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1. What is the Kuiper belt?
A) A band of dust in the plane of the ecliptic, extending from near the orbit of Mars to
beyond the orbit of Pluto.
B) The broadest band of asteroids in the asteroid belt, separated from other bands by
Kirkwood Gaps.
C) A relatively flat distribution of comets in the plane of the ecliptic, extending from around
the orbit of Pluto out to about 500 AU from the Sun.
D) An approximately spherical distribution of comets centered on the Sun that extends out
to about 50,000 AU.
2. What did Galileo note in his observation logbook that astronomers now believe was an
early pre-discovery observation of Neptune?
A) An observation of a "star" near Jupiter that moved from night to night with respect to
the background stars.
B) A dark spot moving across the face of the Sun that he noted was probably an unknown
planet, now known to have been Neptune.
C) Periodic changes in the motion of Uranus, which he had been observing routinely nightby-night, which is now known to be caused by the gravitational influence of Neptune.
D) A shooting star that lasted an unusually long period of time.
3. Some astronomers do not classify Pluto as a planet. What is their reasoning?
A) Pluto has essentially no atmosphere making it really an asteroid or escaped satellite, not
a planet.
B) Pluto is too small to be a true planet.
C) Pluto has no moons.
D) Pluto seems to be just one of a large number of icy worlds orbiting at the outer edge of
the planetary system.
4. Which of the following statements is a CORRECT description of the planet Pluto?
A) The planet is composed mostly of ice, with only a small fraction of rock.
B) The planet has a satellite whose diameter is about half its own diameter.
C) The planet has a circular orbit well beyond the orbit of Neptune.
D) The planet will eventually break apart due to tidal forces from the Sun.
5. Uranus, with its spin axis lying almost in the plane of its orbit, experiences
A) extreme seasonal changes.
B) no seasons at all.
C) similar seasons to all other planets because the seasons are governed by orbital motion
and relative distance from the Sun, not by the tilt of the spin axis.
D) similar seasons to all other planets because it orbits in about the same plane as all of the
other planets except Pluto.
6. A piece of rock from outer space that reaches the Earth's surface after surviving a fiery
passage through the Earth's atmosphere is known as
A) a meteoroid. B) a meteor. C) a meteorite. D) an asteroid. E) an aurora
7. A small piece of rock orbiting the Sun would be called
A) a meteor. B) a meteorite. C) a micrometer. D) a meteoroid.
E) a planet
8. A shooting star is
A) a violently erupting star that ejects matter rapidly away from it into interstellar space.
B) a small particle of interplanetary dust that burns up and glows as it enters the Earth's
atmosphere.
C) the leading scorer on a basketball team.
D) a near-neighbor star, moving rapidly across our field of view.
E) the result of imperfections in the lens of a camera or telescope.
9. Which of the following statements correctly describes a currently proposed picture for
the formation of Uranus and Neptune?
A) Uranus and Neptune formed closer to the Sun than they are now and were pushed
outward to their present orbits.
B) Uranus and Neptune formed farther from the Sun than they are now and gradually
spiraled inward to their present orbits.
C) Uranus and Neptune formed where they are now with the mass and composition we see
today.
D) Uranus is a result of the collision of a Mars-sized object with Neptune.
10. Why do we think Uranus and Neptune did not form at their present distance from the
Sun?
A) If they did, they would be expected to have interiors more like Saturn
B) If they did, they would be expected to have more greenhouse gasses
C) If they did, they would be expected to have less greenhouse gasses
D) If they did, they would be expected to have more geologic activity
E) If they did, they would have a magnetic field that is aligned with their spin axis
11. If Earth’s tilt were to increase to 45 degrees from its current value of 23.5 degrees,
which of the following would be expected?
A) Longer seasons
B) More extreme seasons
C) A longer mean solar day
D) A shorter mean solar day E) More eclipses
12. Neptune has prominent clouds and storms in its atmosphere, but Uranus does
not. Why?
A. Uranus rotates too slowly.
B. Uranus rotates too rapidly.
C. Uranus has a large amount of heat rising from its interior, which leads to a
featureless atmosphere.
D. Uranus does not have a significant internal heat source that could produce
convection
E. Uranus is too far from the Sun.
13. Neptune was
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
predicted to exist through its gravitational effect on Uranus.
predicted to exist through its gravitational effect on Saturn.
found by accident during a search for comets.
discovered in ancient times because it is a naked-eye object.
was discovered using a radio telescope.
14. We know that Neptune contains a larger amount of heavier elements than
Saturn. We know this because Neptune
A. is smaller than Saturn.
B. is larger than Saturn.
C. has a higher density than Saturn.
D. has a lower density than Saturn.
E. is farther from the Sun than Saturn.
15. What evidence suggested that Pluto was an object in our solar system (and not a
distant faint star) when it was first discovered?
A. Telescopes showed it had a disc.
B. Telescopes showed it had a moon.
C. Its gravitational influence on Neptune showed that it was nearby.
D. It moved against the background of stars indicating that it was probably
nearby.
E. It did not twinkle.
16. Which of the following is the best description of Pluto and other transNeptunian objects?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Rocky objects like the asteroids
Objects made almost completely of frozen water and other ices
Objects that are a mixture of ices, hydrogen, and helium
Objects that are a mixture of ices and rock
Objects made almost completely of hydrogen and helium