Deck 24: Touring Our Solar System

Question 1

Which planet displays retrograde rotation?

A)Venus
B)Mars
C)Neptune
D)Saturn

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the most common igneous rock found on the lunar maria?

A)Anorthosite
B)Regolith
C)Basalt
D)Pumice

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What is the age of the moon?

A)4)5 billion years
B)5)025 million years
C)3)14 million years
D)4)527 million years

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What kinds of rocks were most commonly retrieved from the lunar highlands?

A)Flood basalts
B)Granite
C)Anorthosite
D)Frozen hydrogen

Question 5

Because of an extreme ________, surface temperatures on Venus average more than 450°C.

A)friction
B)impact
C)greenhouse effect
D)volcanic eruption

Question 6

Because of the low relative mass, the gravitational attraction on the moon is ________ that of the Earth.

A)1/2
B)1/4
C)1/6
D)1/8

Question 7

An estimated 99.85 percent of the mass in the solar system is concentrated in ________.

A)Jupiter
B)the sun
C)the Kuiper Belt
D)the terrestrial planets

Question 8

Compared to Earth's atmosphere, the Martian atmosphere has surface pressures that are ________.

A)50 times those on Earth
B)32.1 times those on Earth
C)1)5 times those on Earth
D)0)1 times those on Earth

Question 9

________ is the study of the formation and evolution of the bodies in our solar system.

A)Astrology
B)Astronomy
C)Cosmology
D)Planetary Geology

Question 10

The planet Mercury absorbs most of the sunlight that strikes its surface.Why is so little reflected back to outer space?

A)Mercury has a great deal of frozen methane on its surface.
B)The planet is covered by a thick haze.
C)Mercury has little or no atmosphere.
D)The surface of Mercury has not been disturbed by meteorite impacts.

Question 11

What was the name of the manned space missions that have successfully landed on the surface of the moon?

A)Apollo
B)Gemini
C)Mercury
D)Sputnik

Question 12

Which of the following processes created the lunar maria?

A)Solar winds eroded wide, shallow basins, which were later filled with ejecta.
B)Large impact craters were then filled with basaltic lava flows.
C)Liquid water flowed across the landscape, which later froze.
D)Rocks exposed to the solar winds oxidized.

Question 13

Only a few thousand impact craters have been identified on Venus's surface, even though it, too, would have experienced the same heavy bombardment period that affected Mercury and the moon.Why does Venus appear relatively unscathed?

A)Venus was not impacted.
B)The gravitational forces of Mercury deflected the meteorites.
C)Venus's surface was reshaped by extensive volcanism.
D)Extensive stream networks buried the impact sites with sediments.

Question 14

The ________ explains the formation of the solar system by describing how the sun and planets formed from a rotating cloud of interstellar gases.

A)transit of Venus
B)escape velocity
C)nebular theory
D)theory of plate tectonics

Question 15

________ is the speed required for an object to escape a planet's gravitational force.

A)Obliquity
B)Impact weathering
C)Escape velocity
D)Terminal velocity

Question 16

What is a planetesimal?

A)A rotating cloud of interstellar gases
B)A celestial body that orbits the sun but cannot clear its own neighborhood
C)Rocky material accreted through repeated collisions
D)The core of a star that has gone through a nova

Question 17

The major bombardment period that shaped much of the surface of the moon ended ________.

A)5)0 billion years ago
B)3)8 billion years ago
C)2)2 billion years ago
D)767 million years ago

Question 18

Today, erosion on the moon is dominated by ________, which helps to smooth the landscape.

A)Water
B)Wind
C)Ice
D)Micrometeorites

Question 19

How many planets are in our solar system?

A)5
B)8
C)10
D)13

Question 20

What substance makes up the core of large Jovian planets like Saturn?

A)Mercury
B)Hydrogen
C)Iron
D)Ice

Question 21

________ is the largest known asteroid.

A)Pluto
B)Eris
C)Ceres
D)Andromeda

Question 22

What is the definition of cryovolcanism?

