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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are canali? |
Channels crossing desert regions in Mars. They were drawn in artificially when old astronomers looked at the planet. |
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What are the spirit and opportunity in relation to Mars? |
Two rovers on Mars' surface. Spirit's mission is over as it is stuck in a sand trap that rendered it nonfunctional. |
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What is the Mars Curiosity. |
A more advanced rover on Mars that aims to: investigate whether Mars has held or can hold microbial life, explore the presence of water, explore climate, and explore geology. |
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Describe Mars' atmosphere. |
-mostly carbon dioxide -miniscule amounts of water and oxygen -Mars' atmosphere has a low escape velocity (half of earth's) meaning that the molecules do not need to be moving very fast to leave the planet -mass of mars is also much smaller than earth -larger molecules like water cannot be retained on mars either because UV light breaks the molecule apart and the individual elements escape -earth's ozone layer protects water from UV light |
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What are polar hoods? |
High altitudes in Mars are so cold that atmospheric CO2 freezes and creates clouds and hazes. |
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What is saltation? |
Winds on mars carry small grains of dust across the surface. They can be deposited into pattern-like small hills called dune fields. |
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What causes water to evaporate on Mars? |
Low atmospheric pressure cannot trap heat. |
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What evidence suggests there was once water on Mars? |
Perchlorate which are salts that lower the melting temperature of ice have been found on Mars. This way liquid water can exist at lower temperatures. Now though, water is found as ice or frost. |
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T/F Mars has permanent polar ice caps. |
True |
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Occasionally ejecta from mars reach earth, what evidence do they provide? |
That the magma they came from is 1.8% water. |
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Describe martian volcanoes. |
They are shield volcanoes which are shaped like an inverted warrior's shield and were formed by low viscosity lava flows. |
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What is Olympus mons? Compare it to Mauna Loa. |
Largest volcano in the solar system which is found on mars. Unlike Mauna Loa (earth's largest volcano) olympus has not sunk into the crust of Mars. This suggests the Mars has a thicker crust than earth. |
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Mars has no sea to measure elevation against, so what do we use? |
The point at which atmospheric pressure is 6 mbar i.e. when liquid, solid, and gaseous water exist in equilibrium. |
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Describe the rocks on mars. |
-Basalts -andesites (high silicon content) -sedimentary rocks -duricrust (crumbly, flaky, dust evaporites) -blueberries (small spherules scattered over soil) -red bands (from iron oxides) formed by arid regions with transient moisture episodes |
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Describe the interior of mars. |
-iron core that is not completely solid |
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What are the martian geological eras? |
1. Noachian-most active 2. Hesperian-moderately active (with water flow) 3. Amazonian -least active |
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Describe the developmental history of mars. |
1. Differentiation into core, mantle, and crust. No plate tectonics. No magnetic field 2. cratering 3. flooding by lava and water. As temperature fell water froze into soil as permafrost. 4. Silent planet |
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What are Mars' satellites? What do they illustrate? |
phobos and deimos. 1. some satellites are captured asteroids 2. small satellites tend to be heavily craters and irregular in shape 3. Tidal forces can eventually change the orbit of satellites. |
