Deck 23: The Earths Companions

Question 1

A compass would be useful to an astronaut lost on the moon.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

As meteors enter the Earth's atmosphere, large numbers are slowed by air resistance and may reach the ground as smaller fragments called meteorites.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The Earth is but one of eight planets that orbit the sun.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The giant meteor impact at the end of the Cretaceous Period (65 million years ago) did not influence the evolution of life on Earth.

Question 5

Of all the planets in the solar system only Earth has an atmosphere.

Question 6

Astronomers think that most comets come from the Oort cloud.

Question 7

The nebular hypothesis proposes that our solar system was born about 1 billion years ago.

Question 8

The multitude of craters that formed on the Earth has been obliterated by erosion and plate tectonics.

Question 9

Planetismals are small planet-like bodies in our solar system.

Question 10

Venus's atmosphere has much more carbon dioxide than that of Earth and its greenhouse effect is much stronger.

Question 11

A planet's mass and radius have no effect on its interior temperature and thus the level of its tectonic activity.

Question 12

Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system at this time.

Question 13

The inner and outer planets have similar atmospheres.

Question 14

The moon formed from debris blasted out of Mars by an impact of an object about the size of Mercury.

Question 15

All the planets are exactly the same size.

Question 16

Like most stars the sun is made mainly of hydrogen.

Question 17

The gravity of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune resulted in their becoming surrounded by envelopes of nitrogen-rich gas.

Question 18

The moon has active volcanoes and plate tectonic processes.

Question 19

Comets are small solid bodies of rock or iron in the outer part of our solar system.

Question 20

Asteroids are generally rocky, solid bodies orbiting the Sun and ranging in diameter from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers.

Question 21

From the small number of impact craters on ____, planetary geologists suspect that virtually all its original surface has been covered over by younger volcanic activity.

A) Callisto
B) Venus
C) Mercury
D) the Moon
E) Ganymede

Question 22

The four planets nearest the sun are basically balls of rock and include ____.

A) Jupiter
B) Venus
C) Ceres
D) Neptune
E) Pluto

Question 23

_____ is the closest moon to Jupiter of the Galilean satellites.

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

Question 24

Our galaxy is called the ____.

A) Oort Cloud
B) Kuiper Belt
C) Asteroid Belt
D) Milky Way
E) Solar System

Question 25

Perhaps the most obvious of ______ surface features are its polar ice caps.

A) Neptune's
B) Mars's
C) Triton's
D) Pluto's
E) Saturn's

Question 26

The Earth's atmosphere is rich in _____, a product of plant photosynthesis.

A) oxygen
B) nitrogen
C) argon
D) carbon dioxide
E) carbon monoxide

Question 27

To measure vast distances in the solar system, astronomers use the ____, the Earth's average distance from the Sun.

A) parsec
B) astronomical unit
C) light-year
D) click
E) mega-kilometers

Question 28

Heat left over from this planetary formation process along with radioactive decay, drives the Earth's internal heat engine.

A) substitution
B) fusion
C) sublimation
D) differentiation
E) fission

Question 29

The sun, its eight planets and their moons, together with smaller objects such as asteroids and comets, form the ____.

A) Milky Way
B) Oort Cloud
C) Kupier Belt
D) universe
E) solar system

Question 30

To the best of our knowledge, the Earth, Sun, and Moon are all the same age, about _______ years old.

A) 4.6 billion
B) 4000
C) 500 million
D) 1 billion
E) 100,000

Question 31

Astronomers estimate that our galaxy contains ______ stars.

A) 100 thousand
B) 10 million
C) 100 million
D) 1 billion
E) 100 billion

Question 32

As planetismals struck the growing Earth, their impact energy in combination with ______ melted the planet.

A) heat from the sun
B) energy left over from the Big Bang
C) radioactivity
D) cosmic rays
E) the greenhouse effect

Question 33

____ are small, planetlike bodies.

A) Planetesimals
B) Moons
C) Asteroids
D) Comets
E) Meteors

Question 34

Large, smooth, dark areas visible on the Moon with the unaided eye are called _____.

