Cypress College ASTR 116 Homework
Astronomy 116, Homework CHAPTER 7,8 (A) The Jovian Planets and
Pluto. Due:
Print Last, First Name and date on the small Scantron in INK. Print
your last name in BIG BLOCK letters on the back of the Scantron.
Use a No. 2 pencil to fill out Scantron. Read the chapter.
Look at the videos and simulations in the CD-ROM. Answer all True/False and
Fill in the Blank questions. Then answer the following questions and
turn in your Scantron (No. 882) only. Choose the best answer.
Chapter 7 The Jovian Planets
1. What are the most abundant gases in Jupiter's atmosphere?
- a) methane and hydrogen
- b) methane and ammonia
- c) hydrogen and ammonia
- d) hydrogen and helium
2. How do the escape velocities of the jovian planets compare to the terrestrial
planets?
- a) The jovian planets have much higher escape velocities.
- b) There is little variation among the planets.
- c) The escape velocities vary greatly from planet to planet but
there are no general differences between jovian and terrestrial planets.
- d) The terrestrial planets have higher escape velocities.
3. Jupiter is noticeably oblate because:
- a) It has a strong magnetic field.
- b) It has such powerful gravity.
- c) It rotates rapidly.
- d) It undergoes a gravitational attraction from each of its various
moons.
4. What is the source of Jupiter's excess energy?
- a) Helium rain falling through its interior.
- b) The decay of radioactive elements.
- c) Nuclear fusion.
- d) The slow escape of gravitational energy released during the planet's
formation.
5. What is thought to lie at the center of Jupiter?
- a) A hot liquid sea of hydrogen.
- b) A massive core of rocky material.
- c) Gaseous hydrogen and helium, as is found throughout the entire
planet.
- d) Hydrogen fusing into helium.
6. What is the source of Jupiter's nonthermal radio radiation?
- a) Charged particles moving in a magnetic field.
- b) Metallic hydrogen swirling in the planet's interior.
- c) The gravitational attraction of Jupiter's moons.
- d) The Great Red Spot.
7. If you could find a bathtub big enough for Saturn, the planet would:
- a) Precipitate more helium.
- b) Float.
- c) Leave a ring.
- d) Sink.
8. Saturn's bands, oval storm systems, and turbulent flow patterns are
powered by:
- a) Convective motion and rapid rotation.
- b) The Greenhouse effect.
- c) A liquid hydrogen interior.
- d) Saturn has no bands, storms, or discernible flow patterns.
9. The outer jovian planets have a bluish tint because:
- a) They are far away and distance makes objects appear bluish.
- b) Their atmospheres contain methane.
- c) Their atmospheres contain hydrogen and helium.
- d) The ices in their atmospheres appear bluish upon reflection of
sunlight.
10. Which of the following is true about the seasons on Uranus?
- a) The seasons on Uranus are not unlike those on Earth or Mars.
- b) The Uranian rotation axis produces some extreme seasonal effects.
- c) From the uranian equator, the Sun would appear to pass overhead
every day of the year.
- d) Uranus does not have seasons.
Chapter 8 Moons, Rings, and Pluto
11. What is Io's very tenuous atmosphere made of?
- a) sulfur dioxide
- b) methane
- c) ammonia
- d) nitrogen
12. For a moon of the same density as its parent planet, the Roche limit
is _____ times the radius of the planet.
- a) 1.9
- b) 2.4
- c) 2,7
- d) 3.1
13. Which of the galilean moons is the largest and therefore the largest
moon in the solar system?
- a) Io.
- b) Europe.
- c) Ganymede.
- d) Callisto.
14. What are Saturn's rings?
- a) A great disk of liquid helium.
- b) Large rocky boulders moving in orbit around Saturn.
- c) A solid thin disc of material encircling Saturn.
- d) Small icy particles moving in orbit around Saturn.
15. Titan is a moon with what properties?
- a) Its surface is rich in organic compounds.
- b) It has a thick atmosphere of mostly nitrogen.
- c) It has a solid surface.
- d) all of the above
- e) none of the above
16. What makes Mimas a distinct moon?
- a) It suffered a huge meteorite impact that must have nearly shattered
it and whose scar is still visible today.
- b) It helps maintain a wide apparent gap in Saturn's rings, known
as Encke's Division.
- c) It has a rich atmosphere that may resemble that of the early
Earth.
- d) It is the largest of Saturn's moons.
17. How is the Roche limit defined?
- a) The critical distance from a planet, inside of which a moon can
be tidally destroyed.
- b) The maximum density that a body can have, depending on its composition.
- c) The maximum distance from a planet that a moon can experience
synchronous rotation.
- d) The maximum mass a moon can have and still be classified as a
moon.
18. What did the Voyager mission discover about the main rings of Saturn?
- a) There are hundreds of small moons in the ring system.
- b) There are many small moons inside the inner-most ring.
- c) The ring system is much thicker than originally believed; possibly
thousands of kilometers thick.
- d) They are composed of tens of thousands of narrow ringlets.
19. What is the prediction for the future of Triton?
- a) It will provide the raw material for a future Neptunian ring.
- b) It will develop active volcanos.
- c) It will leave the Neptunian system and become a lone wanderer,
like Pluto.
- d) It will crash into Nereid.
20. Pluto cannot be called a jovian planet because:
- a) It is more like a terrestrial planet.
- b) It has no rings.
- c) It is more like an icy moon.
- d) It contains no hydrogen, only helium in its atmosphere.