Exam 8: Atmospheres of the Terrestrial Planets

Mars' atmosphere is mostly composed of carbon dioxide,therefore the greenhouse effect makes the average temperature 35 degrees warmer than it would be without its atmosphere.

If water vapor was released from Venus' surface due to tectonic activity into its upper atmosphere,what would most likely happen to it?

Most of Earth's present-day atmosphere comes from a combination of what three sources?

If an average hydrogen atom in Earth's atmosphere has a velocity of 2.5 km/s,what would be the average velocity of an molecule in the Earth's atmosphere? Note that the atomic mass of an oxygen atom is 16 times that of a hydrogen atom.

If you found absorption arising from __________ in the spectrum of a planet,you would know that it probably contains some form of life.

Hurricanes are powered by

Which of the following processes did NOT contribute to Earth's secondary atmosphere?

The major component of the air we breathe today was deposited on Earth via cometary impacts.

Without the ozone layer,life on Earth would be in danger from increased levels of __________ radiation.

A gas eventually will escape from a planet's atmosphere if the average velocity of the atoms exceeds 1/6 times the escape velocity of the planet.If the average velocity of water vapor in Venus' atmosphere is 0.9 km/s,would it eventually escape? Venus' mass is and its radius is 6,050 km.

The greenhouse effect raises Earth's surface temperature by roughly

The planet-wide flow of air from the warm equator to the colder poles is called Hadley circulation.

Carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere have been rising by about 4 percent per decade due to the use of fossil fuels.If this trend continues,what could happen to Earth?

Suppose you go out hiking in the snow on a mountain top on a cold winter day when the temperature outside is 0°C and the pressure is 0.75 bar.If you brought along a package of potato chips that was sealed at sea level when the temperature was 24°C,what would have happened to the volume of the bag of chips? By how much will the volume have changed?

Which molecule moves with the fastest average speed in the Earth's atmosphere in thermal equilibrium?

In the Southern hemisphere,hurricanes __________ compared to hurricanes in the Northern hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect.

Venus's surface temperature is fairly uniform from the equator to the poles because

If the carbon dioxide in Earth rocks were suddenly released into its atmosphere,Earth could quite possibly undergo a runaway greenhouse effect.

All weather and wind on Earth are a result of convection in the

Venus rotates so rapidly that the dominant form of convection is powered hurricanes moving east to west in its atmosphere.