Deck 12: Rings, Moons, and Pluto

Question 1

Which planet has the biggest moon relative to its own size? Not the biggest moon in terms of kilometers, but the biggest as a percentage of the size of the planet it orbits.

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

Answer 1

Pluto

Question 2

The four large moons of Jupiter were first discovered by:

A) ancient people, seeing Jupiter in dark, cloudless skies
B) Galileo with his early telescope
C) Isaac Newton with his improved telescope
D) William Herschel, in the 18th century
E) the Voyager spacecraft

Answer 2

Galileo with his early telescope

Question 3

What evidence can you give that shows the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa must be relatively young?

A) there are thousands of active volcanoes on Europa's surface
B) we see very few craters compared to the surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede
C) radioactive rocks from Europa that have been brought back to Earth by our probes show that Europa is a young moon
D) the interior of Europa is made of metals like iron and nickel
E) Europa was not orbiting Jupiter when Galileo observed its moons, but now it is

Answer 3

we see very few craters compared to the surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede

Question 4

When astronomers say that Ganymede is a differentiated body, they mean that it:

A) has a northern hemisphere which is different from its southern hemisphere
B) has more of the larger crater types than the smaller ones
C) has a magnetic field that is not centered on its axis of rotation
D) has a heavier core, surrounded by a lighter, icy mantle and crust
E) has a color that is surprising among outer solar system satellites

Question 5

The largest satellite (moon) in the solar system is:

A) Ganymede
B) Titan
C) Earth's Moon
D) Charon
E) Io

Question 6

The Galileo spacecraft measured that the moon Ganymede had a magnetic field, indicating that its interior was at least partly melted and warm. What do scientists think is the most likely reason for this?

A) Ganymede is so far away from Jupiter, it is an independent world, and can compress its core without interference
B) Ganymede has thousands of volcanoes, which then send material downward to heat up its interior
C) Ganymede is a relatively small moon, and therefore much easier to heat up than its neighbor moons
D) Ganymede is heated by tidal forces from Jupiter
E) Scientists have no idea what causes the inner part of Ganymede to be warm; this is an unsolved mystery

Question 7

The lakes found in the north polar region of Titan are filled with liquid

A) water
B) ammonia
C) methane
D) nitrogen
E) you can't fool me, all the lakes on cold Titan are frozen solid; none are liquid

Question 8

Which of the jovian planets does NOT have any satellites?

A) Jupiter
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
E) you can't fool me, all the jovian planets are accompanied by satellites

Question 9

Callisto, the fourth moon of Jupiter's, takes 17 days to orbit Jupiter. If I stand on the surface of Callisto and see Jupiter high in the sky over my head, and then wait 8.5 Earth days in the same spot, where will I see Jupiter?

A) you won't see it; it will only be visible from the other side of Callisto
B) setting in the west
C) overhead, where it was before
D) rising in the east
E) we need more information to give even a rough estimate of where Jupiter will be

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a way that the moon Titan probably resembles the Earth?

A) it has a thick atmosphere
B) the main constituent of its atmosphere is nitrogen
C) sunlight interacts with the chemicals on the moom to create a rich mix of organic molecules
D) it has clouds in its atmosphere
E) at its surface the temperature and pressure are just right for water to exist in all three phases (gas, liquid, and ice)

Question 11

The satellite which has the thickest atmosphere (so thick that it's quite a surprise for a satellite) is:

A) Triton
B) Titan
C) the Earth's Moon
D) Europa
E) Callisto
Section 12.2: The Galilean Moons of Jupiter

Question 12

The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is:

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

Question 13

What do astronomers think is the origin of the many irregular moons around the outer planets (irregular meaning they are orbiting backwards and/or have eccentric orbits)?

A) These moons were likely formed elsewhere and captured by the giant planets
B) These moons are fragments of a much larger moon around each planet that exploded
C) These moons were expelled by volcanoes on the surfaces of the giant planets
D) These moons had an early interaction with the rings of the giant planets and were moved to strange orbits as a result
E) Astronomers have no idea about why these irregular moons exist; it's a complete mystery

Question 14

Which element plays the same role on Titan as water does on Earth (existing as gas, liquid, and solid)?

