Deck 8: Vagabonds of the Solar System

Question 1

Which planet or dwarf planet in our solar system has the moon with the largest LARGEST diameter compared with the diameter of the planet or dwarf planet itself?

A) the EarthEarth
B) Saturn
C) Neptune
D) Pluto

Answer 1

Pluto

Question 2

The Pluto-Charon system moves in which way in its mutual motion?

A) Charon orbits Pluto with exactly Pluto''s rotation period.
B) Charon orbits Pluto once while Pluto rotates twice.
C) There is no relationship between rotation period of Pluto and orbital period of Charon.
D) Charon orbits Pluto twice while Pluto rotates once.

Answer 2

Charon orbits Pluto with exactly Pluto''s rotation period.

Question 3

What is unique about the Pluto-Charon system,compared with all other planets in the solar system?

A) Both Pluto and Charon are volcanically active, with lava flows and vents of sulfur dioxide gas.
B) Charon is an icy moon, but it is in orbit around a giant planet made mostly of liquid hydrogen.
C) Pluto has only one satellite.
D) Both Pluto and Charon are in synchronous rotation, so each object maintains the same face toward the other object at all times.

Answer 3

Both Pluto and Charon are in synchronous rotation, so each object maintains the same face toward the other object at all times.

Question 4

Pluto is believed to have:

A) no atmosphere at all.
B) a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
C) a thin atmosphere of water vapor.
D) a thin atmosphere containing some nitrogen.

Question 5

What is the largest LARGEST moon of the dwarf planet Pluto called?

A) Chiron
B) Callisto
C) Charon
D) Triton

Question 6

Based on its mean density,the dwarf planet Pluto is:

A) similar to the Jovian planets in composition, although it is much smaller in size.
B) similar to the terrestrial planets in composition, although it is much smaller in size.
C) similar to the terrestrial planets in composition, although it is much larger in size.
D) a real oddity, denser than the Jovian planets but lighter than the terrestrial planets.

Question 7

Pluto''s mass was poorly known before 1978.What happened in that year to change this?

A) The Hubble Space Telescope was launched.
B) The new Keck II telescopes became operational.
C) Charon was discovered.
D) The return echo of a radar pulse, sent many years before, .returned to Earth, allowing a Doppler shift measurement of its rotation rate.

Question 8

Which one of the followingobject is a small solar system body?

A) Rhea, a moon of Saturn
B) Pluto
C) Ceres (an asteroid)
D) Mathilde (an asteroid)

Question 9

What technique has allowed scientists to determine the relative sizes of Pluto and Charon?

A) imaging by the Voyager spacecraft in 1989
B) direct photography using adaptive-optics telescopes on the EarthEarth in 1995
C) occultation of this planet by the EarthEarth''s Moon during the 1980s
D) eclipses of the planet''s surface by its moon, Charon, during 1985-1990, viewed from the EarthEarth

Question 10

If you were standing on Pluto,how often would you see the satellite Charon rise above the horizon each day?

A) once each 6-hour day as Pluto rotates on its axis
B) twice each 6-hour day because Charon is in a retrograde orbit
C) once every 2 days because Charon orbits in the same direction Pluto rotates but more slowly
D) never because -Charon is a synchronous satellite with an orbital period exactly equal to Pluto''s rotation period

Question 11

The first satellite discovered in orbit about Pluto was Charon.What is unusual about this moon?

A) Charon is the only moon in the solar system known to have an atmosphere.
B) Charon is much warmer than it should be, given its position in the solar system.
C) Compared with planet-satellite systems in the rest of the solar system, Charon is very large and very close to Pluto.
D) Charon is geologically active.

Question 12

Based on its mean density,the dwarf planet Pluto appears to be composed of:

A) rock and iron.
B) a mixture of rock and ice.
C) gases such as methane and ammonia, possibly with a small, liquid core.
D) the very lightest elements, hydrogen and helium.

Question 13

How was the dwarf planet Pluto discovered?

A) by prediction using Newton''s laws to account for the deviations from uniform orbits of Uranus and Neptune
B) by the infrared cameras on the IRAS spacecraft
C) by Voyager spacecraft cameras, which were used between planetary encounters to survey the planetary system
D) by searching photographs of the sky for an object that moved against the background of distant stars

Question 14

Which of the following objects was discovered in the twentieth century?

A) Pluto
B) Uranus
C) Neptune
D) Ceres

Question 15

Which of the following objects was farthest from the Sun in 1990?

