Exam 7: Searching for Life in Our Solar System

An extrasolar planet in the HD 4308 system orbits its parent star at a distance of 17.1 million kilometers and takes 15.56 Earth days to complete one orbit. Given this and assuming that planet has a very low mass compared to the parent star, what is the mass of the parent star?

Which of the following planets has not yet been studied with an orbiter?

Dwarf planets are very similar to

Water is present on the Moon and Mercury in the form of

The surface of Venus is much hotter than the Earth because it

Most of the carbon dioxide on the Earth

Which kind of robotic space mission enables us to take a quick look at a planet?

Some Jovian moons may have liquid water

In order for life to survive in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn it would have to

A newly discovered asteroid of the Aten family is found to be 50% closer to the Sun than the Earth is. Given this, how much sunlight does it receive compared to the Earth?

If ice were denser than water, during winter lakes and ponds would

Given that organic molecules need to react in order to produce life, this suggests we should search for worlds in the solar system that have

Mercury and the Moon are probably the least-habitable bodies in the solar system because they

The necessary chemical elements of life should

If we place living cells in a nonpolar solvent like methane or ethane,

If life does indeed exist elsewhere in our solar system it will most likely take the form of

Which kind of robotic space mission enables us to determine the chemical composition of a planet's surface and atmosphere remotely?

Even though ethane (C₂H₆) has a liquid temperature range almost as wide as water, it is not as good a biological solvent as water because it is a liquid at

Although very unlikely, if life exists on Venus today, it will most likely be found

Molecules like water in which electrons are distributed unevenly within the molecule are referred to as