A)Pyroclastic volcanism that ignites methane-rich atmospheres
B)Cessation of volcanism because of increasing atmospheric pressures
C)Increase in rate of tectonic motion due to lubrication of ice
D)Eruption of magmas derived from partial melting of ice

Question 23

Which of the following physical features has not yet been found on Mars?

A)Polar ice caps
B)H₂O-rich atmosphere
C)Extinct volcanoes
D)Sand dunes

Question 24

Outside of Earth, which body in the solar system is likely to have liquid water beneath its icy surface?

A)Mars
B)Neptune
C)Rhea
D)Europa

Question 25

Which scientist first observed the rings of Saturn in 1610?

A)Christian Huygens
B)Isaac Newton
C)Galileo Galilei
D)Johannes Kepler

Question 26

The most volcanically active body in the solar system is ________.

A)Mars
B)Io
C)Ganymede
D)Earth

Question 27

What process produces the alternating dark-colored belts and light-colored zones visible on Jupiter?

A)Convective flow
B)Dust storms on the surface
C)Volcanic eruptions along tectonic boundaries
D)Acid rain

Question 28

What is the term that describes the bright halo of a comet created when escaping gases carry dust away from the comet's surface?

A)Coma
B)Comma
C)Corona
D)Cosmos

Question 29

Which planet has the most moons in orbit around it?

A)Neptune
B)Saturn
C)Uranus
D)Jupiter

Question 30

The largest shield volcano in the solar system is ________ and is located on ________.

A)Maat Mons; Venus
B)Olympus Mons; Mars
C)Mauna Kea; Earth
D)Sif Mons; Venus

Question 31

What gas makes up 97 percent of Venus's atmosphere?

A)Carbon dioxide
B)Methane
C)Hydrogen
D)Helium

Question 32

Which two satellites are the only ones in the solar system known to have substantial atmosphere?

A)Neptune's moon Triton and Jupiter's moon Io
B)Saturn's moon Titan and Neptune's moon Triton
C)Uranus's moon Miranda and Saturn's moon Rhea
D)Jupiter's moon Io and Earth's moon

Question 33

During the formation of the solar system, which planet came the closest to starting the process of nuclear fusion, which would have resulted in a second sun?

A)Saturn
B)Mercury
C)Jupiter
D)Uranus

Question 34

________ are small, solid, extraterrestrial particles that will burn and glow when passing through Earth's atmosphere.

A)Comets
B)Asteroids
C)Meteoroids
D)Mesocoronas

Question 35

________ is a moon of Saturn.

A)Io
B)Tethys
C)Ganymede
D)Europa

Question 36

Which of the following best describes the process that resulted in the Valles Marineris on Mars?

A)Stream erosion carved a deep central valley.
B)A comet skimmed across the surface of the planet.
C)Down-faulting created grabenlike valleys.
D)A violent volcanic eruption blasted out a long caldera.

Question 37

Which of the following physical features are found on both Mars and Earth?

A)Active volcanoes
B)Heavily cratered landscape preserved from early planetary histories
C)Oceans with liquid water
D)Erosional features related to flowing water

Question 38

Earth's axial tilt is currently 23.5° from vertical.Uranus's axis of rotation is completely horizontal.How did this occur?

A)It formed that way originally.
B)Extreme volcanism realigned the planet.
C)Plate tectonics shook the planet's alignment.
D)Extraterrestrial bombardment knocked the planet over.

Question 39

The reason Jupiter has so many moons around it is that ________.

A)these small moons are in the process of accreting to become one larger moon
B)many bodies were either captured by Jupiter's gravity or were the remnants of collisions with other bodies
C)the moons are an asteroid field from a planet that failed to form
D)the moons are the result of massive volcanic eruptions on the planet

Question 40

Most comets originate in the ________.

A)Kuiper Belt
B)Saturn's Rings
C)Oort Cloud
D)Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud

Question 41

Seismic events called moonquakes occur in the moon.

Question 42

Flying by Pluto in July 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft transmitted images of a complex landscape called Sputnik Planum.Which of the following best describes Sputnik Planum?