A) Pluto
B) Charon
C) Neptune
D) Uranus

Question 16

Pluto was discovered in:

A) 1930.
B) 1846.
C) 1609.
D) 1781.

Question 17

Of the followingWhich objects in the solar system,which one has the greatest orbital inclination (orbit at the greatest angle to that of the EarthEarth)?

A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) Jupiter
D) Pluto

Question 18

Some of the definitions of the different types of objects in the solar system overlap.Which one of the following pairs does not NOT overlap? That is,if an object can be described by one of the labels,it cannot be described by the other.

A) dwarf planet and asteroid
B) dwarf planet and Kuiper belt object
C) satellite and Kuiper belt object
D) meteoroid and planet

Question 19

Of the followingWhich objects in the solar system,which one has the greatest orbital eccentricity and therefore the most MOST elliptical orbit?

A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) the EarthEarth
D) Pluto

Question 20

Pluto is not NOT believed to have an unusually large:

A) spin rate.
B) satellite (relative to its own size).
C) orbital eccentricity..
D) orbital inclination.

Question 21

If all the material in the asteroid belt were to be combined to produce a planet,how big would it be?

A) about 1500 km in diameter, less than half the diameter of the Moon
B) only a few kilometers in diameter, similar to an average mountain on the EarthEarth
C) about the size of the EarthEarth, with a diameter of about 13,000 km.
D) about the size of Mercury, with a diameter of about 5000 km.

Question 22

Who was the first person to discover an asteroid?

A) German astronomer Johann Bode
B) English astronomer Sir William Herschel
C) German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss
D) Italian astronomer Guiseppe Piazzi

Question 23

How would a typical asteroid appear on a time exposure photograph of the sky as it orbited the Sun if the camera were tracking the background stars?

A) The asteroid would look like a star, a small extra dot not shown on star charts of this area of the sky.
B) The asteroid would look like a small, diffuse patch against the sharp images of stars because of the dust and gas surrounding it.
C) The asteroid would produce a flash of light as it crossed the field of view of the camera.
D) The asteroid would produce a short trail as it moved slowly against the background stars.

Question 24

How would we be able to detect a large asteroid if it were heading straight for the EarthEarth?

A) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening starlike object where no star was previously charted, with a redshifted solar spectrum of reflected light.
B) The asteroid would appear as a short trail against the background stars on a sky-tracked long-exposure photograph, and its spectrum would show no Doppler shift.
C) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening point of light where no star had previously been charted, and the spectrum of sunlight reflected from it would be blueshifted by the Doppler effect.
D) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening and growing diffuse sphere of light where no star was charted because of light scattered from the dust and gas surrounding it, and it would show a blueshifted spectrum.

Question 25

Unlike the other dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt,Makemake has no moons.Is this significant?

A) No. Having or not having a moon does not really make a significant difference.
B) Yes. It indicates that Makemake is older than the others.
C) Yes. It indicates that Makemake is younger than the others.
D) Yes. It means that it is harder to determine the mass of Makemake.

Question 26

Haumea is all of the following exceptNOT a(n):

A) a tTrans-Neptunian oObject.
B) a dwarf planet.
C) a Kuiper belt object..
D) an asteroid.

Question 27

Which solar system object was found on January 1,1801,located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter?

A) asteroid Ceres
B) Comet Halley's comet
C) Kuiper belt object 1993 SC
D) asteroid Gaspra

Question 28

The size of the largest asteroid,Ceres,compared with the largest mare or impact basin on the Moon,Mare Imbrium,is:

A) not comparable because all asteroids are very small objects (1 km diameter), whereas most maria are large (100-1000 km diameter).
B) much smaller, only about 1/3 the size.
C) very similar, about 1000 km across.
D) much larger, by a factor of more than 2.

Question 29

What is the largest LARGEST known asteroid in our solar system?

A) Phobos
B) Gaspra
C) Ceres
D) Pallas

Question 30

An asteroid is:

A) a small, easily recognizable group of stars within a constellation.
B) a planetesimal moving in an orbit around the Sun.
C) another name for the nucleus of a comet, a volatile object that moves around the Sun in a long, elliptical orbit.
D) a meteorite before it enters the atmosphere and plunges to the EarthEarth.

Question 31

A few of the largest asteroids appear to be spherical.How do you think they got this way?

