Quiz 3 Flashcards
(27 cards)
Jovian Planets
Gaseous, outer solar system, rings and many moons
Terrestrial Planets
Rocky, slow rotation, few or no moons, inner solar system
Characteristics of a planet?
Orbits the sun, large enough for its own gravity to make it round and no smaller objects surrounding it
Characteristics of a dwarf planet?
Orbits the sun and large enough for its own gravity to make it round.
Characteristics of a small solar system body?
Orbits the sun
Where are asteroids mostly found?
Orbit between Mars & Jupiter; asteroid belt
Where are comets found?
Beyond Neptune’s orbit and are chunks of ice
Kupier Belt
Region extends from Neptune to 500 AU from the sun. Some comets, more massive than asteroid belt
Oort Cloud
50,000 to 100,000 AU from the sun, leftover material from solar system formation and the source of unbound comets
How many dwarf planets does our solar system have?
5
Which planet has the longest day and highest surface temperature?
Venus
Which planet has the highest mass?
Jupiter
Which planet has the highest density?
Earth
Which planet orbits the sun the fastest?
Mercury
Planets of what type of orbit are the most likely to survive?
Planets with circular orbits because they have less of a chance of getting hit than elliptical orbit planets.
When the Earth started to cool down, which layer hardened first?
The outer layer (crust)
Differentiation
Gravity takes heavier objects down, lighter objects go to the top. Denser parts go to the center and less dense parts go to the surface
How did the outer planets form?
Like the inner planets, but with ice grains acting as seeds from which the rest of the planet grew. The ice held onto gas with gravity
Unstable nuclei means what?
Too many protons or neutrons
What is radioactive decay?
Change from one element to another
What is significant about the star, “Pulsar”?
1st star extrasolar planets were found around
What is the Astrometric method?
Precise measurements of star’s position in the sky taken with pictures over a period of time to watch for a wobble
What is the Radial Velocity method?
Must be a flat orbit, look for blue or redshifts, yields orbital period, mass and distance from star
What is the Transit Method?
Yields size of star, planet orbits in front of a star and tells the orientation along the line of site.
