Deck 9: Worlds of Gas and Liquidthe Giant Planets

Question 1

Jupiter's mass is more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The gas giants are composed primarily of

A) hydrogen.
B) helium.
C) water.
D) ammonia.

Answer 2

hydrogen.

Question 3

Which of the giant planets was predicted to exist mathematically before it was ever seen through a telescope?

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

Answer 3

Neptune

Question 4

Jupiter's strong aurorae result from particles ejected by Io's volcanoes.

Question 5

Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants because they have deep salty oceans that give rise to their strong magnetic fields.

Question 6

When charged particles oscillate around magnetic field lines of a planet they emit radiation in the microwave region of the spectrum.

Question 7

Jupiter and Saturn contain solid rocky cores that are approximately 5 to 10 times the mass of the Earth.

Question 8

Why were Adams and Le Verrier acknowledged as the discoverers of the planet Neptune?

A) They were the first to see it through a telescope.
B) They took time-lapsed photos to show its motion across the sky.
C) They predicted its position based on the observed discrepancies in the orbit of Uranus.
D) They were the directors of the observatory at which it was discovered.

Question 9

The strong magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune arise from magnetic dynamos in their liquid rocky cores.

Question 10

The different cloud layers seen in Jupiter's bands represent clouds at different altitudes in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Question 11

The compositions of Uranus and Neptune differ primarily from that of Jupiter and Saturn in that the outer two planets contain more

A) hydrogen.
B) helium.
C) water ice.
D) carbon dioxide.

Question 12

Jupiter is approximately 30 times more massive than the Earth.

Question 13

The giant planets are made primarily of carbon dioxide and methane.

Question 14

You observe Neptune as it occults a background star when the relative velocity between Neptune and the Earth is 30 km/s,and the star crosses through the middle of the planet and disappears for 27.6 minutes.What is Neptune's diameter?

A)
B) 800 km
C) 4,000 km
D)

Question 15

On the giant planets,the atmospheric vortices that occur almost always lie between oppositely directed zonal winds.

Question 16

Uranus and Neptune are less massive than Jupiter and Saturn,probably because they formed earlier than Jupiter or Saturn.

Question 17

All the giant planets,not just Jupiter,have atmospheric bands and storms.

Question 18

As seen from the outer giant planets,the Sun would appear as simply a very bright star in a sea of fainter stars.

Question 19

Jupiter radiates 70 percent more energy than it receives from the Sun,mostly because it is still contracting under its own gravity.

Question 20

The composition of the giant planets is consistent with solar abundance,but not with the composition of the universe as a whole.

Question 21

As a group,the giant planets all rotate __________ than terrestrial planets.

A) faster than
B) slower than
C) the same as
D) retrograde compared to

Question 22

If you monitor Saturn's atmosphere and you see a storm at a longitude of 0° west on one day at a longitude of 90° west 3 days later,what is the average wind speed on Saturn at this storm's latitude? Note that these positions are measured on a coordinate system that rotates with the planet's interior.(The radius of Saturn is . )

A) 720 m/s
B) 120 m/s
C) 360 m/s
D) 540 m/s

Question 23

Uranus and Neptune are bluish green because they contain large amounts of

A) ammonia.
B) Methane.
C) water vapor.
D) hydrocarbons.

Question 24

If you could find a large enough ocean,which one of these planets would float in it?

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

Question 25

The fastest zonal winds are found on

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

Question 26

Band systems on Saturn,Uranus,and Neptune are most prominent when viewed in which wavelength regime?

A) Visible
B) Infrared
C) Ultraviolet
D) X-ray

Question 27

__________ has the most extreme seasons of any planet in the Solar System.

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

Question 28

All the giant planets except __________ experience seasons.

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

Question 29

Each season is 42 years long on Uranus because

A) they change on the timescale of Uranus' orbital period.
B) Uranus rotates so slowly.
C) Uranus's rotational axis is tipped by 45 degrees relative to it orbital axis.
D) Hadley circulation is ineffective in transferring heat in Uranus' atmosphere.

Question 30

Why are all clouds on Jupiter not white,as on Earth?

