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55 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Compared to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, ordinary chrondrite meteorites are...
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depleted in volatiles
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carbonaceous chondrite meteroites are primitive. What does primitve mean in this context?
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Unchanged
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Jupiter takes about 12 years to go around the Sun. An asteroid in a 3:1 resonance with Jupiter would take how many years to go around the Sun?
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4 years
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The Widmanstatten patten found in iron meteorites forms under what circumstances?
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Slow cooling and high pressure
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Asteroids larger than about 500 km are spherical because
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The central pressure is higher than the strength of rocks
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The volcanic activity on the surface of asteroids occured
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Long ago
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How do we know that the asteroid belt was not a single planet that exploded?
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We have carbonaceous chondrite meteorites
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Stony meteorites have a density of about
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3 g/cc
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Stony-Iron meteorites have a density of about
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5 g/cc
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Iron meteorites have a density of about
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8 g/cc
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Primitive meteorites do not have
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Windmanstatten patterns
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Primitive meteorites do have
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Been chemically altered, are old, has never been heated much
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A carbonaceous chondrite has a density of
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3 g/cc
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Impact Breccia has a density of
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3 g/cc
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An iron meteorite has a density of
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8 g/cc
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An ordinary chondrite meteorite has a density of
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3.3 g/cc
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A shatter cone has a density of about
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3 g/cc
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A tektite has a density of about
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3 g/cc
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An achondrite meteorite has a density of about
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3 g/cc
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What is the most common geological feature on the surface of dead worlds?
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Impact Craters
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I said that the surface of Saturn's moon Rhea is about 3.8 billion years old because it has about the same crater density as the highlands of the Earth's Moon. Why might this statement be completely wrong.
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Rhea may not have been hit by the same population of impactors as the Moon
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Saturn's moon Titan is about the same size as the Earth's Moon. Why can Titan retain a thick atmosphere while the Moon can not?
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Titan is farther from the Sun than the Moon
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The Roche limit for Saturn lies about 2.5 planetary radii away. This distance is:
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Near the outer edge of the rings
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The gaps in the rings of Saturn are caused by
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Resonances with satellites changing the ring particle's orbits
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Saturn's small moon Mimas is saturated with impact craters. What does saturated mean in this context?
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The addition of more craters does not change the crater density
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Small worlds in the outer solar system can have similar levels of geological activity as much larger worlds in the inner solar system because:
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They are made primarily of ice
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Why do we think that the methane in Titan's atmosphere must be continually replenished from the surface?
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methane has a very short lifetime in the atmosphere
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Secondary atmopheres are formed from
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Gasses released when the surface melts
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The atmospheres of outer solar system satellites are composed primarily of which gases?
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Nitrogen and Methane
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What is the wavelength range of the visible part of the spectrum?
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380 to 750 nm
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Neptune's moon Triton has active volcanoes on its surface. The most probable energy source for these volcanoes is
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The Sun
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Why is Io the only solid surface in the solar system that has no impact craters on it?
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The surface is constantly being resurfaced, covering impact craters
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Io and Europa are geologically active today because their interiors are heated by
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Gravitational interactions with Jupiter and its satellites
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Why are the eruption plumes of volcanoes on Io larger than similar plumes on the Earth?
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Io has lower gravity than the Earth
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Liquid water probably exists below the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. Why can liquid water not exist in large seas on the surface of Europa?
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Europa has essentially no atmosphere so the surface pressure is too low for liquid water to exist
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Which of the following was not influenced by Jupiter?
the impact of the Earth by a 10 km asteroid 65 Myr ago the structure of the asteroid belt the retrograde orbit of Triton the volcanoes on Io |
the retrograde orbit of Triton
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Why is it unlikely that Saturn's volcanically active moon Enceladus is being powered by tidal heating?
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The dead moon Mimas should be even more tidally heated
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Astronomers estimate that there may be a trillion cometary nuclei in the Kuiper Belt. Despite their large numbers they have only been discovered in the last decade. Why is this?
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cometary nuclei have a very low albedo and are hard to detect so far out
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Halley's comet takes about 76 years to orbit the Sun. Why do we believe that Halley's comet was not in its present orbit 4 billion years ago?
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It would have completely disintegrated if it had been in this orbit for 4 billion years
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Compared to the surfaces of asteroids, the surfaces of Kuiper belt objects are
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More volatile rich
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The Kuiper belt never formed into a single large planet because
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Accrection times are longer that 4 Byrs in the Kuiper Belt
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The tidal force on the Earth due to the Moon is twice that of the tidal force due to the Sun. How can this be when the Sun is MUCH more massive than the Moon.
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The Moon is much closer than the Sun
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Why is the Earth's Moon not geologically active today due to
tidal heating by the Earth? |
The Moon is not in resonance with another moon
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In what way are the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn more like stars than terrestrial planets?
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They are big balls of gas - mostly hydrogen and helium
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The belt and zone apperance of the clouds of Jupiter is a consequence of Jupiter's:
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Rapid rotation
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The color in the clouds of the Giant Planet atmospheres is due mainly to
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Trace gasses
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The interal energy source of the Giant Planets is
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Gravitational contraction
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Venus has no magnetic field. What property of magnetic field generation does Venus lack?
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Moderately rapid rotation
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Mars has no magnetic field. What property of magnetic field generation does Mars lack?
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Convecting fluid (internal heat source)
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If a planet formed inside of the orbit of Mercury (< 0.3 AU), what would be its most likely composition?
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Iron
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A planet with a mass of 10 times that of Jupiter will have a size
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About the same size as Jupiter
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In the original model for the formation of planets by accrection, one of the main problems is that the formation of Neptune
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Takes longer than the age of the solar system
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What is unusual about the position of Uranus and Neptune in the Nice Model of solar system formation?
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They formed at a much closer distance and were kicked out
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Why do we think the water on the Earth had to come from the outer solar system?
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Water can not exist as a solid inside the snow-line
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In 6 billion years the Earth will be
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Engulfed by the dying Sun
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