A) The visible outer atmospheres of these large asteroids are spherical, even though the underlying surfaces are irregular.
B) The largest asteroids solidified from spherical gas clouds in their early history and retained this shape.
C) Repeated collisions with other asteroids have worn the largest asteroids down to spheres.
D) Self-gravity was sufficient to pull the largest asteroids into a spherical shape during their early history.

Question 32

Most of the asteroids of the solar system move around the Sun between the orbits of which planets?

A) the EarthEarth and Mars
B) Jupiter and Saturn
C) Venus and the EarthEarth
D) Mars and Jupiter

Question 33

The number of asteroids with diameters greater than 100 km is:

A) just over 1000.
B) 3.
C) about 30.
D) about 230.

Question 34

The total number of asteroids orbiting the Sun among the planets is estimated to be:

A) several thousand.
B) hundreds of billions.
C) more than a million.
D) a few hundred.

Question 35

Which of the following statements about asteroids is NOT true?

A) Only a minority of all asteroids are in the asteroid belt.
B) Some asteroids have orbits that carry them inside the EarthEarth''s orbit.
C) Some asteroids occupy the same orbit as Jupiter.
D) The total mass of all asteroids is much smaller than the mass of the EarthEarth.

Question 36

The asteroid belt exists between the orbits of the planets:

A) the EarthEarth and Mars.
B) Jupiter and Saturn.
C) Venus and the EarthEarth.
D) Mars and Jupiter.

Question 37

What is the diameter of the largest asteroid in the solar system,Ceres,compared with the diameter of the EarthEarth,which is about 12,800 km?

A) smaller than 1/100 Earth''s diameter
B) less than 1/10 Earth''s diameter
C) about 1/4 the EarthEarth''s diameter
D) about 1/2 the EarthEarth''s diameter

Question 38

What is unusual about the surface of Haumea?

A) It is solid rock.
B) It appears to be a mixture of rock and ice.
C) It is almost pure water ice.
D) It is almost perfectly round.

Question 39

On New Year''s Day,1801,Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the asteroid Ceres.His search was inspired by an event that had occurred only about twenty years before.What was the event?

A) the first astronomical use of the telescope by Galileo
B) the invention of the first practical reflecting telescope by Newton
C) the discovery of Uranus by Herschel
D) the discovery of Pluto by Tombaugh

Question 40

When compared with the diameter of Earth''s Moon,the diameters of the biggest asteroids are:

A) very much smaller (less than 1/10).
B) about the same size.
C) very much larger, by a factor of at least 5.
D) between 1/10 and 1/3 as large.

Question 41

The asteroid belt is believed by most astronomers to be composed of:

A) rocky debris left over from the formation of the solar system.
B) genuine leather.
C) rather dirty ice balls similar to the nuclei of comets.
D) the remnants of a gaseous planet disrupted by a massive impact.

Question 42

What is the average distance between asteroids?

A) about three times the length of a football field
B) about twice the diameter of the EarthEarth
C) about half the distance between the EarthEarth and the Moon
D) many times the distance between the EarthEarth and the Moon

Question 43

Jupiter''s orbital period is approximately 12 years.Based on this number,you would be most MOST likely to find an asteroid belt asteroid with a period of how many years?

A) 4
B) 6
C) 7.3
D) 24

Question 44

By 1891,only about 300 asteroids had been discovered.After 1891,hundreds more were discovered quickly.What caused this increased discovery rate for asteroids?

A) the invention of the telescope
B) the invention of photography
C) the advent of astrophotography
D) heightened interest in the solar system fueled by Percival Lowell and the Martian canals controversy

Question 45

One of the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt is described as "3/7 of Jupiter''s orbital period.".What does this mean?

A) This location corresponds to the radius where an asteroid would complete three solar orbits in the same time Jupiter completes seven solar orbits.
B) This location corresponds to the radius where an asteroid would complete seven solar orbits in the same time Jupiter completes three solar orbits.
C) This location corresponds to a radius which that is 3/7 of the orbital radius of Jupiter.
D) The asteroids are apparently the remnants of material which never formed into a larger body. If that body had orbited at this location, it would have had 3/7 of Jupiter''s mass.

Question 46

The Kirkwood gaps are caused by:

A) large asteroids moving in circular orbits within the asteroid belt, which sweep out and collect smaller objects in their path.
B) large asteroids whose orbits carry them periodically through the asteroid belt, where they sweep out a path and leave it devoid of asteroids.
C) the gravitational pull of Jupiter, which nudges asteroids into new orbits.
D) large asteroids on the outer fringe of the asteroid belt, which gravitationally affect the paths of smaller objects within the belt.

