Deck 8: Survey of Solar Systems

Question 1

Based on our understanding of our own solar system, which of the following would be most surprising to observe in an extra solar system of planets?

A) The planets nearest to the star have a lower density than the planets farther out.
B) Several planets show large tilts of their rotation axis compared to the plane of their orbits.
C) All the gas giants have moons.
D) Several planets have dense atmospheres containing carbon compounds.

Answer 1

The planets nearest to the star have a lower density than the planets farther out.

Question 2

Complete this sentence: The Sun, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn's icy moons are all very different environments, _____________________________.

A) the result of each type of object forming from different interstellar clouds
B) but their differences are only because of where each currently is in the Solar System
C) but all formed from the same basic group of chemicals
D) but their differences are because each contains very different chemicals

Answer 2

but all formed from the same basic group of chemicals

Question 3

How many stars are there in our Solar System?

A) one
B) eight
C) nine
D) a few hundred
E) about ten million

Answer 3

one

Question 4

Counting out from the Sun, which planet occupies the position after Jupiter?

A) Neptune
B) Mars
C) Venus
D) Earth
E) Saturn

Question 5

When we see them in the night sky, which of the following objects are emitting their own light?

A) Mars
B) Venus
C) the Moon
D) the Sun
E) All of these choices are correct.

Question 6

The farthest planet of our Solar System is ________.

A) Mars
B) Uranus
C) Jupiter
D) Neptune

Question 7

Which planets have densities similar to that of Earth's?

A) Mars and Mercury
B) Jupiter and Saturn
C) Uranus and Neptune
D) Pluto and Charon

Question 8

In our Solar System, an object is called a planet if

A) it orbits the Sun.
B) it is spherical.
C) it has cleared its neighborhood.
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 9

Pluto is classified as a dwarf planet because

A) it doesn't orbit the Sun.
B) it is not spherical.
C) it has not cleared its neighborhood.
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 10

A spherical region that surrounds the Solar System and extends up to about 100,000 AU from the Sun is called the

A) Asteroid belt.
B) Kuiper belt.
C) Oort cloud.
D) Solar nebula.

Question 11

Comets are _____ while asteroids are _____.

A) icy; rocky
B) large; small
C) rocky; icy
D) young; old

Question 12

Astronomers estimate that the age of the Solar System is about ____ years.

A) 4.6 million
B) 4.6 billion
C) 4.6 trillion
D) 13.7 billion

Question 13

Compared to the _____ planets the ______ planets have _____.

A) Jovian; terrestrial; low density
B) Jovian; terrestrial; high escape velocity
C) terrestrial; Jovian; small diameter
D) terrestrial; Jovian; many satellites

Question 14

How many exoplanets are there in the Solar System?

A) 0
B) 8
C) at least 2000
D) 100 billion

Question 15

What are the third, fifth, and seventh planets in order of increasing distance from the Sun?

A) Venus, Earth, Jupiter
B) Earth, Jupiter, Uranus
C) Mercury, Mars, Saturn
D) Mars, Jupiter, Neptune

Question 16

All planets spin in the same direction except for

A) Mercury, Earth, and Jupiter.
B) Venus, Mars, and Saturn.
C) Venus, Uranus, and Pluto.
D) Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto.

Question 17

Which of the following is an outer planet?

A) Earth
B) Jupiter
C) Mars
D) Venus

Question 18

Which of the following is NOT a property of the outer planets?

A) They all have solid surfaces for spacecraft to land on.
B) They are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium.
C) They all have rings.
D) They are all far more massive than Earth.

Question 19

A planet's average density is equal to its _______ divided by its _______.

A) mass; surface area
B) volume; mass
C) mass; volume
D) mass; radius

Question 20

What do we call the swarm of comet nuclei in a huge shell surrounding the Sun and planets?

A) the Solar System
B) the Asteroid belt
C) the ecliptic
D) the Oort cloud

Question 21

Why is Pluto not considered a Jovian planet?

A) Its mass and radius are very small, and it lacks the thick atmosphere of hydrogen seen on the other Jovian planets.
B) It is so far out in the Solar System.
C) Its interior is mostly rock and iron.
D) Its atmosphere is rich in oxygen, making it more like Earth.
E) It is not really orbiting the Sun but is simply drifting through the outer edge of the Solar System.

