Pre-Test Questions
(1) Terrestrial is best described as:
a. Being a part of solid land as opposed to water environments
b. Living in a gaseous environment
c. Being a part of outer space
d. Having many crater impacts
e.
(2) Which characteristic best describes an inner planet?
a. A planet that orbits close to the sun
b. A planet that has life
c. A planet that between the asteroid belt and the sun
d. A planet that has a solid inner core.
(3) Why doesn’t Earth have many impact craters similar to the Moon?
a. Because no meteorites have impacted the Earth.
b. Because the water on the surface absorbs all meteorite impacts
c. The Earth’s erosional properties, and atmosphere have erased any impact
sites
d. The moon attracts most of the meteorites
(4) What do scientists say caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?
a. Overfeeding of the larger animals causing the smaller ones to starve
b. Allergic reaction of the dinosaurs to newly introduced, flowering plants
c. The explosion of a massive star
d. The impact of a large asteroid
(5) What causes our Sun to burn bright?
a. The burning of fossil fuels
b. Impacts of numerous comets
c. Fusion of Hydrogen into Helium and other heavy elements
d. X-Rays from a distant supernova explosion.
(6) Which is the farthest planet from the Sun?
a. Planet X
b. Mars
c. Jupiter
d. Pluto
e. None of the above
(7) Why do scientists continue to send space probes to Mars, even though through
analysis of recent Mars photos, there are not trees, or grassy fields there?
a. Because life could be under the surface of the ground where probes and
photos have not penetrated.
b. Most of the life hides when it sees a space probe
c. The life could be frozen in the North pole of Mars.
d. Scientists just want to see if they can teleoperate a space probe from Earth.
(8) The Earth has seasons because it
a. Is closer to the sun in the summer than the winter.
b. Has a tilted axis
c. Has a moon
d. Has chemicals that cause the air to warm or cool depending upon what
time of the year it is.
(9) Venus is considered similar to Earth in that it:
a. Has seasons just like Earth
b. Spins on its axis at the same rate
c. Has craters like the Earth
d. Is close in size to the Earth.
(10)
Why do scientists believe Venus is a victim of a runaway “Greenhouse”
effect?
a. Because the use of fossil fuels on their surface caused this.
b. The atmosphere is so thick that the heat from the sun cannot escape once it
enters.
c. Volcanic activity continues to eject massive amounts of lava onto the
surface, causing it to heat up.
d. It is too close to the sun.
(11)
a.
b.
c.
d.
The sun, in comparison to other stars, is considered:
Medium, cold star
Medium, hot star
Large, super giant
Small white dwarf
(12)
Jupiter is a very large planet in our solar system, but it failed to become a
star due to:
a. It’s mass
b. It’s energy
c. It’s chemical makeup
d. It’s being cooled off because it is so far away from the sun.
(13)
Scientists believe Mars might have had running water at one time in the
past because it has:
a. Dead fish on it’s surface
b. Evidence of flowing water canyons
c. Rocks that are normally found on the bottom of the ocean
d. Fossilized tree trunks that show evidence of being knocked down in a
massive flood.
(14)
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is considered an outer planet?
A planet that does not orbit our sun
A planet that is past Pluto
A planet that orbits Jupiter
A planet that orbits from the asteroid belt and out to the edge of the solar
system.
(15)
Why do certain planets show evidence of impact craters while others show
hardly any sign?
a. These planets have no atmosphere and therefore the meteorites hit the
surface unhindered.
b. These planets have a stronger magnetic pull, causing the meteorites to hit
them.
c. These planets are smaller and are easier targets for meteorite impacts
d. These planets are considered asteroids themselves.
(16)
a.
b.
c.
d.
(17)
What might have caused the asteroid belt?
A massive comet impacted the sun causing it to eject material into space,
creating the asteroid belt.
Jupiter has torn apart the planet that once existed there.
The asteroid belt is a part of a larger structure called the Oort cloud.
When the solar system was forming, the material that was there did not
have enough mass to form a new planet.
Scientists have not sent a space probe to a distant star because:
a. Other stars are too far away for conventional spacecraft to reach them with
enough fuel
b. All of the closest stars have burned out and scientists do not want to send a
space probe to stars that no longer exist.
c. They are too busy sending space probes to closer planets.
d. These distant stars create gamma-ray bursts that render the spacecraft
useless.
(18)
a.
b.
c.
d.
According to some scientific theory, how old is the solar system?
10 years old
10 million years old
46 million years old
4.6 billion years old
a.
b.
c.
d.
What is considered a “black-hole”?
A place where a massive planet once existed.
The core left over from a massive explosion of a super-nova
A place where the space-time vectors converge in the universe.
The place where two galaxies have collided.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Gravity is directly related to:
Mass
Rotation
Revolution
Distance from a distant star.
(19)
(20)