Download Material for Exam 4

Exam 4 Review
This “review sheet” has a list of questions that you can ask yourself to get a feel for
your own comfort level on the different topics that we’ve covered in class. As with the
second exam, you should be comfortable with reading/writing numbers in scientific
notation & using your own scientific calculator to perform calculations.
Solar System Debris
Can you describe the similarities and differences between comets and asteroids
(composition, orbits, origins, etc.)?
Do you know interesting properties of the following asteroids: Ceres, Ida, Eros, Trojan
asteroids?
Do you understand how two different tails form from a comet and what the differences
are between the tails?
What is the connection between a meteoroid, a meteor, and a meteorite? What is the
most common source for meteoroids? What are other sources?
Are you familiar with the evidence that supports the idea that a large asteroid impact is
the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs? Do you know how the size of an asteroid is
related to how frequently they strike Earth and how much damage they can do? What is
the current state of affairs in terms of defense of asteroid impacts?
Solar System Formation
Do you know the composition of the gas and dust that makes up the interstellar medium
(ISM) and how that plays a role in the development of our Solar System?
Can you explain the process that caused a globule of ISM to form into the Solar System?
Explain how the Solar Nebula Theory accounts for the following properties of the Solar
System:
How the composition of terrestrial planets relates to its position near the Sun.
Terrestrial planets have small atmospheres.
Low orbital inclinations of all the planets.
All planets orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun rotates.
Extra-Solar Planets
Do you understand why we cannot (usually) directly observe planets orbiting around
other stars and how we go about finding evidence for the existence of such planets?
Are you familiar with the properties we’ve discovered about extra-solar planets?
Extra-terrestrial Life
Do you know what conditions Earth has that made it favorable for life to develop on
Earth? How was life able to develop and thrive on Earth?
What are the properties of water and Carbon that make them essential ingredients for the
development of life?
What properties of other worlds (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jovian planets, etc.)
would make us think that there isn’t life present there? What worlds show some promise
for the existence of basic forms of life, and why?
What search efforts have we made to establish contact with another advanced
civilization?
Arecibo Message
Asteroid Belt
Center of Mass
Chicxulub
Condensation Sequence
Differentiation
Dust Tail
Extremophiles
Habitable Zone
Heavy Bombardment Period
Ion Gas Tail
Kirkwood Gaps
Kuiper Belt
Miller-Urey Experiment
Nebula
Oort Cloud
Out-gassing
PHA
Pioneer Plaques
Planetesimals
Proto-planet
Proto-Sun
SETI
Voyager Gold Records