Deck 10: Earthlike Planets: Venus and Mars

Question 1

The planet that most resembles the Earth in size and internal composition is

A) Mars
B) Venus
C) Mercury
D) Jupiter
E) the Moon

Answer 1

Venus

Question 2

The same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. This gas is:

A) water vapor
B) nitrogen
C) ozone
D) ammonia gas
E) carbon dioxide

Answer 2

carbon dioxide

Question 3

The highest mountain on Venus is also the only feature to be named after a man; its namesake is the Scottish scientist who laid the foundations for our understanding of electro-magnetic waves. This is Mount:

A) Tyson
B) Olympus
C) Lowell
D) Maxwell
E) Faraday

Answer 3

Maxwell

Question 4

I want to examine the surface of a planet which is completely covered by a thick layer of clouds all the time. What wavelength of electromagnetic radiation would I be smartest to use:

A) visible light
B) x-rays
C) radio waves (like radar)
D) any of the above would work
E) none would work

Question 5

Why is it so much easier to determine the length of the day on Mars than on Venus?

A) Mars' atmosphere is generally pretty clear (so the surface is visible) while Venus is always cloudy
B) Mars rotates really slowly, so it's easy to follow; Venus rotates so fast, it's hard to track
C) Mars is much larger in diameter than Venus is, so it's easier to see
D) Mars is always much closer to the Earth than Venus
E) Mars is always visible in our nighttime sky, while Venus is only visible in the daytime sky
Section 10.2: The Geology of Venus

Question 6

The spacecraft that soft-landed successfully on the surface of Venus (and briefly sent back pictures while sitting in that destructive environment) were called

A) Magellan
B) Venera
C) Pioneer
D) Voyager
E) Bayonne

Question 7

Why are there no smaller craters on the surface of Venus, only bigger ones?

A) Because Venus is so close to the Sun, the Sun's gravity pulls all smaller chunks of material into the Sun before they can reach Venus
B) The seas and lakes of Venus erode away all the smaller craters when they flood
C) In Venus' thick atmosphere all smaller chunks of material burn up before they can reach the surface
D) Venus is so hot that smaller craters generally melt in the heat, becoming smooth surface
E) This is an unsolved mystery in astronomy; no one knows

Question 8

Astronomers estimate that the plains of Venus are only about 500 to 600 million years old. How do they estimate dates like this?

A) by looking for little brass plates that give the founding date and the name of the governor at the time
B) by looking at the radioactive rock samples that have been returned to Earth from Venus
C) by noting that all the plains on all the terrestrial planets have the same age
D) by seeing how much the continental plates on which the Venus plains are floating have spread apart
E) by counting the craters visible on the surface and comparing crater counts to other worlds

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT one of the key reasons that so many spacecraft from Earth have visited Venus and Mars?

A) they are the two planets closest to the Earth
B) they resemble the Earth in a number of significant ways
C) their atmospheres are very similar to the Earth in terms of their chemical make-up
D) both have tantalized us when seen through a telescope -- one because it is perpetually covered by clouds, the other because it shows seasonal changes
E) they each have a solid surface on which we can trace their geological history

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the rotation of Venus?

A) Venus rotates in roughly the same time period as Earth
B) Venus rotates in a retrograde way (east to west)
C) the two definitions of a day (how long it takes for a star to return to the same position in the sky and how long it takes the Sun to return to the same position) do not agree on Venus
D) the rotation rate of Venus had to be determined from radar measurements
E) Venus has the longest rotation period of any planet in the solar system

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a way that Venus resembles the Earth?

A) its size (diameter)
B) its overall density
C) the surface gravity (which tells us how much we would weigh there)
D) the thickness and pressure of its atmosphere
E) you can't fool me; Venus resembles Earth in all of the above ways

Question 12

What planet can come closest to the Earth in its orbit and look brightest in our skies?

A) Venus
B) Mars
C) Mercury
D) Jupiter
E) none of the above

Question 13

The largest continental (highland) area on Venus is called:

A) Stein
B) Sapas Mons
C) Venera
D) Danu
E) Aphrodite

Question 14

Which of the following statements about the planet Venus is true?

A) its thick nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere acts like a greenhouse, keeping it hot
B) it rotates on its axis in the same direction as the Earth does
C) it has a thick layer of clouds containing sulfuric acid droplets
D) the atmospheric pressure near the surface is about the same as Earth's
E) the "face of Miss Piggy" feature indicates that Venus is inhabited

Question 15

The Magellan spacecraft revealed a wide variety of volcanic features on Venus, including some that looked like ticks and spiders. What instrument aboard Magellan was used for these investigations?

A) spectrograph
B) ultraviolet telescope
C) imaging radar
D) a magnetometer
E) a net

Question 16

The spacecraft that sent back the most detailed radar images of Venus and showed us features as small as a football field is:

A) Viking
B) Pioneer
C) Venera
D) Magellan
E) Mariner

Question 17

Why does Mars have an overall reddish color when we see its surface from afar?

