Astronomy Flashcards

(115 cards)

0
Q

Mercury has “weird terrain” directly opposite it’s huge Caloris impact basin.

A

True

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1
Q

Mercury had the widest variation in surface temperatures between night and day of any planet in the solar system.

A

True

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2
Q

Venus can be seen during daytime when it is near greatest brilliancy.

A

True

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3
Q

Compared to earth, Venus spins vary rapidly.

A

False

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4
Q

The terra of Venus are rare but large continent size uplifted regions over a low surface.

A

True

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5
Q

The surface temperature of Venus is nearly 750K, even hotter than mercury.

A

True

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6
Q

How do the atmospheres of the moon and mercury compare?

A

Neither body had a permanent atmosphere

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7
Q

The lunar mare (Maria) are found:

A

Almost entirely on earth side, where the crust was

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8
Q

The lunar highlands are:

A

More rugged, heavily cratered, and older the the lunar mare

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9
Q

What is the of the moons orbital and rotational periods?

A

They are equal

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10
Q

Mercurys surface most resembles that of which other body?

A

Moon

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11
Q

Mercurys Caloris basin is aptly names, since?

A

It is hottest region, turning to face the sun when mercury is at perihelion.

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12
Q

Venus’ rotation:

A

Takes longer than its orbit around the sun

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13
Q

Through radar observations it was found that Venus’

A

Rotation on its axis is retrograde

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14
Q

Which statement is true of Venus’ surface?

A

There are two continent sized uplands

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15
Q

Venus had a feature names Aphrodite terra. What is this feature?

A

A continental-sized plateau

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16
Q

Maxwell mons on Venus is a huge:

A

Shield volcano

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17
Q

The main problem spacecraft have encountered in landing on Venus is:

A

The extremely high

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18
Q

While mads is half as big as the earths diameter, it’s surface gravity is only about 40% as strong as the one g (earths gravity) we experience here on earth.

A

True

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19
Q

The low surface gravity helps Martian volcanoes grow to great heights.

A

Tru

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20
Q

The polar caps and dust storms of mars can be seen with earth based amateur telescopes.

A

True

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21
Q

The seasonal polar caps on Mars, which grow and shrink over the year, are primarily carbon dioxide.

A

True

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22
Q

The surface of mars is surprisingly smooth and featureless.

A

False

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23
Q

Mars has a weak magnetic field.