Question 47

Why does no major planet orbit the Sun at the location of the asteroid belt?

A) One such object did form there but was destroyed by a collision with an early comet; the asteroid belt is the debris from the collision.
B) Jupiter''s gravitational pull stirred up the planetesimals, preventing them from coalescing into a single large object.
C) In the early solar nebula, the temperature that close to the Sun was too high for rock or iron to condense into solid form.
D) Three Earth-sized planets did form there, but they destroyed each one another by mutual collisions; the asteroid belt is the debris from these collisions.

Question 48

Computer simulations of the formation of the solar system show that the material in the vicinity of the asteroid belt is not NOT in the form of one large planet because:

A) most of the material originally in the asteroid belt crashed into Mars, creating the heavily cratered terrain we see there.
B) a violent collision destroyed two proto-planets, the debris from of became the asteroid belt.
C) this region is where the gravitational field of the Sun is balanced by that of Jupiter, preventing coalescence of matter into a planet.
D) Jupiter''s gravitational pull flung most of the material in this region out of the solar system and prevented coalescence of the rest.

Question 49

The Kirkwood gaps (see Figure 8-11,Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th ed.)are in the:

A) asteroid belt at places where there are very few asteroids.
B) rings of Saturn, where there is less material than at other radii.
C) spectrum of hydrogen gas, where light has been absorbed by molecules first identified by Kirkwood.
D) equatorial region of the Sun, where no sunspots are found.

Question 50

The average sidereal period for an asteroid moving around the Sun in the asteroid belt,according to Kepler''s law,is:

A) 46.8 years.
B) 2.8 years.
C) 4.68 years.
D) 1.99 years.

Question 51

What is the relationship between the Kirkwood gaps in the asteroid belt and the Cassini division in the rings of Saturn?

A) Both the Kirkwood gaps and the Cassini division are caused by large objects passing through swarms of smaller objects, sweeping out gaps in the swarms.
B) Both the Kirkwood gaps and the Cassini division were discovered by observers from the same group; Kirkwood and Cassini both worked at the same observatory.
C) Both the Kirkwood gaps and the Cassini division are caused by disruptions of the orbits of small objects by larger planets or moons. In both cases, the orbital distance of small objects in the gaps is related by simple fractions to the orbital distance to the disturbing object.
D) Both the Kirkwood gaps and the Cassini division are caused by disruptions of the orbits of small objects by larger planets or moons. In both cases, the periods of the small objects are simple fractions of those of the larger disturbing object.

Question 52

What effect does Jupiter have on asteroids in the asteroid belt?

A) Jupiter has no effect whatsoever on such small objects because they are a long way away from Jupiter, and Jupiter''s gravitational influence varies as the inverse square of distance, by Newton''s law.
B) Jupiter perturbs only the orbits of asteroids whose orbital periods are a simple fraction (e.g., 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 2/7) of its orbital period.
C) Jupiter disturbs only the orbits of asteroids whose orbital distances (or semimajor axes) are a simple fraction (e.g., 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 2/7) of the radius of Jupiter''s orbit.
D) Jupiter disturbs the orbits of all the asteroids in the belt, slowing them down and causing them to spiral slowly in toward the Sun.

Question 53

Jupiter''s orbital period is approximately 12 years.If it were exactly 12 years,which of the following periods would NOT produce an effective resonance with Jupiter?

A) 3.0 years
B) 6.0 years
C) 5.1 years
D) 8.0 years

Question 54

We have many reasons to believe asteroids have collisions with each one another.Which one of the following is not NOT one of these reasons?

A) We have actually imaged asteroids in collision.
B) Almost all of the asteroids orbit the Sun in the same direction.
C) There are several families of asteroids with very similar orbits.
D) We have observed asteroids which that appear to be two lobes connected by a narrow collar, as though two asteroids had collided and stuck together.

Question 55

Which one of the following statements about the asteroid belt is falseFALSE?

A) The masses of all the known asteroid belt asteroids, added together, would produce a body too small to be classified as a planet.
B) All known asteroids orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
C) In spite of the vast average separations between asteroids, they can sometimes collide.
D) Almost all asteroids have orbits that lie near the plane of the ecliptic.

