Summer 2011
Astronomy - Test 2
Test form A
Name ________________________
Do not forget to write your name and fill in the bubbles with your student number, and
fill in test form A on the answer sheet. Write your name above as well. You have 50
minutes. For each question, mark the best answer. There are no formulas for this test.
The final five questions are based on images projected at the front of the room.
1. Why do the outer planets have so much more ices than the inner planets?
A) They already had substantial hydrogen envelopes, and this gravity let them attract ices
B) There simply wasn’t very much water in the inner solar system
C) They formed beyond the frost line, where it was cold enough for these ices to condense
D) There wasn’t enough hydrogen to make H2O and other ices in the inner solar system
E) All the planets probably had a lot of ices, but the solar wind carried it away from the
inner planets
2. Which of the following is not considered a criterion for something to be considered a
planet
A) It must be large enough that gravity pulls it into a sphere
B) It must orbit a star
C) It must be larger than other objects in similar orbits
D) It must be larger than any moons in the system
E) Actually, all of these are considered necessary for something to be a planet
3. The Oort cloud is
A) A region consisting of mostly rocky bodies between Mars and Jupiter
B) A vast collection of icy bodies very far from the rest of the Solar System
C) A large collection of icy bodies a little beyond the orbit of Neptune
D) A collections of dust and ice expelled from Enceladus that orbits Saturn
E) A cloud of gas roughly in a spherical shape that envelops the whole solar system
4. The name of the largest asteroid is
A) Pluto
B) Eris
C) Ceres
D) Vesta
E) Charon
5. Which of the following is not considered evidence that Mars once had liquid water on the
surface?
A) “Blueberries” or hematite, a substance that only forms underwater
B) Apparent dry riverbeds
C) What look like dried out lakes on the surface
D) Teardrop shaped “islands” around craters
E) Sand dunes, which normally occur only near lakes or seas
6. Why does the coma of a comet only appear when the comet comes into the inner solar
system?
A) The coma is collected matter from the solar wind, which is strongest when close
B) The coma is created by the gravitational pull of the Sun, which is stronger closer in
C) The coma is formed from the thin atmosphere that is stripped away from the terrestrial
planets
D) The coma is formed by collision with small asteroids in the asteroid belt
E) The coma forms when the sun heats the ice, turning it to gas
7. Planetary systems like ours are believe to originate from giant, cool gas clouds called
A) Molecular clouds
B) Atomic hydrogen clouds
C) H-II regions
D) Ionization nebulae
E) Spiral nebulae
8. Which of the following objects has the tallest known mountain in the Solar System?
A) Earth
B) Mars
C) Jupiter
D) Mercury E) Venus
9. Which of the following is believed to have a thin layer of ice with a liquid ocean underneath?
A) Titan
B) Triton
C) Europa
D) Io
E) Ganymede
10. Protoplanetary disk spin much faster than the giant clouds from which they formed. How do
they acquire this spin?
A) Early fusion in the Sun pushes them and starts them spinning
B) Gravitational forces from the protoplanets spins them up
C) Gas flung off of the contracting cloud, like water from a spinning sprinkler
D) Friction with passing proplanetary disks from other forming systems
E) Contraction increases spin, much like an ice skater pulling her arms in
11. Which planet rotates on an axis such that it is tilted over on its side?
A) Jupiter
B) Mars
C) Neptune
D) Uranus
E) Titan
12. How is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Earth changing over time?
A) It was falling for many decades, but now is rising
B) It was rising for many decades, but now is falling
C) It is pretty steadily increasing
D) It is pretty steadily decreasing
E) There is no noticeable pattern to the change
13. What makes the inner core of the Earth different from the outer core?
A) The inner core is metal; the outer core is rock
B) The inner core is rock; the outer core is metal
C) The inner core is liquid metal; the outer core is solid metal
D) The inner core is solid metal; the outer core is liquid metal
E) The inner core is made of chocolate; the outer core is made of peanut butter
14. The most common component of the protoplanetary disk from which the Solar System
formed was
A) Hydrogen and helium gas
B) Rock
C) Metal
D) Water ice
E) Ammonia and methane
15. Which of the following was not discussed as playing a role in reshaping the surface of the
Earth at all?
A) Meteors
B) Magnetic fields
C) Erosion
D) Volcanoes
E) Movement of Earth’s crust
16. If you want to hang on to your atmosphere, it is helpful to be
A) Hot and massive
B) Cool and massive
C) Hot and light
D) Cool and light
E) Temperature and mass have little to do with hanging onto your atmosphere
17. Which of the gas giant planets has no rings?
A) Jupiter ((only)
B) Uranus (only)
C) Naptune (only)
D) Uranus and Neptune
E) Actually, all of the gas giant planets have rings
18. The largest known storm in the Solar System is on
A) Jupiter
B) Mars
C) Neptune
D) Uranus
E) Titan
19. I am on a moon. There is a river nearby, but it is much too cold for water to flow. Through
the hazy atmosphere, I can just make out the planet
A) Mars
B) Uranus
C) Neptune
D) Saturn
E) Jupiter
20. Which of the following is not a feature of all terrestrial planets in the Solar system?
A) They are made primarily of rock and metal
B) They have a significant atmosphere
C) They are smaller than any gas giant planet
D) They have few moons
E) Actually, all of these are features of the terrestrial planets
21. Which of the following is not true about Mercury?
A) We see strong evidence that there was once liquid water on it
B) It is heavily cratered
C) It is the smallest of the eight planets
D) There is significant evidence for volcanism on the surface
E) It has been giant scarps/cliffs on it
22. What is the primary source of heat that keeps the center of the Earth so hot?
A) Chemical reactions inside the Earth
B) Heat of formation of the Earth
C) Differentiation
D) Friction from the crustal plates moving around
E) Radioactivity inside the Earth
23. Which of the following moons has the least ice?
A) Europa
B) Io
C) Ganymede
D) Callisto
E) Triton
24. Besides Earth, is there any other planet with exactly one moon?
A) Mercury B) Mars
C) Venus
D) Neptune
E) No, there isn’t
25. Working inwards from the outside, the planet that is just inside Uranus’ orbit is
A) Jupiter
B) Neptune C) Saturn
D) Mars
E) Venus
26. If you were to visit the surface of Venus, which of the following would not be needed?
A) Breathable air
B) Air conditioning to keep you cool
C) A parasol to block the sunlight
D) Liquid water to drink
E) Actually, you would need all of these things (at least)
27. Saturn’s rings are made primarily of
A) Ice
B) Rock
C) Metal
D) Hydrogen E) Helium
28. How does the temperature on the Moon compare with the Earth?
A) It is almost everywhere much hotter
B) It is almost everywhere much colder
C) It is about the same on average, with about the same variation
D) It is about the same on average, but some places much hotter and some much colder
E) We don’t really know much about temperatures on the Moon
For each of the following, please look at the pictures on the screen to identify the
object.
29. What are these pictures of?
A) Earth
B) Europa
C) Mars
D) Triton
E) Titan
30. What is this a picture of?
A) Io
B) Ganymede
C) Europa
D) Moon
E) Miranda
31. What are these pictures of?
A) Venus
B) Uranus
C) Neptune
D) Mercury
E) Iapetus
32. What is this a picture of?
A) Uranus
B) Europa
C) Venus
D) Neptune
E) Io
33. What is this a picture of?
A) Ganymede B) Mercury
C) Titan
D) Triton
E) Moon