A) carbon dioxide
B) methane
C) ammonia
D) hydrogen cyanide
E) propane

Question 15

For a while, after the space age began, astronomers did not know what the surface of Titan looks like, but today they do. Which of the following was NOT a method by which astronomers have learned about the surface of Titan?

A) using instruments on the Huygens spacecraft to take pictures as it was descending
B) using an infrared camera aboard Cassini to take images of the surface in infrared
C) using a radar instrument to penetrate the smog in Titan's atmosphere
D) using the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit to take a photo of Titan
E) taking a photograph of the surface from a spacecraft that landed on Titan

Question 16

What features are abundant on Callisto and Ganymede and almost absent on Europa and Io?

A) volcanoes
B) markings that show the surface is made of ice
C) impact craters
D) lakes and pools of liquid ammonia
E) rings

Question 17

What is the cause of its many volcanic/geyser-like eruptions on the moon Io?

A) its surface is at the triple point of methane, where it can be gas/liquid/solid
B) Jupiter's magnetic field causes huge bolts of lightning to hit Io and heat the surface
C) the gravitational stress of being so close to Jupiter and its other large moons heats the Io's inside
D) there is a metallic magnetic layer inside Io which is explosive
E) inhabitants of Io are intercepting Earth TV transmissions; it's making them throw up
Section 12.3: Titan and Triton

Question 18

The majority of the moons orbiting the outer (jovian) planets are:

A) large moons, roughly the size of Pluto or Mercury
B) small moons orbiting in the same direction that their planet turns
C) much warmer than the planet they orbit
D) small moons orbiting in a retrograde direction (opposite to the direction their planet turns and orbits)
E) not in good working order, since they were made in Bayonne, New Jersey

Question 19

The satellite whose surface is characterized by a smooth icy crust with a complex network of cracks is:

A) Europa
B) Callisto
C) Triton
D) Io
E) Ganymede

Question 20

Which of the following is NOT one of the largest moons in the Solar System?

A) Titan (around Saturn)
B) Triton (around Neptune)
C) Ganymede (around Jupiter)
D) the Earth's Moon
E) Atlas (the shepherd moon near Saturn's A ring)

Question 21

What method was used to discover Pluto in 1929-1930?

A) look at irregularities (wobbles) in the motions of Uranus and Neptune
B) use one of the first radio telescopes to measure cold radio waves from Pluto
C) look for patterns in the orbits of the moons of Neptune to see in which direction Pluto would have escaped
D) take pairs of photographs several days apart and "blink" them
E) you can't fool me; Pluto was discovered by Galileo through one of his first telescopes

Question 22

The largest and most massive of Saturn's rings is the

A) A ring
B) B ring
C) C ring
D) D ring
E) F ring

Question 23

Which of the following statements about Saturn's rings is TRUE?

A) There is really only one ring, which looks unbroken from Earth
B) The structure of the rings is completely independent of Saturn's moons
C) The rings are made of billions and billions of individual "moonlets" (small chunks)
D) The rings are made of particles no bigger than the particles that make up smoke
E) If the rings were put on Earth, they would stretch from about New York to Boston

Question 24

The rings that most resemble Saturn's narrow F ring in the solar system are:

A) Uranus' rings
B) Neptune's rings
C) Jupiter's rings
D) Saturn's A ring
E) the diamond anniversary rings at Macy's

Question 25

The moon Triton orbits which of the planets?

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

Question 26

If I stood on the surface of Pluto, observing its big moon, I would see that moon:

A) rise in the east
B) rise in the west
C) get smaller day by day
D) remain in the same place in the sky
E) Come on! Pluto has no moons!

Question 27

Which of the following statements about Charon is FALSE?