Question 56

What is the typical distance between asteroids in the asteroid belt?

A) 6000 km
B) 1.2 AU
C) 25 km
D) 10 million km

Question 57

The number of known asteroids rose sharply in the 1890s.What was the cause of this increase?

A) The technique of astrophotography was introduced.
B) The first very large telescopes were built.
C) Better theoretical predictions of where to look for asteroids became available.
D) A series of collisions involving large objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter resulted in many more asteroids being formed.

Question 58

The asteroid belt has a gap where few objects are found because of repeated gravitational disturbances from Jupiter.At what distance from the Sun will this gap be found if objects in the gap have a period one- third that of Jupiter? (Hint: Use Kepler''s law.)

A) 7.86 AU
B) 3.28 AU
C) 2.5 AU
D) 2.6 AU

Question 59

Results of the Dawn flyby of asteroid Vesta reveal that it is characterized by all of the following except oneEXCEPT ONE.Which is not a characteristic of Vestais the exception?

A) It shows chemical differentiation.
B) It is orbited by its own satellite.
C) Its hemispheres show different amounts of cratering.
D) It possesses at least one very tall mountain.

Question 60

If an asteroid were to be moving in a circular orbit around the Sun with an orbital period of 1/5 that of Jupiter,what would be the radius of its orbit?

A) 1.78 AU
B) 15.2 AU
C) 1.04 AU
D) 3.65 AU

Question 61

One significant feature of the Lagrange points produced by the Sun and Jupiter is that:

A) they are regions of reduced gravitational force in the asteroid belt from which asteroids can escape, producing the gaps within the belt.
B) gravitational forces combine to produce a minimum in the field, thereby trapping asteroids at these points.
C) gravitational forces combine to enhance the overall force on particles passing through them, accelerating them out of the solar system.
D) they are points of maximum gravitational force near Jupiter, where the major moons Io and Europa are held.

Question 62

Where do the Trojan asteroids orbit the Sun?

A) in circular orbits at the same orbital distance as Jupiter
B) in circular orbits at the same orbital distance as the EarthEarth
C) in the asteroid belt, so-named because they are large
D) in elliptical orbits that cross the orbit of the EarthEarth

Question 63

What is the difference between an Apollo asteroid and an Amor asteroid?

A) Apollo asteroids cross the orbit of the EarthEarth, whereas Amor asteroids cross the orbit of Mars but not the EarthEarth''s orbit.
B) Apollo asteroids orbit entirely inside the EarthEarth''s orbit and therefore do not cross it, whereas Amor asteroids cross Earth''s orbit and therefore might hit the EarthEarth.
C) Apollo asteroids pass near terrestrial planets, whereas Amor asteroids remain in the same orbit as Jupiter.
D) Apollo asteroids approach the orbit of Mercury, whereas Amor asteroids pass only within the orbit of Earth.

Question 64

What is the net force on a Trojan asteroid?

A) zero
B) the same as the net force on Jupiter
C) slightly less than the net force on Jupiter if it is 60 degrees ahead of Jupiter in its orbit, and slightly more if it is 60 degrees behind
D) enough to give it the same acceleration as Jupiter

Question 65

What kind of orbit is traced by the Trojan asteroids as they move around the Sun?

A) elliptical orbits that carry them from outside Neptune''s orbit to inside the orbit of Jupiter
B) long, elliptical orbits that cross the orbit of the EarthEarth
C) circular orbits at Jupiter''s orbital distance, at angles of ±60° away from the planet
D) circular orbits at about 2.8 AU from the Sun, within the asteroid belt

Question 66

The two Lagrange points in the Jupiter-Sun planetary system are:

A) positions in space at Jupiter''s orbital distance from the Sun where the combined gravitational forces from the Sun and Jupiter produce an equilibrium point at which asteroids can become trapped.
B) points at high latitudes on Jupiter where auroras (called Lagrange auroras on Jupiter) occur most frequently.
C) areas in the asteroid belt where gravitational interaction of Jupiter with asteroids disturbs their orbits and causes a Kirkwood gap.
D) an area between the Sun and Jupiter where the gravitational forces on an object from these massive bodies are equal and opposite.

Question 67

All of the following characteristics have been observed in asteroids except oneEXCEPT ONE.Which one is the exception?

