Deck 23: Jupiter and Saturn

Question 1

Only Jupiter and Saturn have rings.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Which is a distinguishing characteristic of the Jovian planets?

A) Jovian planets are rocky.
B) Jovian planets are geologically inactive.
C) Jovian planets have rings.
D) Jovian planets have only one or two moons.
E) Jovian planets have high albedos.

Answer 2

Jovian planets have rings.

Question 3

The interior of Jupiter is mostly liquid helium.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The outermost planets in our Solar System are Jovian planets.

Question 5

Which space mission orbited Saturn and dropped a probe into Saturn's atmosphere?

A) Pioneer
B) Voyager
C) Galileo
D) Cassini-Huygens
E) New Horizons

Question 6

Jupiter has only four moons.

Question 7

Saturn has fewer, but stronger winds than Jupiter.

Question 8

Jupiter has large circular storms seen throughout its clouds.

Question 9

Even Jupiter and Saturn experience auroras like those on Earth.

Question 10

The Cassini spacecraft detected large clouds of water vapor escaping from vents through the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Question 11

Saturn is the largest and most massive of the Jovian planets.

Question 12

Which of the Jovian planets has a giant circulating storm that called the Great Red Spot that has lasted for centuries?

A) Pluto
B) Uranus
C) Neptune
D) Saturn
E) Jupiter

Question 13

The rings of Saturn are created from and controlled by the planet's moons.

Question 14

Which space mission orbited Jupiter and dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere?

A) Pioneer
B) Voyager
C) Galileo
D) Cassini
E) New Horizons

Question 15

Which is a characteristic of Jovian planets when compared to Terrestrial planets?

A) Jovian planets are much larger than Terrestrial planets
B) Jovian planets have rocky surfaces
C) Jovian planets have no differentiation like Terrestrial planets
D) Jovian planets have moons, unlike the Terrestrial planets
E) Jovian planets have warmer atmospheres than Terrestrial planets.

Question 16

Which is a characteristic of irregular satellites?

A) prograde rotation
B) orbit closely to parent planet
C) spherical shape
D) highly inclined orbit
E) relatively large in size

Question 17

Saturn's moon Titan is likely a captured Kuiper belt object.

Question 18

While Jupiter and Saturn may be mostly composed of liquid and gas, they each do have a thin crustal layer that acts like plastic.

Question 19

Saturn radiates 1.8 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun.

Question 20

Io is the most geologically active object in our Solar System.

Question 21

What is the composition of Jupiter?

A) mostly carbon dioxide and methane
B) mostly methane
C) mostly helium and carbon dioxide
D) mostly nitrogen
E) mostly hydrogen and helium

Question 22

Which statement best describes the surface of Europa?

A) dark and dirty ice, heavily pocked with craters
B) old and dark on some portion, but cratered with a young bright grooved terrain
C) icy crust free of craters with a liquid water ocean beneath
D) covered in active sulfur-based volcanoes
E) mostly water ice mixed with methane

Question 23

How is Titan different from all the other Jovian satellites?

A) Titan has frozen water on its surface.
B) Titan has a heavily cratered surface.
C) Titan has a thick atmosphere.
D) Titan is the largest moon in the Solar System.
E) Titan has a young, very reflective surface.

Question 24

What element makes up Io's thin atmosphere?

A) sulfur
B) hydrogen
C) helium
D) carbon dioxide
E) methane

Question 25

Which statement best describes the surface of Io?

A) dark and dirty ice, heavily pocked with craters
B) old and dark on some portion, but cratered with a young bright grooved terrain
C) icy crust free of craters with a liquid water ocean beneath
D) covered in active sulfur-based volcanoes
E) mostly water ice mixed with methane

Question 26

Scientists believe Saturn's moon Phoebe originated from a ____.

A) large impact on Titan broke off a piece
B) captured Kuiper belt object
C) captured asteroid from the asteroid belt
D) planetesimal that did not differentiate
E) Galilean moon with an orbit that crossed into Saturn's orbit

Question 27

Which statement describes a unique characteristic of Saturn?

A) The density is so low it could float on water.
B) The core temperature is hotter than the interior of the Sun.
C) The rings are made up of ice from broken up comets
D) The largest planet within the Solar System.
E) The atmosphere is mostly made up of helium and methane.

Question 28

Which statement is true when comparing Saturn to Jupiter?

A) Saturn has rings and Jupiter does not.
B) Saturn has stronger winds than Jupiter.
C) Saturn is closer to the Sun than Jupiter.
D) Saturn is composed of more hydrogen and helium than Jupiter.
E) Saturn has a more distinct belt-zones than Jupiter.

Question 29

What evidence is there to prove Jupiter has a liquid interior?

A) Jupiter is oblate
B) Jupiter rotates rapidly
C) Jupiter is tilted on its axis
D) Jupiter has a thin, hot atmosphere
E) Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field

Question 30

What actually "controls" Saturn's rings?

A) Saturn's magnetic field
B) Saturn's tidal heating
C) Saturn's moons
D) Saturn's rapid rotation
E) Saturn's metallic core

Question 31

What does a high albedo indicate with regard to a planetary object?