A) it takes the same amount of time to rotate and revolve
B) it keeps the same face toward Pluto
C) it takes the same time to go around Pluto as Pluto takes to rotate
D) it has a significant atmosphere
E) it has a retrograde orbit (revolves in a direction opposite to the sense that most satellites in the solar system revolve)

Question 28

Which of the following statements about the geysers on the moon Triton is true?

A) they are caused by the impact of small comets on Triton's fragile surface
B) the geysers are sulfur volcanoes which stick out of Triton's crust
C) they involve plumes of nitrogen on the sunlit side of Triton
D) they are caused by collisions with the rings of Neptune
E) they are only visible when it is winter on Triton
Section 12.4: Pluto and Charon

Question 29

Saturn's ring particles are composed mainly of:

A) silicate rocks
B) frozen carbon dioxide
C) droplets of very cold methane
D) carbon that has been compressed until it is highly reflective
E) water ice

Question 30

Pluto's big satellite is called

A) Charon
B) Titan
C) Ganymede
D) Christy
E) Tombaugh

Question 31

Our modern understanding of Pluto is that it is a member of

A) the asteroid belt
B) the giant planets
C) the Kuiper Belt (of trans-Neptunian objects)
D) the terrestrial planets
E) no grouping within our solar system; it is completely one-of-a-kind

Question 32

What makes the rings of Neptune different from those of other planets we know?

A) they are much thinner
B) they have gaps and divisions in them
C) they are much darker
D) they are clumpy (or bulging) in places
E) there is more than one ring in the system

Question 33

When two objects in orbit have periods of revolution that are simple ratios of each other (such as 1 to 2 or 1 to 3) we say that we have:

A) an occultation
B) a conjunction
C) a resonance
D) a tidal stability limit
E) a traffic problem

Question 34

Which of the following worlds does NOT have a ring?

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

Question 35

The spacecraft that visited Pluto and send back our first images:

A) was called New Horizons
B) got a gravity boost from Jupiter to get it to Pluto faster
C) used plutonium to keep it warm
D) is returning to Earth in the 22^nd century
E) more than one of the above

Question 36

Two worlds in the outer solar system that seem remarkably similar to each other are:

A) Titan and Ganymede
B) Io and Europa
C) Titan and Triton
D) Callisto and Io
E) Pluto and Triton

Question 37

The mountains on Pluto are made of frozen water, which at Pluto temperatures, is as hard as rock. Pluto also has a smooth, round basin which could be thought of as a frozen sea. What material is in the basin (nicknamed Sputnik) likely to be made of?

A) warmer water
B) carbon dioxide (dry ice)
C) nitrogen
D) complex carbon compounds which are the building blocks of life on Earth
E) helium
Section 12.5: Planetary Rings

Question 38

How were the rings of Uranus discovered?

A) They were seen through a small telescope at the same time the planet was
B) They were discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope
C) They were discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft when it flew by Uranus
D) Through the radio waves given off as they interact with the magnetic field
E) by using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (the telescope aboard an airplane) to observe Uranus moving in front of a distant star

Question 39

The same astronomer wrote extensively about canals on Mars and about the possibility of a ninth planet in our solar system. The observatory named after this astronomer is the:

A) Keck Observatory
B) Hubble Telescope
C) Lick Observatory
D) Lowell Observatory
E) Wells Observatory

Question 40

The rings of the outer planets consist of

A) sheets of ice that stretch in round planes millions of miles wide around each planet
B) billions of chunks (of various sizes) that all orbit the equator of each planet
C) many large moons, about the size of Jupiter's moon Io, all crowded together
D) subatomic charged particles, all kept in line by each planet's magnetic field
E) millions of alien spacecraft, some of which occasionally make it to the Earth and pick up humans to experiment on

Question 41

How does Saturn's F ring stay so thin (narrow), when the other rings are so wide?

A) the further away from Saturn a ring is, the narrower it gets
B) there are 2 shepherding satellites on either side of it
C) Saturn's huge magnetic field keeps ice boulders from expanding
D) the F ring is in the same orbit as the moon Enceladus
E) we don't know the answer, because Saturn keeps its diet tips to itself