of ices.
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Which of the following does not have a major effect in shaping planetary surfaces? |
magnetism |
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Which of the following is the most basic definition of a greenhouse gas? |
a gas that absorbs infrared light |
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Which of the following statements about comets and asteroids is true? |
Comets are balls of ice and dust |
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Which of the following most likely explains why Venus does not have a strong magnetic field? |
Its rotation is too slow. |
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Which of the following gases absorbs ultraviolet light best? |
ozone |
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Where is Jupiter's strong magnetic field generated? |
metallic hydrogen layer |
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Which of the following is not a characteristic of the inner planets? |
They all have substantial atmospheres. |
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Which of these is the dominant mechanism for the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? |
dissolving carbon dioxide in seawater |
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A typical shooting star in a meteor shower is caused by a ________ entering Earth's atmosphere. |
pea-size particle from a comet |
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What do we mean by the frost line when we discuss the formation of planets in the solar nebula? |
It is a circle at a particular distance from the Sun, beyond which the temperature was low enough for ices to condense. |
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How do asteroids appear in long exposure images? |
as straight lines across a background of stars |
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What is Pluto's moon Charon thought to have in common with our own Moon? |
It probably formed as a result of a giant impact |
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According to the nebular theory, how did the Oort cloud form? |
It is made of planetesimals formed in the outer solar system that were flung into distant orbits by encounters with the jovian planets |
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Where did the elements heavier than hydrogen and helium come from? |
They were produced inside stars. |