Question 22

How do we know the interior composition of Jupiter?

A) Astronomers examined Jupiter's spectrum.
B) Astronomers studied earthquake waves using instruments on Jupiter's surface.
C) Astronomers calculated Jupiter's average density and compared it to those of abundant candidate materials, taking gravitational compression into account.
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 23

Why are Uranus and Neptune known as ice giants, rather than gas giants?

A) Their interiors may contain large quantities of water ice and other ices under tremendous pressure.
B) Their interiors may contain liquid water and other materials that would be ices if not for the hot cores of those planets.
C) Uranus and Neptune are much smaller than Jupiter or Saturn.
D) Uranus and Neptune are much colder than Jupiter or Saturn.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 24

Which two planets are known as ice giants?

A) Uranus and Neptune
B) Pluto and Charon
C) Jupiter and Saturn
D) Earth and Mars

Question 25

How do scientists estimate the age of the Solar System?

A) They measure the ratios of radioactive elements in rocks.
B) They count the number of craters on the Moon and Mercury.
C) They measure the heat content of the planets.
D) They compare the weathering of rocks on Earth with lunar rocks.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 26

Which of the following is not a method used by astronomers to detect and study exoplanets?

A) rotational mapping
B) gravitational lensing
C) doppler shift
D) transit detection
E) direct imaging

Question 27

Exoplanets are

A) another name for dwarf planets.
B) the outermost planets in our Solar System.
C) minor planets in the Asteroid belt.
D) planets around stars other than the Sun.

Question 28

Why is it difficult to observe an exoplanet directly through a telescope?

A) Exoplanet atmospheres absorb too much light
B) Exoplanets are small compared to their parent star, so they reflect only a small portion of the star's light.
C) Exoplanets tend to be far away from their parent stars, making it hard to get both the star and the exoplanet in the telescope's field of view.
D) It is hard to see exoplanets against the blackness of space.

Question 29

What is gravitational lensing?

A) the use of small telescopes to enhance the brightness of stars
B) the focusing and brightening of starlight by the gravitational field of a foreground object
C) the temporary disappearance of a star as an object passes in front of it
D) the use of Earth's gravity to shape lenses during grinding

Question 30

How have astronomers discovered planets orbiting a star beyond the Sun?

A) They can see the planet brighten as it passes in front of its parent star.
B) They can be detected by the slight gravitational tug that they exert on their parent stars.
C) They have bounced radar off them.
D) So far, no planets have been discovered around any other stars.

Question 31

Measuring the changing light output of a star to search for exoplanets is called ____.

A) the transit method
B) gravitational lensing
C) the Doppler method
D) spectroscopy

Question 32

Alien astronomers are using the radial-velocity method to look for planets around our Sun. Which planet are they most likely to detect first?

A) Earth
B) Jupiter
C) Neptune
D) Mercury

Question 33

Which of the following observations does not inform astronomers about how the Solar System must have formed.

A) All known ages for Solar System bodies are 4.6 billion years or younger.
B) The Solar System is flat in structure.
C) The farther out planets take longer to complete an orbit about the Sun.
D) The inner four planets are small and rocky, while the outer four planets are large and gaseous.

Question 34

Given that Mercury, Mars, and some of the moons of the gas giants are covered with craters, why do we not see lots of impacts happening today?

A) All the planetesimals have collided with planets already.
B) We would, but the impacts have always happened at a very slow rate and built up over billions of years.
C) Most of the impacts happen on the far sides of these bodies.
D) Gravitational interactions between planets and planetesimals ejected most of the larger debris.

Question 35

Thinking about the formation of the solar system, what trend in composition would you expect to see from the inside to the outside of the asteroid belt?

A) rockier asteroids progressing toward ones with more hydrogen and carbon compounds
B) iron asteroids progressing more toward one with silicates
C) essentially the same composition all the way through
D) asteroids with hydrogen and carbon compounds, progressing toward asteroids made primarily of ice
E) asteroids with hydrogen and carbon compounds, progressing toward asteroids made primarily of iron and silicates

Question 36

What is the name of the nebula from which our Solar System was formed?

