Deck 9: Cratered Worlds: the Moon and Mercury

Question 1

The first human being to step out onto the surface of another world was:

A) Luke Skywalker
B) Jack Schmitt
C) James Van Allen
D) Neil Armstrong
E) Yuri Gagarin

Answer 1

Neil Armstrong

Question 2

Which of the following statements about our Moon is FALSE?

A) its average density is less than that of the Earth (it seems to have fewer heavy materials)
B) most of what we know about its geology is the result of the Apollo landings
C) on Earth, we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us
D) its mass is less than that of the Earth
E) it has no real atmosphere to speak of

Answer 2

on Earth, we can see all its sides in the course of a month as it goes around us

Question 3

In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:

A) the Earth's core
B) the Earth's crust and mantle
C) comets
D) Jupiter and Saturn
E) no other body in the solar system

Answer 3

the Earth's crust and mantle

Question 4

Why are almost all the craters we see on the Moon circular?

A) because the rocks and icebergs that fell from space to make them were all spherical
B) because the volcanoes that make them erupt in a symmetrical way, making circular openings for the lava to emerge
C) because the active surface of the Moon converts the craters into circular basins, no matter what shape they start out being
D) because the rocks and icebergs that hit the Moon are moving so fast, they explode on impact, making a circular hole
E) this is an unsolved mystery; it's one of the most puzzling things about the Moon

Question 5

The lunar highlands are made mostly of rocks that

A) fell on to the Moon from space
B) were recently expelled by volcanoes from the deep interior of the Moon
C) rose to the top as the Moon cooled from a molten state early in its history
D) that were pushed upwards due to active plate tectonics on the Moon
E) don't have a good scientific explanation yet
Section 9.3: Impact Craters

Question 6

What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?

A) all the radioactive rocks found on the Moon so far give ages much younger than that, so the Moon must have formed less than 3.8 billion years ago
B) we see many more craters on the Moon that have been eroded by wind and rain
C) all the large craters on the Moon come in pairs, while all recent craters are single
D) there are ten times more craters on the older highlands than the younger maria
E) the ancient sea basins on the Moon, whose water has since evaporated, show a lot more cratering
Section 9.4: Origin of the Moon

Question 7

In what way is the Moon similar to the Earth?

A) roughly the same size
B) similar atmosphere
C) same gravity on the surface
D) takes the same time to rotate on its axis
E) none of the above

Question 8

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?

A) they are made mostly of frozen gases, not rock
B) they are both much further from the Sun's heat than Earth is
C) they do not have an atmosphere
D) they are both significantly larger than the Earth
E) they both turn on their axes much faster than the Earth

Question 9

The large, roughly circular, dark, and somewhat younger regions on the Moon are called:

A) highlands
B) maria
C) rilles
D) tectonic blobs
E) anti-cyclones

Question 10

What is the source of the fine, powdery dust found on the Moon's surface?

A) it is sand, produced in exactly the same way sand is produced on the Earth's beaches
B) it is the result of volcanic activity on the Moon over billions of years
C) it is the result of many impacts, breaking surface rocks apart over billions of years
D) it is the result of gas bubbling up from inside the Moon, which chemically changes the surface soil
E) even though the astronauts brought home lots of samples of Moon dust, we have no idea why there is such a layer on the Moon's surface

Question 11

[An alternate phrasing of question 15]: These days the theory of the Earth's Moon's origin that best fits with the facts we have about the Moon is:

A) the Moon came out of the Earth
B) the Moon was formed in the same area of space and at the same time as the Earth
C) the Moon was formed elsewhere and was later captured by the Earth
D) a large object hit the Earth and the collision produced a filament of material that condensed to make the Moon
E) the Moon was the gift of the Green Cheese Producers on Mars

Question 12

Which of the following statements about the rocks brought back from the Earth's Moon by the astronauts is TRUE?