A) They are made of methane.
B) They are made of carbon dioxide.
C) There are impurities in their ice crystals.
D) For the same reason that we see colors in rainbows on Earth

Question 31

Why do we find methane clouds above water clouds in the atmosphere of Saturn?

A) Methane clouds are lighter than water clouds.
B) Methane is far more plentiful than water on Saturn.
C) Methane is in a liquid/gas state at lower temperatures than water.
D) All of the above are good reasons.

Question 32

A planet will have bands in its atmosphere like Jupiter and Saturn if

A) Hadley circulation is the main effect governing the atmosphere.
B) the planet rotates slowly.
C) the wind speeds vary greatly with latitude.
D) the planet has a high temperature.

Question 33

Suppose you attach a weight to one end of a spring and then hold the other end of the spring and spin it above your head.The faster you spin the spring,the farther away the weight will move from your hand.This example illustrates

A) why the Great Red Spot exhibits anticyclonic motion.
B) why winds blow in an easterly direction on Neptune.
C) why the poles rotate faster than the equator on Uranus.
D) why Saturn is the most oblate of the giant planets.

Question 34

The Great Red Spot,Jupiter's most prominent storm system,has a diameter that is __________ times the Earth's diameter.

A) 2
B) 5
C) 10
D) 50

Question 35

The colors of the cloud bands on Jupiter and Saturn are due primarily to differences in their

A) wind speeds.
B) chemical compositions.
C) altitudes.
D) temperatures.

Question 36

If you monitor Jupiter's atmosphere and you see a storm move from a longitude of 60° west to a longitude of 80° west over 6 days,what is the wind speed at this storm's latitude on Jupiter? Note that these positions are measured on a coordinate system that rotates with the planet's interior.(The radius of Jupiter is . )

A) 700 m/s
B) 300 m/s
C) 100 m/s
D) 50 m/s

Question 37

Uranus and Neptune do not have bands as distinct as those on Jupiter and Saturn,because Uranus and Neptune

A) have wind speeds that vary more smoothly from the equator to the poles.
B) are composed entirely of hydrogen and helium and lack more complex molecules.
C) are much closer to the Sun and much colder.
D) rotate ten times slower.

Question 38

You could fit roughly __________ Jupiters across the diameter of the Sun and roughly __________ Earths across Jupiter's diameter.

A) 10;100
B) 100;10
C) 10;10
D) 100;100

Question 39

If we measure the spectrum of radiation coming from different clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere,and we find that a cloud that appears white in visible light emits the largest number of photons at a wavelength of ,while a cloud that appears brown in visible light emits the largest number of photons at a wavelength of ,how do the temperatures of the clouds compare?

A) The white cloud is 1.5 times hotter than the brown cloud.
B) The brown cloud is 1.5 times hotter than the white cloud.
C) The brown cloud is 3 times hotter than the white cloud.
D) The white cloud is 3 times hotter than the brown cloud.

Question 40

Why are Jupiter and Saturn not perfectly spherical?

A) They formed from the collision of two large planetesimals.
B) They rotate rapidly.
C) They have storms that develop preferentially along their equators.
D) They have very active aurorae that heat the atmospheres along the poles.

Question 41

Jupiter emits a large amount of radio emission because

A) charged particles blasted off of Io's surface move through Jupiter's magnetic field.
B) violent storms in its atmosphere produce a lot of lightening.
C) Jupiter is so cold that its blackbody radiation peaks at radio wavelengths.
D) Jupiter's thick inner shell of metallic hydrogen is electrically conductive.

Question 42

What is the ratio of Jupiter's volume to that of Earth's if both planets can be modeled as spheres and Jupiter's radius is 11 times that of the Earth's?

Question 43

The fact that Jupiter's radius is contracting at a rate of 1 mm/year results in

A) differential convection that powers Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
B) Jupiter's rotation rate slowing down with time.
C) Jupiter's shape being noticeably oblate.
D) Jupiter radiating more heat than it receives from the Sun.

Question 44

Of the giant planets,only Jupiter and Saturn have thick inner layers of

A) liquid rock.
B) solid rock.
C) molecular and metallic hydrogen.
D) liquid methane.