A) Pseudo nebula
B) Solar nebula
C) Orion nebula
D) Crab nebula

Question 37

Which property of the Solar nebula was the most influential in giving the planets their characteristics?

A) mass
B) pressure
C) volume
D) temperature

Question 38

The process in which a gas cools and its molecules stick together to form liquid particles is called

A) condensation.
B) depression.
C) evaporation.
D) sublimation.

Question 39

Which was the last part of the planet-forming process?

A) formation of the atmosphere of the planets
B) formation of the planets' core
C) formation of the planetesimals
D) formation of the Sun

Question 40

Which of the following explains the rocky nature of the inner planets?

A) The lighter elements (hydrogen and helium) were sucked in by the Sun's gravity.
B) The Sun's gravity attracted the rocks to the inner part of the Solar System.
C) Only the rocky material could condense at the higher temperatures of the inner part of the Solar nebula.
D) As the Solar nebula was spinning, the light gases were tossed to the outer parts of the disk.

Question 41

According to the nebular hypothesis, which of the following sequences of events are chronologically correct?

A) Solar nebula, interstellar cloud, collisions between planetesimals, accretion, planets
B) interstellar cloud, Solar nebula, accretion, collisions between planetesimals, planets
C) interstellar cloud, accretion, Solar nebula, collisions between planetesimals, planets
D) accretion, Solar nebula, interstellar cloud, collisions between planets, planetesimals

Question 42

What conclusion can be drawn from the fact that some planets and satellites with solid surfaces have impact craters?

A) Collisions between Solar System bodies and planetesimals were common at one time.
B) The young planets had softer surfaces.
C) Volcanoes were very active in the early stages of planet formation.
D) The Sun went through several explosions, ejecting material that scarred the planets and satellites.

Question 43

Why was the recent discovery that planets more massive than Jupiter orbit nearby stars in small orbits surprising?

A) Because according to the nebular hypothesis, massive planets should only form away from their star.
B) The density of these planets is very high.
C) According to the nebular hypothesis, planets cannot be larger than Jupiter.
D) The nebular hypothesis predicts that close-in planets should have formed a second star.

Question 44

Which of the following is the strongest evidence in support of the hypothesis that the Solar System was formed by the collapse of a gas and dust nebula?

A) radiometric dating of dust from the Moon's surface
B) images of other stars with gas and dust disks surrounding them
C) the existence of large clouds
D) the discovery of extra solar planets

Question 45

Which of the following Solar System objects has a composition that most resembles the original Solar nebula?

A) the terrestrial planets
B) the Jovian planets
C) the dwarf planets
D) the asteroids
E) comets

Question 46

Astronomers believe that many satellites of the Jovian planets were _____.

A) formed by fission
B) formed by collisions with other objects
C) formed from planetesimals orbiting the growing planet and accreting into larger bodies
D) formed elsewhere in the Solar System and were later captured by Jupiter's gravitational pull

Question 47

A huge interstellar cloud collapsed into a rotating disk with a central bulge. What did this object become?

A) The disk was the Solar nebula and the bulge became Jupiter.
B) A large belt containing asteroids in a gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
C) The disk was the solar nebula and the bulge became the Sun.
D) They formed the outer planets which eventually met up with the Sun.

Question 48

Which of the following features of the Solar System does the solar nebula hypothesis explain?

A) All the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction.
B) All the planets' orbits lie in nearly the same plane.
C) The planets nearest the Sun contain only small amounts of substances that condense at low temperatures.
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 49

One reason the planets near the Sun are composed mainly of rock and iron may be that

A) the Sun's magnetic field attracted all the iron into the region around the Sun.
B) the Sun's heat made it difficult for ices and gases to condense near it.
C) the Sun's gravity sucked in iron and heavy material and the lighter materials floated farther away.
D) the Sun is made mostly of iron, so the planets nearest it are formed of iron.

Question 50

What are interstellar grains?

A) tiny dust particles that are part of interstellar clouds
B) leftover fragments of planetesimals that are blown out of the Solar System
C) droplets of material that have condensed out of the Solar nebula
D) the material out of which exoplanets are formed

Question 51

What are planetesimals?

A) very small planets
B) satellites of the giant planets
C) planets that are found orbiting other stars
D) large chunks of material (1 mm to several km in size) from which the planets were formed

Question 52

How did the natural satellites in the Solar System form?