A)A large ice field with tongues of flowing ice
B)A large volcanic field with lava flows composed of frozen methane
C)A field of overlapping impact craters
D)A landscape shaped by flowing water

Question 43

Saturn is the only planet in the solar system with rings composed of particles of water ice and rocky debris.

Question 44

Why doesn't the moon have an atmosphere?

Question 45

Planetary geology focuses only on those planets with a rocky surface such as Venus and Mars.

Question 46

Because the period of rotation on its axis equals its period of revolution around Earth, the same side of the moon always faces Earth.

Question 47

Neptune has only one satellite, and it is a moon named Triton.

Question 48

Compare the composition of planetesimals that would have resulted in the terrestrial planets and the Jovian planets.

Question 49

Provide three examples of planetesimals.

Question 50

Water erosional features are commonly found on the moon, particularly in the highland areas.

Question 51

Because of its immense gravity, the diameter of the planet Jupiter shrinks by a few centimeters each year.

Question 52

The atmospheric pressures on Venus are approximately 90 times greater than those on Earth, which had the ability to crush spacecraft sent there in the 1970s.

Question 53

The maria are the light, highly cratered highlands visible on the moon.

Question 54

What process is responsible for the extreme volcanic activity on Io?

Question 55

What visual evidence do scientists have to support the fact that Jupiter is the fastest-rotating planet in the solar system?

Question 56

Meteorite bombardment of the rocky planets occurred after their formation as protoplanets.

Question 57

Uranus is famous for its large red circle called the Great Red Spot.

Question 58

Because of Pluto's inclined orbital plane, it appears to cross paths with Neptune and will occasionally be closer to the sun than Neptune.

Question 59

The inner planets are the smaller rocky planets that are close in proximity to the sun.

Question 60

The smallest of the planets in our solar system is Pluto.

Question 61

How do astronomers know that asteroids are left over debris from the solar nebula?

Question 62

What substance makes up much of the interior layers of Neptune, marked with an arrow?

A)Hydrogen/helium
B)Ice
C)Rock
D)Methane

Question 63

What kind of environment would have produced the Martian rock visible here?

A)Stream
B)Desert
C)Beach
D)Evaporating lake

Question 64

Compare the surface of Earth to that of the moon.Why doesn't Earth's land retain the same scarring from meteorite impact as the moon? Why doesn't Earth's ocean retain the same scarring from meteorite impact?

Question 65

Using the nebular theory, explain the formation of our solar system from the formation of the solar nebula through the present day.

Question 66

Compare and contrast the core of Mercury (40 percent of the planet's volume)to that of Earth (~10 percent of the planet's volume).If Mercury is smaller, why is its core bigger than Earth's?

Question 67

What impact crater feature is highlighted with the arrows in this image?

A)Central peak
B)Ejecta
C)Crater ray
D)Secondary crater chain

Question 68

These images contain a cross section of Venus, a terrestrial planet, and Saturn, a Jovian planet.Notice how Venus, a terrestrial planet, has a rocky mantle.What is the equivalent layer in Saturn made from?

A)Rocky material
B)Oxygen
C)Ice
D)Hydrogen/helium

Question 69

Explain the impact model for the formation of the moon.

Question 70

Note the impact craters in other areas of this image.Which body in the solar system (other than Earth)could have had erosion like this in the past?

A)Mars
B)Venus
C)Jupiter
D)Neptune

Question 71

Which agent of erosion is responsible for the erosional pattern circled in this image?

A)Melting
B)Running water
C)Wind
D)Ice

Question 72

Compare and contrast Earth's moon and the planet Mercury.

Question 73

Mauna Loa, a shield volcano in Hawaii, is approximately 10 km in height.Olympus Mons is a shield volcano on Mars that is approximately 27 km in height.Compare the formation of both of these volcanoes.How is it that Olympus Mons could grow so much taller than Mauna Loa?

Question 74

What kind of rock is visible in this image from Mars?

A)Basalt
B)Shale
C)Conglomerate
D)Granite

Question 75

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union developed a formal definition for what constitutes a planet.What is the definition of a planet?

Question 76

Compare and contrast terrestrial and Jovian planets.