A) This is an optical illusion caused by the Earth's atmosphere scattering the colors of light differently
B) Mars is completely cloudy, and its clouds are made of red materials
C) The material of Mars' surface contains a lot of iron oxide, the same chemistry that makes rusting metals look reddish
D) the giant volcanoes on Mars are constantly spewing out reddish lava
E) The martians are constantly at war, and spilling a lot of red blood

Question 18

About 75% of the surface of Venus consists of

A) high volcanic plateaus, many of which are currently erupting lava
B) lowland lava plains
C) wall-to-wall impact craters
D) vast criss-crossing channels carrying liquid lava
E) lush jungles growing very effectively because it is so warm and humid there

Question 19

The large circular coronae on Venus are:

A) rings of mountains created by continental plates grinding against each other
B) large regions where hot magma rising from the interior of Venus puts pressure on the surface material
C) the outer rings of material thrown up by giant impacts long ago
D) impact basins flooded with lava, just like the maria on the Moon
E) tracks for racing dune buggies on the surface of the sandy planet
Section 10.3: The Massive Atmosphere of Venus

Question 20

Which of the following is evidence for volcanic activity on Venus?

A) the fact that the lava plains are only 500 million or so years old
B) the existence of large volcanic mountains such as Sif Mons
C) the discovery of thousands of small volcanic cones of the surface of Venus
D) the pancake domes of Venus
E) all of the above

Question 21

The largest volcano on Mars is called:

A) the Red Spot
B) Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)
C) Mariner Valley
D) Hellas
E) Mount Maxwell

Question 22

Valles Marineris is a wide, deep network of chasms stretching for some 2500 miles on the surface of Mars. How do we believe such a big set of canyons formed originally?

A) it was caused by tectonic pressures from deep within the planet
B) it was produced suddenly by flooding water some four billion years ago
C) it was scoured out of the Martian sands by the action of the regular dust storms
D) it was made by hundreds of impacts from space billions of years ago
E) the canyons were places the ancient Martians used for drag racing

Question 23

The troposphere (the lowest layer in the atmosphere) of Venus

A) is quite cold and thin
B) is a layer with quite a bit of water vapor, held down by the pressure of the layers above
C) has roughly the same air pressure as the troposphere of the Earth
D) resembles being about a kilometer or so under the Earth's ocean -- a huge mass of air keeps temperatures pretty much the same all over the planet
E) resembles the ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere in many ways

Question 24

The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:

A) optical illusions
B) enormous cracks caused by extensive plate tectonics on Mars
C) very narrow oceans of water
D) huge chains of thousands of large volcanoes
E) built by the same race of ancient martian engineers who constructed the "face on Mars"

Question 25

The total surface area of planet Mars is roughly equal to the

A) surface area of the Earth's continents
B) surface area of Venus
C) surface area of the Moon
D) total surface area of the Earth
E) you can't fool me, Mars is bigger in surface area than any of the above

Question 26

There was a pair of spacecraft whose components both orbited the planet Mars and landed on its surface in 1976. These spacecraft were called:

A) Voyager
B) Viking
C) Magellan
D) Galileo
E) Percival & Lowell

Question 27

What is one way that we humans are currently making the atmosphere of the Earth more like that of Venus?

A) we are adding more oxygen to the atmosphere by growing more plants and trees
B) we are adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming
C) we are setting up a lot of equipment at the north and south poles to cool our planet down
D) we have more than doubled the mass of the Earth's atmosphere by making additional air in our factories
E) the Earth's atmosphere already resembles the atmosphere of Venus in all ways that are significant
Section 10.4: The Geology of Mars

Question 28

Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today is FALSE?

A) it is made mostly of carbon dioxide
B) it is roughly as thin as the Earth's air would be about 30 km up
C) it has a haze made of carbon dioxide crystals
D) droplets of liquid water rain irrigate the surface of Mars regularly
E) there are occasionally great windstorms in the lower atmosphere

Question 29

One of the most impressive features of the geology of Mars is an uplifted area about the size of North America, with volcanoes on it, which is called the

A) Olympus Mountains
B) Tharsis Bulge
C) Hellas Basin
D) Mariner Valley
E) Bayonne pimple

Question 30

A crucial difference that helps explain why Venus is so hot and the Earth isn't is that:

A) on Venus, there was eventually no ocean to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
B) on Venus, the rocks have enormous amounts of radioactivity, heating up the environment (and also making life impossible)
C) on Venus, the life forms give off more heat than they absorb
D) on Earth, there is additional argon, which exerts a tremendous cooling effect
E) there are no volcanoes on Venus, but many on Earth, producing extra heat

Question 31

Which of the following would NOT be one of the problems faced by an unprotected Earthling stranded on Mars? (Unprotected meaning no space suit.)

A) the composition of the atmosphere
B) the lack of liquid water today on the surface
C) the low atmospheric pressure
D) the lack of any ozone layer shielding
E) the extreme (high) heat at most latitudes

Question 32

What makes astronomers believe that Mars once had rivers and running water?