A) The moons probably formed from planetesimals orbiting the growing planets.
B) The moons likely were "captured" as they wandered too close to the planets.
C) The moons formed by the accretion of debris from massive collisions.
D) All of these choices are correct.

Question 53

Which of the following features of the Solar System does the solar nebula hypothesis explain?

A) All the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction.
B) All the planets move in orbits that lie in nearly the same plane.
C) The planets nearest the Sun contain only small amounts of substances that condense at low temperatures.
D) All the planets and the Sun, to the extent that we know, are the same age.
E) All of these choices are correct.

Question 54

The numerous craters we see on the solid surfaces of so many Solar System bodies are evidence that ______________________.

A) they were so hot in their youth that volcanoes were widespread
B) the Sun was so hot that it melted all these bodies and made them boil
C) these bodies were originally a mix of water and rock. As the young Sun heated up, the water boiled, creating hollow pockets in the rock
D) they were bombarded in their youth by many solid objects
E) all the planets were once part of a single, very large and volcanically active mass that subsequently broke into many smaller pieces

Question 55

Ice giants have been discovered orbiting very close to their parent stars.How is this possible?

A) The stars are relatively cool, allowing ice giants to form close to them.
B) Ice giants may have formed farther from their star, but migrated inward.
C) The star may have captured a passing planet.
D) The gravitational force of massive stars can pull icy planetesimals inward from the outer parts of the system.
E) All of these choices are correct.

Question 56

Which dwarf planet does not have a moon?

A) Pluto
B) Ceres
C) Makemake
D) Haumea
E) Eris

Question 57

After correcting for detection limitations, what do astronomers believe is the most common type of exoplanet?

A) Terrestrial
B) Super-Earths
C) Ice giants
D) Gas giants
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 58

Which properties affect the location of the habitable zone?

A) Exoplanet semi-major axis
B) Number of exoplanets in the system
C) Star size
D) All of these choices are correct.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 59

Which exoplanet detection method requires us to be in the same plane as the exoplanetary system?

A) Direct imaging
B) Radial-velocity method
C) Gravitational lensing
D) Transit method
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 60

Which statement is correct?

A) Only radial-velocity and gravitational lensing methods reveal the mass of the planet.
B) Only direct imaging and transit methods reveal the radius of the planet.
C) Only radial-velocity and transit methods reveal the radius of the planet.
D) Only direct imaging and gravitational lensing methods reveal the mass of the planet.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 61

Which statement is correct?

A) No exoplanets have been detected orbiting closer than 1 au to their stars.
B) No exoplanets have been detected orbiting binary stars.
C) No gas giants have been detected orbiting closer than 1 au to their stars.
D) No systems of multiple exoplanets have been detected.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 62

Several surprising discoveries were made as astronomers began detecting exoplanets. Which statement is correct?

A) There are terrestrial planets larger than Earth.
B) Some exoplanets have extremely elliptical orbits.
C) Gas giants can orbit extremely close to their star.
D) All of these choices are correct.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 63

What makes direct imaging of exoplanets possible?

A) Exoplanets emit their own light in the infrared, where the host star is dimmer.
B) Exoplanets emit their own light in visible wavelengths, where the host star is dimmer.
C) Exoplanets reflect light directly toward their host star.
D) Exoplanets are very dim compared to their host star.
E) None of these choices are correct.

Question 64

Asteroids are located in the Kuiper belt.

Question 65

All the planets move about the Sun in randomly oriented orbits.

Question 66

All of the Solar System's dwarf planets are located in the Kuiper belt.

Question 67

Astronomers are surprised that the radial-velocity method for detecting planets has not discovered more smaller, Earth-like planets.

Question 68

The discovery of extra solar planets confirms Bode's law.

Question 69

All the planets, asteroids, comets, and most of the moons in the Solar System formed at about the same time.

Question 70

Most of the larger moons of gas giants were formed at the same time as the gas giants, but somewhere else in the Solar System, and captured by the gas giants later.

Question 71

The fact that some satellites and planets have cratered surfaces supports the hypothesis that planets and satellites were bombarded by planetesimals.

Question 72

The discovery of extra solar planetary systems supports the idea that over time, planets may migrate inward.