Planets

Question 1

Mercury(5)

Answer 1

• Caloris Basin and “Weird Terrain”
• Has almost no atmosphere
• Temp (High: 800F) (low: -280F)
• Scarps
• Most cratered planet

Question 2

Venus(5)

Answer 2

• Runaway green house effect caused by dense CO2 atmosphere
• Hottest surface temperature 900F
• Reflective clouds make it very bright in the sky
• Spins slowly backwards
• Most like Earth in Mass and Density

Question 3

Earth(5)

Answer 3

• Most dense planet: 5.5 g/cm
• Liquid water abundant on its surface
• Plate tectonics
• Life found there
• Oxygen rich atmosphere

Question 4

Moon(4)

Answer 4

• Rilles: straight and meandering
• Regolith
• Highlands and Maria
• Crust is thinner on one side

Question 5

Mars(5)

Answer 5

• wind blown deserts fringe its polar caps
• Olympus Mans: highest mountain in the solar system
• Rusty Red color: from its iron in its soil
• Valles Marineris: dwarfs the Grand
• Evidence of liquid water in the past

Question 6

Jupiter(4)

Answer 6

• Strongest magnetic field of any planet
• Fastest rotation in the solar system: 10 hours
• Great Red Spot
• King of the Planets: largest and most massive

Question 7

Saturn(5)

Answer 7

• Largest ring system
• Icy material makes rings bright
• Least dense planet: “float in water”
• Most oblate planet
• Cloud bands hidden by ammonia clouds

Question 8

Uranus(5)

Answer 8

• Blue-green nearly featureless planet
• Spins on its side
• “Georges star”
• Dark, narrow rings composed of a myriad of small particles
• First dim planet discovered

Question 9

Neptune(5)

Answer 9

• Blue as the deep sea
• Dark rings gathered into arcs
• Great Dark Spot
• Discovered by applying Newtons laws
• Most distant planet- just inside of the Kuiper belt

Question 10

Dwarf Planets(2)
				Ceres

Answer 10

• Largest object in the asteroid belt

- Smallest known dwarf planet

Question 11

Dwarf Planets(2)
					Pluto

Answer 11

• Crosses Neptune’s Orbit

- Recently demoted from planet status

Question 12

Dwarf Planets	(2)
						Eris

Answer 12

• Largest known dwarf planet

- Orbit is highly elliptical and highly inclined

Question 13

Callistro (2)

Answer 13

Jupiter

• has mountains made of ice
• has lots of craters

Question 14

Charon (0)

Answer 14

Pluto

- NEED ANSWER

Question 15

Deimos(2)

Answer 15

Mars

• non spherical
• cratered

Question 16

Dysonomia (1)

Answer 16

Eris

-used to determine mass of Eris

Question 17

Enceladus(3)

Answer 17

Saturn

• Water ice on surface
• reflects almost all the sunlight that touches it
• emerging as most habitable spot beyond Earth for life as we know it”

Question 18

Europa (5)(~7)

Answer 18

Jupiter

• Closest moon to Jupiter
• looks like a cracked egg
  
  • White=ice
  • Red= mineral rich water that oozed from the surface through cracks and then froze
• no craters possibly because it may have been heated by Jupiters gravitational forces deforming it.
• May have layer of water beneath surface
• May contain life

Question 19

Ganymede(3)

Answer 19

Jupiter

• Largest moon in solar system
• may have iron core and ice mantle
• Magnetic field

Question 20

Hydra(0)

Answer 20

Pluto

-UKNOWN

Question 21

Iapetus(1)

Answer 21

Saturn

-dark material on side that faces forward in orbit

Question 22

Io(3)

Answer 22

Jupiter

• locked spin by tidal force of Jupiters Gravity
• Distorted shape
• Valcanoes

Question 23

Miranda(1)

Answer 23

Uranus
-surface has sections that bear no resemblance to each other, suggesting it may have shattered and then was drawn back together

Question 24

Nix(0)

Answer 24

Pluto

-UKNOWN

Question 25

Phobos(2)

Answer 25

Mars

• cratered
• cracks suggesting it may have been hit by a large enough body to split it nearly apart

Question 26

Titan(6)

Answer 26

Saturn

• Slightly bigger than Mercury
• cold
• Mostly Hydrogen atmosphere
• clouds hide its surface
• Methane rain that may form lakes
• Dunes

Question 27

Triton(5)

Answer 27

Neptune

• orbits backwards
• surviving icy planetesimal from Kuiper Belt when Neptune captured it
• has atmosphere
• Wrinkled look
• Geysers