Deck 11: Planetary Adornmentsmoons and Rings

Question 1

The oceans under Europa's icy crust could be very deep and could contain more water than all the oceans on the Earth.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The yellow colored patches of Io's surface are fields of sulfur dioxide snow.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Lakes of methane,ethane,and other hydrocarbons can be found on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Which property of a moon might lead you to believe it was a captured asteroid?

A) It is tidally locked.
B) Its orbital axis is tilted by 10 degrees compared to the planet's rotational axis.
C) It rotates clockwise around the planet when viewed from the planet's north pole.
D) Its surface is very smooth and lacks craters.

Question 5

Of the giant planets,only Saturn and Jupiter have ring systems.

Question 6

There are over 170 known moons in the Solar System.

Question 7

It is theoretically possible for Earth to someday have a temporary ring structure.

Question 8

If a moon has a retrograde orbit then it

A) orbits in the opposite direction that the planet rotates.
B) orbits in the opposite direction that the planet revolves around the Sun.
C) orbits in a clockwise direction as viewed from the planet's north pole.
D) All of the above

Question 9

Regular moons orbit in the same direction as their parent planets rotate.

Question 10

Extremophiles exist on Earth in both extremely cold and hot environments,but only in places where sunlight allows photosynthesis to occur.

Question 11

Eruptions of water-powered geysers have been seen on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.

Question 12

Large regular moons probably formed

A) when passing asteroids were captured by the gravitational field of their planet.
B) at the same time as their planets and grew by accretion.
C) after a collision between a planet and a large asteroid fractured off a piece of the planet.
D) after the period of heavy bombardment in the early Solar System.

Question 13

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of regular moons?

A) They revolve around their planets in the same direction as the planets rotate.
B) They have orbits that lie nearly in the planets' equatorial plane.
C) They are usually tidally locked to their parent planets.
D) They are much smaller than all of the known planets.

Question 14

The only planet(s)without a moon is (are)

A) Mercury alone.
B) Venus alone.
C) Mercury and Venus.
D) Mercury,Venus,and Mars.

Question 15

The presence of shepherd moons keeps the giant planets' ring systems completely stable and the rings will last forever.

Question 16

In terms of the surfaces of moons,brighter surfaces usually indicate older surfaces.

Question 17

Moons in retrograde orbits are called irregular moons.

Question 18

To be effective,backlighting should be done with wavelengths of light that are large compared to the size of the object.

Question 19

Io is by far the most geologically active moon in the Solar System.

Question 20

Galileo discovered Saturn's rings and correctly concluded that they were formed by moons that had been tidally ripped apart.

Question 21

If Titan's mass is and its radius is ,what is its escape velocity?

A) 150 km/s
B) 2.7 km/s
C) 0.6 m/s
D) 35 m/s

Question 22

Astronomers originally planned to have the Pioneer 11 space probe pass through the Cassini Gap in Saturn's rings.Would this have been successful?

A) Yes,but they decided that it was more important to observe Saturn's moons.
B) No,because the same gravitational influences that create the Cassini Gap would have destroyed the probe.
C) No,because the Cassini Gap turns out to be too narrow.
D) No,because the Cassini Gap is not completely empty.

Question 23

Which object has turned itself inside out numerous times,leading to lighter elements escaping,sulfur compounds composing the crust,and heavier elements making up the core?

A) Mercury
B) Titan
C) Pluto
D) Io

Question 24

Which of the giant planets does NOT have rings?

A) Jupiter
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
E) All of the giant planets have rings.

Question 25

Which of the following can be used as an indicator of the age of a moon's surface?

A) Surface brightness
B) Crater density
C) Volcanic activity
D) All of the above

Question 26

Where does Titan's thick,nitrogen-rich atmosphere come from?

A) Photodissociation of methane in its atmosphere
B) Frequent volcanic eruptions
C) It has been deposited by cometary impacts over the age of the Solar System
D) Photosynthesis of algae in oceans that lie beneath its icy surface

Question 27

What is the most common geologic feature seen on moons?

A) Craters
B) Volcanoes
C) Palimpsests
D) Geysers

Question 28

Titan's thick atmosphere is believed to have been created when ultraviolet photons broke apart methane molecules,ultimately creating the observed smog-like conditions.This process,though,would likely remove all of the atmospheric methane in roughly 10 million years,yet we still see its presence today.How can this be?

A) Cometary impacts periodically bring new methane to Titan.
B) Ethane rains down out of the atmosphere,combines with surface rocks,and creates new methane.
C) Infrared photons give atmospheric molecules enough energy to recombine into methane.
D) Volcanoes on Titan periodically release new methane into the atmosphere.

Question 29

Which moon gives rise to the particles that make up Saturn's E ring?

A) Titan
B) Triton
C) Enceladus
D) Thethys

Question 30

Titan is a prime candidate for life outside Earth because it has

A) liquid water.
B) a dense atmosphere like Earth's.
C) active volcanoes.
D) organic material.

Question 31

Which of the following moons do scientists believe most closely represents the primordial Earth,although at a much lower temperature?

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

Question 32

Which of the following is NOT geologically active?

A) Callisto
B) Triton
C) Enceladus
D) Io

Question 33

How do particles from Enceladus wind up in Saturn's E ring?

A) Volcanoes erupt and expel silicates into space.
B) Water geysers erupt from the surface and expel them into space.
C) Cosmic rays bombard the surface rock on Enceladus and expel them into space.
D) A collision with a co-orbiting moon knocked rocky debris into orbit around Saturn.

Question 34

Two years after first being observed,astronomers reported that Saturn's rings vanished.What happened to them?

A) The old ring system dissipated,and since then a new one has formed.
B) The rings lined up with Earth,and they were too thin to be observed.
C) Most telescopes used hundreds of years ago couldn't adequately resolve the ring system.
D) Astronomers were looking at the wrong planet,leading to the chance discovery of Uranus.