A) Maria
B) oceans
C) grasslands
D) continents
E) glaciers

Question 35

____ is the largest planet in both radius and mass.

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

Question 36

______ is the smallest of the inner four planets and closely resembles our moon.

A) Saturn
B) Venus
C) Io
D) Mars
E) Mercury

Question 37

The Moon's low average density tells us that the interior contains relatively little _______.

A) aluminum
B) helium
C) hydrogen
D) iron
E) oxygen

Question 38

The Apollo astronauts brought _____ rocks back to the Earth.

A) moon
B) comet
C) Venus
D) asteroid
E) Mars

Question 39

This star provides the energy that drives Earth's external heat engine.

A) Orion
B) North Star
C) Sun
D) Milky Way
E) Big Dipper

Question 40

______ is the planet that is most like the Earth in diameter and mass.

A) Uranus
B) Saturn
C) Venus
D) Io
E) Mars

Question 41

Small _____ are rocky or iron bodies in our solar system that remain irregular in shape because of their weak gravity.

A) asteroids
B) satellites
C) shooting stars
D) comets
E) quasars

Question 42

A giant meteor impact crater is found in the United States near ______.

A) New York, New York
B) Flagstaff, Arizona
C) San Francisco, California
D) Memphis, Tennessee
E) Rapid City, South Dakota

Question 43

The Moon and Mercury lack ______.

A) a core
B) an atmosphere
C) meteor impacts
D) minerals
E) a crust.

Question 44

Venus and Earth have ________ surfaces and atmospheres.

A) very similar
B) very dissimilar
C) slight differences in

Question 45

____ is the most volcanically active object in our solar system at the present time.

A) Mercury
B) Mars
C) Our moon
D) Europa
E) Io

Question 46

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are surrounded by atmospheres of _______.

A) argon
B) nitrogen and krypton
C) carbon dioxide
D) hydrogen and helium
E) oxygen

Question 47

The surface of Venus is hidden by clouds so astronomers use ____ to map the planet's surface.

A) radar
B) X-rays
C) microwaves
D) global positioning systems
E) infra-red

Question 48

The inner planets are sometimes called the terrestrial planets because of their resemblance to ____.

A) the sun
B) Jupiter
C) dirt
D) the moon
E) Earth

Question 49

Martian winds have created ____.

A) polar ice caps
B) very rough ocean waves
C) large mountains
D) rift valleys
E) dunes

Question 50

The nucleus of a comet is a block of _____.

A) iron
B) helium
C) ice
D) rock
E) organic material

Question 51

The atmosphere of Venus is dominated by _________.

A) water vapor
B) oxygen
C) helium
D) carbon dioxide
E) sulfur dioxide

Question 52

Biological processes have removed most of the _______ from the Earth's atmosphere.

A) carbon dioxide
B) nitrogen
C) hydrogen
D) oxygen
E) argon

Question 53

______ dominate the topography of lunar highlands.

A) River channels
B) Meteor craters
C) Glaciers
D) Island arcs
E) Fold mountains

Question 54

The existence of huge channels that look like dry riverbeds on Mars is strong evidence that it ____.

A) has ocean basins and continents
B) had a Martian civilization that used irrigation
C) had a warm climate in the past
D) has a dense earth-like atmosphere
E) is much younger than Earth

Question 55

The Moon's _____ explains why it is different from Earth.

A) small size relative to the Earth
B) very different composition
C) very different age
D) more intense meteor bombardment.
E) very large core

Question 56

The absence of fold mountains and the presence of many _______ imply that Mars has been geologically quiet for billions of years

A) life forms
B) glaciers
C) lithospheric plates
D) meteor craters
E) lakes and ocean basins

Question 57

The largest part of a(n) ______ is its long, glowing tail, a narrow column of dust that may extend for 100 million km.

A) asteroid
B) planet
C) shooting star
D) meteor
E) comet

Question 58

The four outer (giant) planets are composed largely of _______.

A) hydrogen
B) ammonia
C) carbon dioxide
D) water vapor
E) nitrogen

Question 59

Mars is named for the Roman god of war, presumably because of its distinct _____ color when seen in the sky.

A) violet
B) blue
C) green
D) yellow
E) red

Question 60

When 17^th century astronomer _______ first viewed Jupiter with his telescope he saw four satellites orbiting the planet.

A) Kant
B) Laplace
C) Oort
D) Galileo
E) Kuiper