A) there is a grand canyon system about 2,500 mi long on its surface (all of it made by running water)
B) the volcanoes today show evidence of water coming from their highest points and running down (implying this would have happened even more long ago)
C) Images from orbiting spacecraft reveal ancient channels that look like dried-up river beds on Earth (and our rovers show geological formations made by running water)
D) giant basins (like Hellas) show evidence of being filled with frozen water that was once probably a sea
E) you can't fool me, there is no evidence at all that Mars ever had any water

Question 33

A very rich and eccentric tourist in the future hires you to fly him to a region of Venus' atmosphere where the temperatures and pressures are the most Earth-like. Where would you take him?

A) just above the surface
B) high above most of the atmosphere and clouds, in the mesosphere
C) to the top of Mount Maxwell on the Ishtar continent
D) in the cloud layers about 50 km above the surface
E) you can't fool me; there is NO place in the Venus atmosphere where the temperature and pressure are anything at all like Earth

Question 34

The first spacecraft to orbit another planet circled Mars in 1971. It was:

A) Viking 1
B) Voyager 1
C) Apollo 1
D) Mariner 9
E) Venera 11

Question 35

On some parts of Mars, it gets cold enough for a gas to freeze out of the atmosphere that does not freeze out by itself at the temperatures and pressures on Earth. This gas makes up some of the polar caps on Mars and is:

A) water
B) argon
C) carbon dioxide
D) methane
E) oxygen

Question 36

Which of the following is NOT a way we have studied the planet Mars so far?

A) observing it through telescopes from Earth
B) sending a spacecraft into orbit around it
C) landing a spacecraft on the surface and examining the soil in an automated laboratory
D) studying samples of Mars that were blasted off Mars by impacts long ago, and found later on Earth
E) sending spacecraft to Mars which have brought samples of the planet back to Earth

Question 37

Which of the following statements about Valles Marineris, the great "grand canyon system" on Mars is true?

A) it is much shorter than the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but much much wider
B) it was discovered by Giovanni Schiaparelli in the 19th century
C) it was hard to photograph because it is always covered by wind-blown dust
D) landslides have helped broaden the canyons since they were first formed
E) although the canyons are long and wide, they are very shallow, only a few feet deep
Section 10.5: Water and Life on Mars

Question 38

The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:

A) the discovery of the Martian moons
B) Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed to him to be long straight features on the red planet
C) Percival Lowell's discovery of an entire network of artificial canals built by martians
D) the images sent back by the Viking spacecraft mission
E) the landing of Martian spacecraft in New Jersey in 1938

Question 39

The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:

A) radioactivity
B) ozone depletion
C) the runaway greenhouse effect
D) tectonic displacement
E) the twisted sister effect

Question 40

One way in which Mars closely resembles the Earth is:

A) its mass
B) the length of its year (period of revolution)
C) the length of its day (period of rotation)
D) the make-up and thickness of its atmosphere
E) the surface gravity (i.e. what we would weigh there)

Question 41

Mars rovers (such as Opportunity and Curiosity) have identified evidence that their landing sites were once under water. Which of the following is among the kinds of evidence they have identified?

A) they found liquid water deposits just under the surface when they dug down a few feet
B) they found rock formations that show the area was under water and also minerals that only form in water
C) they found warm salt water spurting up in the form of geysers
D) they found a lot of water vapor in the martian atmosphere just above their landing sites
E) they found buried ropes and buoys from ancient martian swimming holes

Question 42

The Viking spacecraft were designed -- in part -- to search for life on Mars. Which of the following statements about the results of these experiments is true?

A) Viking discovered a form of life on Mars that does not require water to thrive
B) Viking did not discover larger life forms on Mars, but did find some Mars bacteria
C) Viking did not discover life on Mars today, but did find a lot of fossils indicating Mars had life in the past
D) Viking found that the surface of Mars in the two places it searched did not have any life or even life's building blocks
E) Viking did find a whole Martian civilization, but they are hiding it from the news media

Question 43

Mars appears to have long branching channels that have the appearance of being formed by a flowing liquid. Yet we know that liquids would not stay liquid in the very thin atmosphere we have on the Martian surface? So how can we explain the channels?

A) they were made by wind-blown dust during the great Martian dust storms
B) they are made by plate tectonics; by plates in the crust separating
C) Mars had a thicker atmosphere long ago when the channels formed
D) they were formed by volcanic lava from Olympus Mons
E) the channels are artificial, made by a race of Martians that died out

Question 44

Astronomers estimate that the runoff channels seen on Mars must be at least 3.9 billion years old. How do they estimate ages like this?

A) by examining radioactive rocks from these channels returned to Earth by robot probes
B) by counting impact craters in the regions containing these channels
C) by looking for the erosion of these channels by the regular periods of rainfall that occur on Mars even today
D) by measuring the height of the region in which the channels occur; on Mars, older regions are always lower in elevation
E) guessing

Question 45

Astronomers believe that Mars formed with a much thicker atmosphere than it has today. Where did this atmosphere go?

A) it escaped into space (and some later froze out as Mars got cold)
B) it was absorbed by the rocks on Mars, which are much more absorbent than on Earth
C) it was drawn into the crust and mantle of Mars through the enormous cracks of the Mariner Valley canyon system
D) it is trapped in bubbles inside the rocks on the martian surface
E) no one has any good theories about this; it is an unsolved mystery
NOTE: Section 10.6 is just a short summary, so there are no questions for it.