Question 45

Suppose Neptune moves with an average orbital speed of 3.5 km/s.If it takes Neptune 4 hours to pass directly in front of a star,what is Neptune's diameter? Give Neptune's radius in units of Earth diameters,where the diameter of Earth is 12,800 km.

Question 46

Despite the high temperatures deep in the interior of giant planets,their cores remain liquid because

A) they are under very high pressures.
B) gravitational potential energy is being converted into thermal energy in the cores.
C) they are composed of heavy materials like rock and water.
D) their rotations are rapid compared to those of the terrestrial planets.

Question 47

The inner core of each of the giant planets is made up of rocky material that is __________ times the mass of the Earth.

A) 10 to 25
B) 5 to 10
C) 100 to 200
D) 25 to 50

Question 48

The Jovian atmospheric vortices are created by a combination of the Coriolis effect and

A) rapid rotation.
B) convection.
C) their strong magnetic fields.
D) Hadley circulation.

Question 49

All the giant planets radiate more energy into space than they receive from the Sun except

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

Question 50

Calculate Jupiter's mass (in Earth masses)based on its gravitational pull on its moon,Io,using Newton's version of Kepler's third law: .In order to do so,you will need the following information: Io's ;Io's semimajor ;the mass of the ;the (also, ).

Question 51

The strongest magnetic fields in the Solar System are found on which planet?

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

Question 52

What would you observe in order to accurately measure the rotational period of a giant planet?

A) Clouds in the atmosphere
B) Bands of storms on the equator
C) Stellar occultations
D) Synchrotron emission

Question 53

If Saturn's orbital period is 30 years and the obliquity is 26 degrees,how long is it from the first day of spring to the first day of autumn on Saturn?

Question 54

Where do Uranus's and Neptune's high magnetic fields originate?

A) molten rocky cores
B) salty oceans
C) large magnetospheres
D) metallic hydrogen layers

Question 55

Compare the flux of sunlight at the Earth's orbit to that at Saturn's orbit.Note that Saturn's average distance from the Sun is 9.5 AU.

Question 56

Neptune and Uranus probably took longer to form than Jupiter and Saturn,because the solar nebula was __________ at the radius of Neptune and Uranus.

A) rotating faster
B) composed of rockier planetesimals
C) not as dense
D) hotter

Question 57

If the flux of sunlight on a planet suggested its temperature should be 200 K,but its actual temperature was 220 K,then how much more energy does this planet emit relative to the energy it receives from its parent star?

A) 5.3 times more energy
B) 2.2 times more energy
C) 1.1 times more energy
D) 1.5 times more energy

Question 58

If Saturn's rotational period is 11 hours and its radius is ,what is the average speed of a cloud in its atmosphere that is rotating with Saturn? (Neglect differential speeds due to winds. )

Question 59

How does the discovery of Neptune relate to the discovery of extrasolar planets?

Question 60

We refer to some of the inner regions of Jupiter and Saturn as metallic hydrogen because they

A) are as dense as lead.
B) are solid.
C) provide support for the upper layers of hydrogen and helium.
D) efficiently conduct electricity.

Question 61

On which of the giant planets do we think we can find deep oceans of water? Why do we think this?

Question 62

Define cloud cannibalism.Where is it observed in the Solar System?

Question 63

What gives rise to the large magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune? How does this source help explain why the axis of their magnetic fields are misaligned and significantly offset from their rotational axes?

Question 64

What clues do the differences in the masses of the giant planets give about conditions in the early Solar System?

Question 65

When Voyager I passed through Jupiter's magnetosphere,it flew through a plasma 20 times hotter than the surface of the Sun.Why did the low density of the plasma save the spacecraft from melting?

Question 66

Based on the flux of sunlight that it gets,Jupiter should have a temperature of 109 K.However its temperature is observed to be 124 K.How much more energy is Jupiter radiating out into space compared to what it gets from the Sun?

Question 67

Why are winds on the giant planets far faster than those on Earth?

Question 68

What causes the horizontal bands on Jupiter and Saturn to have different colors? How can they be used to probe different altitudes in their atmospheres?