A

True

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24
Why does mars appear fainter than Venus, as seen from earth?
Because it's smaller, farther and less reflective
25
Which is the correct size order,from smallest to largest?
Mercury, Mars, Venus
26
How long is a day on Mars?
24 hours, 36 minutes
27
Where do the names for the moons of mars (Phobos and Deimos) come from?
The sons of ares and Aphrodite
28
The most prominent feature of mars observable from earth is
It's bright polar caps
29
The deepest depression found on the surface of mars is the
Hallas basin of Mars
30
The largest shield volcano yet discovered is:
Olympus mons on mars
31
The nasa mission that landed on Mars in 1976 were the
Vikings I and II
32
The tharsis bulge on mars is roughly the size of
North America
33
What is thought to be the reason that there are no small impact craters in mars?
The wind blows small dust particles, eroding the surface if mars, erasing small impact craters faster than they can form.
34
Why is mars red?
The iron in the surface rocks have been oxidized over time
35
How many moons dies mars have?
Two
36
Differential rotation is when a planets equated rand polar regions rotate at different rates.
True
37
Jupiter have twice the mass of all the other planets combined.
True
38
The Great Red Spot has been seen on Jupiter as long as we have had scopes capable of observing it.
True
39
We have observed a comet strike Jupiter.
True
40
Jupiters magnetic field is much stronger than earths, and has a magnetic tail that extends beyond the orbit of Saturn.
True
41
Saturn is less dense than water.
True
42
Saturns rotation is fast and differential, much like jupiters.
True
43
Saturn is the only planet with a ring system.
False
44
The rings I'd Saturn occupy the region inside saturns Roche limit.
True
45
A typical ring particle is abound the size of a snowball.
True
46
What is interesting about jupiters rotation period?
It is the fastest in the solar system
47
Essentially, the Great Red Spot is
A large cyclonic storm (hurricane)
48
Alternating zones of rising and sinking gas in jupiters atmosphere
Crete light and dark bands
49
What is thought to lie at the center of Jupiter?
A hot sea of liquid metallic hydrogen
50
Which of the Galilean moons is the densest and most geologically active?
Io
51
The surface of which Jovian moon most resembles the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean?
Europa
52
Of the Galilean moons, the one with striking grooved terrain and icy tectonic features as well as older craters is:
Ganymede
53
Which of the Jovian moons is the largest and also the largest moon in the solar system, even bigger than mercury?
Ganymede
54
What are saturns rings?
Small icy particles moving in orbit around Saturn
55
The Roche limit is the point at which
The external tidal forces on an object become greater than the internal forces that hold it together.
56
How many large moons does Saturn have?
1
57
How many medium sized moons does Saturn have?
6
58
What is interesting about saturns large moon Titan?
It has an atmosphere
59
Change in the predicted motion of Uranus led to the search of an eighth planet
True
60
The only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune was:
Voyager 2
61
Uranus was discovered
Less than 259 years ago
62
Which three played a role in the finding of neptune?
Adams, leverrier, and galle
63
The planet Uranus is
Barley visible with the naked eye
64
In terms of axial tilt, which of the Jovians shows us the largest inclination?
Uranus
65
At which planet can the pole remain in darkness for 42 years, then have 42 years of constant daylight?
Uranus
66
All known asteroids can be found in the asteroid belt.
False
67
Pluto is probably one of the largest juniper belt bodies beyond Neptune.
True
68
The orbit of most asteroids
Lie entirely beyond the orbit of mars
69
Powhatan is the typical size of most known asteroids?
A few kilometers
70
What are dactyl, gaspra, Mathilde, Eros, and Ida?
The only four asteroids explored by spacecraft to date
71
The orbit of most comets
Lie almost entirely beyond the orbit of Neptune
72
What are comments made of
All the above
73
The Oort Cloud is thought to be
The spherical cloud of comets and some larger icy bodies surrounding the outer solar system
74
The juicer belt objects have orbits that
Stay out just beyond Neptune and close to the ecliptic
75
The largest Kuiper belt body is
Eris
76
The perseid meteor shower gives us about a meteor every minute in mid
August
77
Few ........ Actually strike the earth, because most are small and burned up in the atmosphere.
Meteors
78
Most meteors showers occur .........., as we again intersect the comets orbit.
Biannually
79
The suns mass and volume are over a million times that of our earth.
False
80
We know the sun rotates deferentially by observing sunspots; as with Jupiter the solar equator rotates the fastest.
True
81
The nearest star to our sun, alpha centauri, is still over a parsec distant.
True
82
Most stars are found in binary star systems
True
83
The light we see from the sun comes from which layer?
Photosphere
84
Why can't you stand on the suns surface?
The sun doesn't have a solid surface
85
How many planet earths could fit inside the sun?
A little over a million
86
About what percent of the incoming energy from the sun' reaches earths surface?
50-70%
87
From inside out, which is in the correct order for the structure of the sun?
Radiative zone, convective zone, chromosphere
88
Hydrostatic equilibrium in our sun is the balance between
Gravitation and pressure
89
A loop of gas following the magnetic field lines between sunspots' poles is
A prominence
90
How long does the sunspot cycle last, on average?
About 11 years
91
Sunspots
Come in pairs, representing the north and south magnetic fields.
92
If a star appears to move back and forth relative to other stars over a six month period, this motion is:
Parallax shift
93
What is absolute magnitude of our sun?
+4.8
94
The stars color index is a quick way of determining its:
Temperature
95
The hertzsprung- Russell diagram plots ........ Against the spectral type or temperature.
Luminosity or absolute magnitude
96
A surface explosion in a dwarf, causes by falling matter from the atmosphere of its binary companion, creates what kind of object?
Nova
97
A star can be a supernova
Only once
98
The density of a neutron star is comparable to the density of an atomic nucleus.
True
99
All neutron stars are pulsars, but not all pulsars are neutron stars
False
100
The escape speed for a black holes event horizon is the speed of light.
True
101
Special relativity says that c, the speed of light, is the maximum velocity for both matter and energy in our universe.
True
102
In a neutron star, the core is made up of
Neutrons
103
Pulsars spin .......... When they are young.
Rapidly
104
Which of the following can actually escape from inside a black holes event horizon?
None of the above
105
Describe the lighthouse model of a pulsar
Beams of light sweep across space from hot spots on the surface of neutron stars
106
A hypernova creates a
Black hole
107
What are two main points of Einsteins general theory of relativity?
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light; | Gravity bends light
108
If light from a distant star passes close to a massive body, the light beams will
Bend towards the star due to gravity
109
According to conventional science, most of the mass of the Milky Way seems to exist in the form of
Dark matter
110
Most galaxies are
Irregular
111
Galaxies are classified into types based on their
Shape
112
The Magellanic Clouds are what type of galaxy
Irregular
113
What is the nearest huge cluster of galaxies to our local group?
Virgo cluster
114
With of the following paraphrases Hubble law?
The greater the distance to a galaxy, the greater the redshift