A) The Moon rocks resemble Earth rocks in every detail
B) The Moon rocks are fundamentally different from Earth rocks, with materials never seen on Earth
C) The Moon rocks did not survive long enough in the Earth's oxygen-rich atmosphere for us to analyze them
D) The Moon rocks were puzzling, because they resemble rocks from the Earth's crust in many ways, but also have subtle differences
E) The Moon rocks resemble many of the main dishes in our college cafeteria

Question 13

When a projectile (a rock from space, say) hits the surface of the Moon, which of the following do we NOT get?

A) a crater
B) an ejecta blanket
C) secondary craters
D) a rough hilly apron (or slope) of ejected material
E) a gushing out of lots of water that had been frozen inside the ground on the cold Moon, but is briefly heated by the impact

Question 14

Which theory of the Moon's origin do astronomers (and the evidence) favor:

A) the fission theory
B) the sister theory
C) the capture theory
D) the giant impact theory
E) the green cheese theory

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon?

A) the collection of almost almost 400 kg of moon samples, brought back to Earth
B) leaving experiment packages behind which continued to operate after astronauts left
C) taking detailed photographs from the Command Module from orbit around the Moon
D) discovering that the Moon has a great deal of water under its surface
E) you can't fool me, all the above were done by the Apollo missions

Question 16

The mountains on the Moon

A) have been formed in the same way as the mountains on the Earth
B) were formed through the eruption of volcanoes early in the Moon's history
C) were formed by the collision of continental plates early in the Moon's history
D) are the result of giant impacts during the Moon's long history of being hit
E) are a complete mystery, which astronomers have not been able to explain

Question 17

Sometimes, when the Moon is a thin crescent, you can still dimly make out the full disk of our satellite. What is the reason for this?

A) light reflecting from the Earth onto the Moon
B) light seeping through the mountains and valleys of the Moon
C) light from phosphorescent minerals on the Moon's surface, that store up sunlight and slowly emit it when it is dark
D) the Moon produces its own light the same way the Sun does
E) the Moon reflects light from either Mars or Venus, depending on which is closest to Earth
Section 9.2: The Lunar Surface

Question 18

We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are:

A) giant volcanoes produced when the Moon tried to get plate tectonics going
B) ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon
C) large rifts filled with colder material made when the Moon's surface was cooling
D) large, flat, ancient plateaus on the Moon's highland areas
E) advertisements for the musical "West Side Story"

Question 19

Of the people who landed on the Moon, how many were trained scientists?

A) exactly one
B) about half of the astronauts were trained scientists
C) all except one (the first one)
D) all the astronauts were trained scientists
E) none

Question 20

Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?

A) At the bottom of all the craters we see on the side facing us
B) In the highlands, but only on the side of the Moon facing away from Earth
C) Deep inside craters in the regions near the Moon's poles
D) In the maria, regions of the Moon that are water filled seas
E) You can't fool me, no water has ever been found on the Moon in any form

Question 21

Which of the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?

A) it is always hot everywhere on Mercury, because the planet is so close to the Sun
B) it is always cold all over Mercury, because the planet has no significant atmosphere
C) one side of Mercury is always extremely hot, while the other side is about the same temperature as Los Angeles on Earth
D) the difference in temperature between Mercury's daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planet in the solar system
E) we suspect Mercury must be warm, but we have not been able to measure any temperatures on the planet with our instruments

Question 22

Which of the eight planets has a smaller mass than Mercury?

A) Earth
B) Venus
C) Jupiter
D) Neptune
E) You can't fool me, Mercury has the smallest mass of the eight planets

Question 23

The spacecraft that really gave scientists their first good close-up look of the planet Mercury was:

A) Voyager 1
B) Mariner 10
C) Galileo
D) the series of Mercury capsules
E) New Horizons

Question 24

Mercury is a small planet and therefore has trouble holding on to an atmosphere. How then do scientist account for the extremely thin atmosphere that was found around the planet in 1985?