A) regolith
B) craters
C) satellites
D) magnetic field

Question 68

Often,an asteroid viewed from Earth appears to change its brightness periodically because the:

A) albedo is significantly different on one side than the other.
B) leading side is very dark and the trailing side is very bright like Iapetus, a satellite of Saturn.
C) asteroid is elongated, so it may present a larger or a smaller cross section to us as it rotates.
D) asteroid is simply passing through the shadow of another asteroid.

Question 69

What is a Hirayama family of asteroids?

A) a group of asteroids that have identical orbits
B) either of two groups of asteroids that orbit at Jupiter''s distance from the Sun
C) a group of asteroids that have identical spectra and therefore identical compositions
D) a group of asteroids that have orbits that cross the EarthEarth''s orbit but remain outside Venus''s orbit

Question 70

Why is the star Zeta Leporis,in Lepus the Hare,an object of particular interest?

A) Zeta Leporis is still in the nebular stage; it is only a few hundred million years old.
B) Zeta Leporis appears to have an Earthlike planet.
C) Zeta Leporis is believed to have passed near the Sun early in the history of the solar system, causing gravitational disruptions that affect the orbits of the asteroids.
D) Zeta Leporis appears to have an asteroid belt of its own.

Question 71

How are space probes to the outer planets such as Jupiter protected from being obliterated by collisions with asteroids in the asteroid belt?

A) They aren''t. We lose only one out of every four spacecraft to collisions with asteroids, so it is cheaper to take our chances.
B) The spacecraft are equipped with cameras to detect asteroids so that they can be directed safely around them.
C) The spacecraft are sent in an inclined orbit that arcs above or below the asteroid belt, then crosses the ecliptic again near Jupiter.
D) They aren''t. Asteroids are so far apart that the spacecraft just sail through.

Question 72

Asteroids whose elliptical orbits have perihelia inside the orbit of Mars but outside the orbit of the EarthEarth are called _____ asteroids.

A) Apollo
B) Trojan
C) Hirayama family
D) Amor

Question 73

Asteroids that orbit the Sun in the stable Lagrange points in Jupiter''s orbit are known as:

A) adenoids.
B) Apollo asteroids.
C) Trojans.
D) Jupitoids.

Question 74

The collection of Trojan asteroids trapped at Jupiter''s Lagrange points was:

A) a surprise when first discovered by the 5-meter Mount Palomar telescope.
B) a surprise when first discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope.
C) a surprise when first discovered by the Voyager 2 flyby mission.
D) predicted by the mathematician Lagrange in 1772.

Question 75

If an asteroid were found to be orbiting in a circular path around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter (5.2 AU),what would be its orbital period compared with that of Jupiter,which is 11.86 years?

A) about 10 times as long as Jupiter''s period, or 118.6 years, because the Sun''s gravitational force is much smaller on such a small object
B) about 1/10 of Jupiter''s period because it is a much smaller object
C) same as Jupiter''s period, 11.86 years
D) exactly half of Jupiter''s period, or 5.93 years, because it would be in a synchronous orbit with Jupiter

Question 76

Asteroids whose orbits carry them across the EarthEarth''s orbit are known as:

A) Kirkwood asteroids.
B) Amor asteroids.
C) Trojan asteroids.
D) Apollo asteroids.

Question 77

What is the orbital sidereal period of a Trojan asteroid? (See Figure 8-16 and Appendix,Table C-1,Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th Ed.)

A) It is difficult to be specific because all Trojan asteroids have different orbital periods, depending on their masses.
B) 5.9 years, the same as most asteroids in the asteroid belt
C) 11.86 years
D) 1.88 years

Question 78

What is unusual about the asteroid Karin?

A) Karin is the Apollo asteroid that comes closest to the EarthEarth.
B) Karin was the first of the Trojan asteroids to be discovered.
C) Karin sits at the stable Lagrange point in the EarthEarth''s orbit.
D) Karin is the largest asteroid in a cluster of asteroids that all orbit the Sun together.

Question 79

The stable Lagrange points associated with two objects in space are points where the combined gravitational force is:

A) a minimum.
B) either a maximum or minimum.
C) a maximum.
D) zero.

Question 80

In the orbits of which of the planets do Lagrange points occur?

A) all the planets
B) Jupiter; only Jupiter because it is the only planet is massive enough to produce a Lagrange point
C) Jupiter and the planets beyond it because ; a Lagrange point must be a certain distance from its planet, and only the orbits of Jupiter and the planets beyond it are large enough to accommodate a Lagrange point
D) only the planets with moons