Exam 7: Other Worlds: an Introduction to the Solar System

In a bad late-night science fiction film, a villain is using a large collection of rare radioactive atoms as energy for a weapon to threaten the good guys. The atoms have a half-life of 1 hour. The villain has 4 kilograms of the radioactive material now, and he needs a minimum of 1 kg. for his weapon to work. After how much time will the weapon no longer be a threat?

The inner planets are made mostly of rock and metal because:

On which of the planets (other than Earth) could a human being step out of a spacecraft and survive without any protective gear (special suit, oxygen tanks, etc)?

A future interplanetary tourist whose parents kept him too warm as a baby asks for your help to find a "really cold place" in the solar system. Which of the following would be the coldest place to take him?

The planet closest to the Sun in the solar system is:

The rate at which a collection of the same radioactive atoms will decay depends on:

Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet?

The smaller objects in the solar system composed mainly of ices (frozen gases) that usually orbit far from the Sun are called:

In radioactive dating, the measure scientists use to note how long (on average) a particular radioactive nucleus will take to decay is called its

Of the following planets, which do NOT have satellites (moons)?

Radioactive dating techniques have revealed that our Earth and Moon are approximately how old?

Which of the following places is most likely NOT to be differentiated?

Which planet in the solar system has not been examined by spacecraft instruments that have either flown by or orbited them?

You are the captain of an interplanetary tour ship and a wealthy tourist from Texas asks you to take him to see only the "largest darn planets" in the solar system. Which of the following would you NOT include in your tour?

On which planet (besides the Earth) do we still see a high level of geological activity on the surface today?

In studying the surfaces of solid bodies in the solar system, astronomers have learned that the number of craters (per unit area):

All the planets (without exception)

One piece of evidence that can help astronomers sort out how the planets in our solar system formed is

Our best evidence and theoretical calculations indicate that the solar system began with a giant spinning system of gas and dust that scientists call:

On Earth, we can get the age of various parts of our planet by finding rocks that contain radioactive atoms. Which other world do have a good number of rocks from to do this kind of age analysis?