A) Mercury is so hot that gas is constantly evaporating from its molten lakes and oceans
B) Mercury's moon is so close to it that it can pull out some material from the planet
C) the Sun's "wind" of particles is chipping atoms off the surface of Mercury
D) Mercury's active volcanoes give off a lot of material; while much escapes, a certain number of atoms "exhaled" by recent volcanoes are in orbit around Mercury at any given time
E) no one can suggest any explanation for the atmosphere at the present time; it's a mystery

Question 25

Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?

A) its surface is heavily cratered
B) it has a significant atmosphere
C) the highest temperature on the two worlds is the same
D) the time they take to spin once on their axis is the same
E) you can't fool me, Mercury is not similar to the Moon in any way

Question 26

Which of the following statements about Mercury's orbit is TRUE?

A) Mercury is the most distant planet from the Sun
B) Mercury has the highest speed in its orbit of any planet
C) Mercury's orbit is the closest to a perfect circle of any planet
D) Mercury takes 88 Earth years to orbit the Sun
E) Mercury always remains exactly the same distance from the Sun as it orbits

Question 27

Which of the following is made of the densest material?

A) Mercury
B) the Moon
C) the Earth
D) all of the above have the same density
E) we don't know, because have not measured the density of any other planet except the Earth

Question 28

In the future, a pair of astronauts are sent on a mission to the planet Mercury. They watch the Sun set one mercurian evening and decide they will go exploring in opposite directions and meet again the NEXT time the Sun is setting in the spot where they started. How long will they have to wait for the next sunset at that spot?

A) one Mercury rotation period, 59 Earth days
B) one Mercury year, 88 Earth days
C) two Mercury rotation periods, 119 Earth days
D) two Mercury years, 176 Earth days
E) one Earth day

Question 29

Why are the largest craters we find on the Moon and Mercury so much larger than the largest craters we find on the Earth?

A) because the Moon and Mercury have larger gravity than Earth, and this can attract larger pieces
B) because the Moon and Mercury do not have atmospheres to protect them from the largest pieces that can hit
C) because the Earth's magnetic field protects us from larger impacts
D) because the Moon and Mercury have much larger volcanic eruptions
E) because the largest craters were made early in each world's history, and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the Earth's surface

Question 30

According to the giant impact hypothesis about the formation of the Moon, why did the Earth not break apart into many pieces when the giant impact happened?

A) cosmic impacts are always so slow, the bodies involved never break into pieces
B) the impactor was about the size of Mars or smaller, so it ejected material from the Earth but did not break it
C) the impactor was made of such light material (mostly gas and liquid) it could not break the Earth apart
D) there were more than a dozen small impactors, all hitting one after another
E) the Earth did break apart into many pieces, which then re-formed into a planet
Section 9.5: Mercury

Question 31

What formation or formations are evidence that the planet Mercury may have shrunk (gotten a bit smaller) as it cooled?

A) the Caloris basin
B) the large basins in general
C) the long scarps or cliffs
D) the thin atmosphere emerging from inside the planet
E) the big ticket with size 8 crossed out and size 6 written in

Question 32

The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of:

A) water
B) metals
C) ammonia and methane ice
D) very light and porous rocks
E) the element mercury

Question 33

The largest impact basin on Mercury (located on that part of the planet which is closest to the Sun at noon) is called:

A) Sunstroke
B) Caloris
C) Shakespeare
D) Mariner
E) Columbo

Question 34

What theory of Mercury's origin can best explain the fact that its core is made of such dense materials?

A) Mercury was formed in the outer solar system and later wound up in its present orbit
B) giant impacts in its early history may have torn away much of its original crust and mantle
C) giant impacts early in its history added a tremendous amount of material to the original planet
D) a large satellite (made of the same material as the Earth's Moon) crashed into Mercury early in its history
E) Mercury was briefly inside the Sun, and thus lost much of its earliest material