Question 35

What leads astronomers to believe that many of the larger moons associated with the giant planets have compositions that are roughly half water?

A) Spectroscopic analysis indicates the presence of large bodies of water.
B) They have average densities midway between water and rock.
C) Space probes have drilled into the surfaces of many of the moons and detected water.
D) Rocks and other features that form only in the presence of water have been observed.

Question 36

The density of particles in a planet's rings can be measured using

A) infrared light.
B) the Doppler shift.
C) background stars.
D) proper motions.

Question 37

The varied colors found on Io's surface are due to the presence of various molecules containing

A) sulfur.
B) silicon.
C) mercury.
D) magnesium.

Question 38

By what process do some living organisms survive deep under the ocean near volcanic vents?

A) Electrolysis
B) Photosynthesis
C) Chemosynthesis
D) Magnetosynthesis

Question 39

Which of the following moons is thought to have a vast ocean of water beneath its thin frozen surface?

A) Titan
B) Europa
C) Io
D) Callisto

Question 40

By examining extremophiles on Earth,which of the following appears NOT to be a key ingredient for life?

A) Liquid water
B) An energy source
C) Organic compounds
D) All are key ingredients.

Question 41

Phobos and Deimos,the two moons of Mars,are thought to have a unique origin.What is it?

Question 42

How does the thickness of Saturn's bright ring system compare to its diameter?

A) It's about 10 times thinner.
B) It's about 1,000 times thinner.
C) It's about 100,000 times thinner.
D) It's about 10 million times thinner.

Question 43

Saturn's rings disappear from sight every

A) 40 years.
B) 15 years.
C) 8 years.
D) 6 months.

Question 44

Jupiter's rings are made of material from

A) its largest,innermost moons.
B) its upper atmosphere.
C) only Io.
D) only its retrograde moons.

Question 45

How do Uranus's rings differ from the ring systems of the other giant planets?

A) Uranus has only one ring made up of fine dust.
B) Uranus has the most spectacular ring system with many bright,wide rings.
C) Uranus has 13 rings that are narrow and widely spaced.
D) Uranus has rings that are clumped into several arclike segments.

Question 46

Why would a planet's rings reflect 50 percent of the sunlight they receive?

A) They are made of ice.
B) They are made of silicate rock.
C) They are made of iron.
D) They are very old.

Question 47

Particles that make up the rings of Uranus and Neptune are composed of

A) rocky material from tidally disrupted moons.
B) organic material that has darkened due to bombardment by cosmic rays.
C) icy material from tidally disrupted comets.
D) All of the above

Question 48

If the Moon had active volcanoes,

A) the Moon would have a thick hydrogen atmosphere.
B) the Earth might have a ring.
C) the Moon's surface would have more craters than it currently does.
D) life could not exist on Earth.

Question 49

What are three characteristics of the orbits of irregular moons,and how are irregular moons formed?

Question 50

All of the following ring structures are known to be created by shepherd moons EXCEPT

A) braided rings.
B) arc segments.
C) ring gaps.
D) knots and kinks.

Question 51

Rings of giant planets are very thin compared to their diameters mainly because

A) of collisions between ring particles.
B) moons that tidally disrupt have small diameters.
C) energy is conserved when a moon tidally disrupts.
D) the planets have large tidal forces.

Question 52

Why is Io,a moon that is smaller and farther from the Sun than our own Moon,still geologically active?

Question 53

Ring material

A) is made mostly of fine dust.
B) has always orbited the giant planets.
C) must constantly be renewed.
D) is made of only house-sized rocks.

Question 54

If you wanted to search for faint rings around a giant planet by sending a spacecraft on a flyby,it would be best to do so

A) as the spacecraft approached the planet.
B) after the spacecraft passed the planet.
C) during the closest flyby.
D) while orbiting one of its moons.

Question 55

If a planetary ring had an inner diameter of 100,000 km,an outer diameter of 120,000 km,a thickness of 10 meters and a density of ,what would be the total mass of material in this ring?

A)
B)
C)
D)

Question 56

What material has been seen erupting from the surface of the icy moon Enceladus,and why?

Question 57

Rings that project to look like they are intertwined (but are not)are caused by

A) new laws of physics.
B) ring material on highly elliptical orbits.
C) the gravitational influence of small moons.
D) electromagnetic interaction of the rings with Saturn's magnetic field.

Question 58

Looking at the life forms found to exist in extreme environments on Earth suggests that there are probably three things needed for life.What are they?

Question 59

What are the two basic materials of which the moons in the solar system are composed? For each type of material,name an example of a moon whose surface is composed primarily of that material.

Question 60

Europa is a very interesting moon that NASA is considering visiting with a spacecraft in order to search for signs of life.What is it about this moon that makes it so interesting,and what surface features give us clues about its interior?

Question 61

Explain how Uranus's rings were first discovered.

Question 62

Why do astronomers believe that Saturn has such prominent rings,and does the observed total mass in the ring system support this theory?

Question 63

If ultraviolet photons destroy methane,why does Titan have so much of it in its atmosphere?

Question 64

Explain why it was difficult for the Voyager space probe to detect Jupiter's ring system as it was approaching the planet,but easy to detect the rings once it passed behind Jupiter.

Question 65

What do astronomers believe causes the spokelike features associated with Saturn's B ring?

Question 66

Why do we suspect that the inner planets do not have rings?

Question 67

Ganymede is one of the largest moons in the Solar System.It shows some terrain that is ancient and heavily cratered,younger terrain with less craters,but no terrain that is free of craters.Why would Ganymede's geologic activity stop?

Question 68

Do a planet's rings last forever? Why or why not?