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Astronomy 2nd Quarter Test Study Guide
NAME_________________________________________DATE__________________PER_______
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• • • PLACE ALL ANSWERS ON AN ACCOMPANYING SHEET OF NOTEBOOK PAPER PLEASE. • • •
NO ANSWERS WRITTEN ON THIS QUESTION SHEET WILL BE COUNTED.
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1. For planet Mercury, how long is one trip around the sun?
2. Mercury’s surface temperature ranges from __ K to __K
3. On the moon you would weigh what fraction of your Earth weight?
4. Which theory of the origin of the moon is currently favored by scientists?
5. When a satellite rotates once each time it orbits, with the same side facing its primary, the orbit is called ___.
6. Neither the Moon nor Mercury has a measurable atmosphere because ___ .
7. __ degrees is the farthest angular distance Mercury ever gets from the sun, so we can never see it at midnight.
8. Many people see interesting shapes when they look at the moon. They are seeing dark, flat areas called ___.
9. The solar system bodies that are about 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 the diameter of the Earth are, in order:
10. Most communications satellites are put in a __ orbit, which makes them appear stationary in the sky.
11. Currently the most accurate way of determining the distance to the moon:
12. Why can there never be dust clouds on the moon?
13. Differentiate between opposition, conjunction and elongation.
14. Why is Venus, despite being twice as far from the sun, so much hotter than Mercury?
15. How does Venus’s atmosphere differ from Earth’s?
16. The amount of light a planet reflects back to space is referred to as the planet’s __.
17. Why is Venus is often referred to as Earth’s sister planet?
18. What have we observed during volcanic eruptions on Venus?
19. At its greatest elongation Venus appears about ___ degrees away from the sun.
20. Name the first probe to land successfully on another planet:
21. How long during the year does Venus spend as the morning star, and then the evening star?
22. Of the sunlight that falls on its surface, Venus reflects about __ % of it back into space.
23. How do astronomers determine north on other planets?
24. List the 3 brightest objects in Earth’s sky, in order, brightest to dimmest.
25. Which probe was the first to successfully land on Mars, and in what year?
26. What do we call the line between day and night on an orbiting object’s surface?
27. What rover landed on Mars in August 2012, and has been studying Mount Sharp and Gale crater?
28. What gives Mars its red color?
29. At what configuration does Mars appear to us as a crescent?
30. Which hemisphere of Mars do scientists believe was probably filled with an ancient ocean?
31. Mars’s atmosphere is ~ 97% __.
32. Which Martian surface feature is the largest volcano in the solar system, three times taller than Mt Everest?
33. What do we call the distance from a star where H2O on a planet could exist as a liquid?
34. Where can you find water on Mars today?
35. What is Mars’s diameter if the Earth’s is 1?
36. Which surface feature is located in the highlands, but itself contains the deepest point on Mars’s surface?
37. How can Mars – small as it is – have some of the tallest mountains and deepest canyons in the solar system?
38. List the Jovian moons from closest to farthest from Jupiter:
39. Jupiter’s mass is approximately what fraction of the Sun’s mass? It’s diameter is ~what fraction of the Sun’s diameter?
40. What causes a planet like Jupiter or Saturn (or even the Earth, slightly) to be oblate?
41. Why does Jupiter still have most of its original atmosphere?
42. Like the Sun, Jupiter is mostly made of __ & __.
43. What are the maximum recorded wind speed on Mars?
44. Jupiter’s interior is mostly metallic and is churned by the planet’s rotation. Scientists think these cause Jupiter’s __.
45. Which solar system objects have ring systems?
46. Which of Jupiter’s moons has—we believe—a thick ice crust covering a deep planet-wide ocean of water?
47. What is differential rotation? Which solar system object display it?
48. Fragments of which comet collided with Jupiter in July 1994?
49. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is actually a ___.
• • • PLACE ALL ANSWERS ON AN ACCOMPANYING SHEET OF NOTEBOOK PAPER PLEASE. • • •
• • • NO ANSWERS WRITTEN ON THIS QUESTION SHEET WILL BE COUNTED. • • •