A) The surface is cratered and old.
B) The planetary object is still developing.
C) The planet is highly active.
D) The surface is highly reflective and therefore young.
E) The planetary object has a strong magnetic field.

Question 32

Which is Saturn's largest satellite?

A) Ganymede
B) Enceladus
C) Phoebe
D) Titan
E) Callisto

Question 33

Due to the temperature and atmospheric conditions of Titan, scientists hypothesize that Titan may have rivers, lakes and possibly an ocean of ____.

A) liquid water
B) metallic hydrogen
C) frozen carbon dioxide
D) liquid methane
E) liquid nitrogen

Question 34

What action is responsible for the heating of Saturn's interior?

A) rapid rotation on its axis
B) zero inclination to its axis of rotation
C) convection currents of liquid hydrogen
D) falling droplets of helium releasing energy
E) rising magma from hot spots found on its surface

Question 35

Which of the Galilean moons is essentially a dirty, icy rock?

A) Titan
B) Io
C) Ganymede
D) Phoebe
E) Callisto

Question 36

What is the effect when the pressure and temperature are higher than the critical point of an element?

A) There is a rapid boiling of the element that dissipates quickly into a gas.
B) There is no difference between the gaseous and liquid state of that element.
C) There is no difference between the solid and gaseous state of that element.
D) There is a instant freezing of that element into a solid.
E) There is a conversion of that element into a metal.

Question 37

What makes Iapetus different than most other Jovian satellites?

A) Its surface is so eroded that it has no distinguishing surface features.
B) It is not impacted by Saturn's tidal heating.
C) It is perfectly spherical and highly reflective.
D) It has an old and heavily cratered surface.
E) It is asymmetrical and always faces backward to Saturn.

Question 38

Scientists have confirmed that the particles of Saturn's rings are not ____.

A) held by Saturn's moons
B) within the Roche limit
C) chunks of ice
D) ancient
E) primordial

Question 39

Which statement best describes the surface of Ganymede?

A) dark and dirty ice, heavily pocked with craters
B) old and dark on some portion, but cratered with a young bright grooved terrain
C) icy crust free of craters with a liquid water ocean beneath
D) covered in active sulfur-based volcanoes
E) mostly water ice mixed with methane

Question 40

Which best describes the surface of Callisto?

A) dark and dirty ice, heavily pocked with craters
B) old and dark on some portion, but cratered with a young bright grooved terrain
C) icy crust free of craters with a liquid water ocean beneath
D) covered in active sulfur-based volcanoes
E) mostly water ice mixed with methane

Question 41

The rapid rotation and large size of Jupiter causes _______________ in its atmosphere.

Question 43

The large circular or oval spots seen in Jupiter's clouds are circulating _______________ that have remained stable for centuries.

Question 44

The composition of Jupiter is much like the _______________.

Question 45

The gravitational effects of _______________ can confine some rings in narrow strands or keep the edges of rings sharp.

Question 46

What two unusual processes does Ganymede experience and why?

Question 47

Jupiter's moon Callisto has never fully differentiated, thus the moon has no _______________.

Question 48

The _______________ of Jupiter's rings indicated that the rings are made mostly of microscopic particles.

Question 49

Jupiter's _______________ shows that the planet cannot be as rigid as a Terrestrial planet.

Question 50

Some of the gaps in Saturn's rings, such as the Cassini Division, are caused by ____ with moons.

A) tides
B) ripples
C) rotations
D) resonances
E) forward scattering

Question 51

What is the Roche limit and how does it apply to the ring systems of Jupiter and Saturn?

Question 52

The Galilean moons are _______________ satellites because they are large and orbit close to their parent planet.

Question 53

Unlike most magnetic fields, Saturn's is not inclined to its _______________.

Question 54

Saturn's largest satellite is _______________.

Question 55

_______________ is the most reflective object in the Solar System.

Question 56

Why is Titan of interest to astrobiologists?

Question 57

Enceladus orbits Saturn in a resonance with the larger moon Dione. Each time Dione orbits Saturn once, Enceladus orbits _______________.

Question 58

The evidence of forward scattering from Jupiter's rings indicates the rings are mostly made up of what?

A) tiny dust particles
B) tiny ice particles
C) large rocks
D) large chunks of ice
E) liquid droplets

Question 59

The four Galilean moons of Jupiter are found within Jupiter's _______________.

Question 60

Saturn's rings may have been formed when a small moon or icy planetesimal came within Saturn's _______________ and tides pulled it apart.

Question 61

List the four Galilean moons and describe their unique characteristics.

Question 62

Why is there no surface on Jupiter or Saturn?

Question 63

Radar observations made by Cassini have revealed the surface of Titan to have lakes of _______________ in its polar regions.

Question 64

How can Jupiter have such a strong magnetic field?

Question 65

Explain the patterns seen in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Question 66

Most small moons tend to be old and geologically inactive. Explain why Enceladus appears to break that general rule.

Question 67

Describe the ring system of Saturn.

Question 68

Provide a comparative analysis of Jupiter and Saturn. What are their similarities?  What are their differences?