Download Formation of the Solar System: Quiz Study Guide

Formation of the Solar System: Quiz Study Guide
1. Describe how the Nebular Theory explains the formation of the Solar System.
2. What wavelengths of light are used to observe Planetary Systems in the process of formation
around other stars? Why do we use these wavelengths?
3. Describe the approximate chemical composition of the solar nebula.
4. Why does the vast majority of the mass of our solar system consist of Hydrogen and Helium?
5. Terrestrial planets are made almost entirely of elements heavier than Hydrogen and Helium.
Where did these elements come from?
6. Describe the abundance in the percentages of the major ingredients of the solar nebula.
a. Hydrogen and Helium
b. Hydrogen compounds
c. Rocks
d. Metals
7. What force is responsible for the initial attraction of the particles in the solar nebula?
8. What three major changes occurred in the solar nebula as it shrank in size (during its collapse?)
a.
b.
c.
9. Which physical variable most probably controlled the early evolution of the solar system and dictated
the characteristics of the planets that eventually formed?
10.Why did the solar nebula heat up as it collapsed?
11. What do we mean by accretion in the context of planet formation?
12. What materials condensed closest to the sun?
Planetary Science
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Formation of the Solar System: Quiz Study Guide
13. The formation of terrestrial type planets around a star most likely occurred by what process?
14. What is the frost line for a planetary system?
15. Why were solid planetesimals able to grow larger in the outer solar system that in the inner solar
system?
16. Why are the inner planets made of denser materials than the outer planets?
17. Describe the steps in which the Jovian planets formed.
18. How long did it take the solar nebula to collapse and form the solar system we know today?
19. List three types of objects that exist in our solar system today that we consider relatively unchanged
fragments from the early period of planet building in the solar system.
a.
b.
c.
20. According to our theory on the formation of the solar system, why do we find some exceptions to
the general rules and patterns of the solar system?
21. How old is the solar system?
22. How do we know how old the solar system is?
23. What important event occurred while the sun was in its T-Tauri phase?
Planetary Science
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Formation of the Solar System: Quiz Study Guide
24. L = mvr is the formula for angular momentum. What does each variable represent?
a. L
b. M
c. V
d. r
25. By the time planetesimals had formed, the accretion process was accelerated by the effect of what
force?
26. High – speed collisions between planetesimals often did not lead to accretion – describe what mostly
happened.
27. Why did the planetesimals of the asteroid belt not form a planet?
28. Draw
Prograde rotation
Retrograde Rotation
29. What planets exhibit retrograde rotation?
30. Based on our current theory of the formation of the solar system, did these planets always exhibit
retrograde rotation?
31. What is believed to have happened to them to change their rotation direction?
Planetary Science
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