Astronomy Midterm

Question 1

Whaat is the current age of the Universe?

Answer 1

13.8 Billion Years

Question 2

How many known planets does our Solar System have?

Answer 2

8

Question 3

Which is older, the Sun or the Milky Way?

Answer 3

Milky Way

Question 4

Which is the most massive planet between Venus, Earth, Mercury, & Mars

Answer 4

Earth

Question 5

An Astronomical Unit (AU) is

Answer 5

the distance from the Earth to the Sun

Question 6

Exoplanet/ extrasolar planet

Answer 6

Planet that orbits a start other than our sun

Question 7

Raidal Velocity Method of detecting Exoplanets

Answer 7

Subtle rocking of a star back and for the as an unseen orbiting planet pulls on it

Question 8

Doppler effect

Answer 8

Changes the wavelength (color) of the star’s light as is moves

Question 9

Transit Photometry method

Answer 9

Look for the dimming of a star’s light as an unseen planet moves in front of it.

Question 10

The doppler effect will

Answer 10

Change the wavelength (color) of light emitted by a star

Question 11

A “face-on” planetary system will

Answer 11

not be detectable by transit or radial velocity methods

Question 12

For a given sized star, the larger the planet the

Answer 12

larger the transit dip

Question 13

Most planets today have been detected with

Answer 13

NASA’s Kepler sattelite

Question 14

T/F The transit photometry method of detecting extrasolar planets is an indirect method of detection

Answer 14

True

Question 15

Kupier Belt

Answer 15

Sea of icy bodies, like Pluto

Question 16

Oort cloud

Answer 16

resoivoirs for comets

Question 17

Comets

Answer 17

leftover after the construction of our solar system’s planets

Question 18

Halos

Answer 18

As a result of their icy composition, when comets come close to the Sun and get hotter, they become “active” as their ice sublimates (changes from solid to gas), releasing gas and dust, creating the distinctive fuzzy halo (known as a coma) and tails that we associate with comets.

Question 19

Main belt comets come from the

Answer 19

asteroid belt

Question 20

Comets come from

Answer 20

Kuper belt, icier parts

Question 21

Star nearest to the sun

Answer 21

Proxima Centauri

Question 22

Sun’s nearest neighbors

Answer 22

Brown Dwarfs, balls of gas too big to be called planets but too small to be called stars.

Question 23

What two planets have ammonia clouds in the upper atmosphere

Answer 23

Jupiter and Saturn

Question 24

Which compound gives Uranus and Neptune their bluish appearance?

Answer 24

Methane (CH4)

Question 25

It's the movement of objects in ______ that cause scientists to predict the presence of a "planet 9" in our Solar System.

Answer 25

Kuiper belt

Question 26

The Planet 9 citizen science project has already discovered

Answer 26

a Brown dwarf

Question 27

Sublimation is the process where a

Answer 27

solid turns into a gas

Question 28

Mars' atmosphere is mostly

Answer 28

carbon dioxide

Question 29

Fans and blotches are caused by gas sub-surface gas erupting through a layer of ___ ice.

Answer 29

carbon dioxide

Question 30

T/F Mars was not able to have liquid water (H20) on its surface at any point in the past due to its very low pressure atmosphere.

Answer 30

False

Question 31

If Earth, Mars, and Mercury all started out at the same temperature, which do you think would cool off faster?

Answer 31

Mercury

Question 32

What objects cool off faster

Answer 32

Smaller ones

Question 33

How do Spiders form on Mars

Answer 33

Like a geyser through sublimation

Question 34

How does swiss cheese form on mars

Answer 34

Repeated cycles of condensation and sublimation of CO2

Question 35

What is the approximate age of the Earth?

Answer 35

4.5 billion years

Question 36

Where is Earth's magnetic field created?

Answer 36

Outer core

Question 37

In what layer of Earth's atmosphere does the majority of our weather occur?

Answer 37

Troposphere

Question 38

The Dvorak Technique

Answer 38

is used to estimate the intensity of a tropical storm

Question 39

Sporadic meteors are created

Answer 39

by asteroids.

Question 40

Major layers of Earth

Answer 40

Core, mantle, crust

Question 41

Astenosphere

Answer 41

upper layer of mantle, allows for slow convection currents to form as heat to surface, varied topography

Question 42

Trophosphere

Answer 42

Layer closest to surface,

Question 43

Stratosphere

Answer 43

Layer above Trophosphere, source of heat is above

Question 44

Ozone Layer

Answer 44

absorbs dangerous UV light from SUn , heats the starosphere

Question 45

Mesosphere

Answer 45

Convection because it's heated from the ozone layer above

Question 46

Thermosphere

Answer 46

Space, Meterors feel friction

Question 47

meteoroid

Answer 47

solid object moving in interplanetary space

Question 48

meteor

Answer 48

visible phenomenon resulting from the passage of a meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere

Question 49

meteorite

Answer 49

solid piece of debris which has survived the passing of a meteoroid through the Earth’s atmosphere and falls on the ground

Question 50

Which layer of the Sun is closest to the surface?

Answer 50

Convective zone

Question 51

What is the source of the Sun's energy?

Answer 51

Nuclear fusion

Question 52

What is the name of the visible surface of the Sun?

Answer 52

Photosphere

Question 53

Approximately how many times more massive is the Sun than the Earth

Answer 53

300,000

Question 54

Sunspots are warmer than the surrounding gas.

Answer 54

False

Question 55

root source of all of the energy sources that we use to power our civilization

Answer 55

Sun

Question 56

uminosity of the Sun

Answer 56

38 with 25 zeros after it!

Question 57

radiative zone.

Answer 57

all of the hydrogen gas is ionized, meaning that the protons and electrons are not bound together

Question 58

Most of the mass in the Universe was in the form

Answer 58

Dark Matter

Question 59

cosmic microwave background (CMB).

Answer 59

At this time, the cosmic light, which before then would get continuously scattered off of the charged particle, could not travel freely throughout the Universe. We can still see this light today as a faint glow of microwaves called the

Question 60

dark ages

Answer 60

gas was pulled into larger and larger clumps by the gravitational force of Dark Matter

Question 61

largest of these terrestrial planets,

Answer 61

Earth

Question 62

e second largest terrestrial plane

Answer 62

Venus

Question 63

the third largest terrestrial planet)

Answer 63

MArs

Question 64

Jovian planets, or gas giants,

Answer 64

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune

Question 65

Sunspots exist on the surface of the Sun called the

Answer 65

Photosphere

Question 66

what kind of ice forms on Mars' northern and southern poles?

Answer 66

CO2 or “dry ice”

Question 67

what kind of gas erupts from the ice to create 'fans' and 'blotches'?

Answer 67

CO2 gas

Question 68

what season does the gas erupt? on mars

Answer 68

Spring

Question 69

rue/False, Swiss Cheese terrain are channels carved into the surface of Mars that are revealed when the surface is ice-free

Answer 69

False, this is what Spiders are