Review 2
• What was the solar nebula?
• What was it made of?
• How did gravitational collapse affect the Solar
nebula?
• How does conservation of energy and angular
momentum effect solar system formation?
• What are the orderly motions of the planets?
• What produced the orderly motion we observe in the
Solar System today?
• How do we explain the exceptions to the orderly
motions?
• What key fact explains why there are two types of
planet?
• What is the origin of asteroids and comets?
• How old is the Solar System and how do we
know?
• What are chondrules?
• What is the frostline?
• What is the soot line?
• What are two ways to detect extra-solar
planets?
• What is different about most of the extrasolar planets detected so far?
• What is the Kepler mission?
• How can we determine is an extra-solar
planet has life?
• Describe the basic interior structures of the
terrestrial worlds.
• How do the interiors of terrestrial planets get
hot?
• What happens during planetary
differentiation?
• Why is planetary size so important to internal
heat and geology?
• What drives plate tectonics on Earth?
• How did the lunar maria form?
• What was the composition of the original
atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars?
• What is an El Nino and why should you care?
• What evidence suggests a past warm and wet
period on Mars?
• How did Mars lose much of its early
atmosphere?
• Is there water on Mars now? Where?
• What causes deserts?
• How many Hadley cells are there from the
equator to the pole?
• Why are there hurricanes?
• Why don’t hurricanes form off the equatorial
coast of South America?
• How do you use craters to determine the age
of planetary surfaces?
• Why isn’t there much erosion on Venus?
• What happened to Venus about 500-800 million years
ago?
• What are the surfaces of Venus and Mercury composed
of?
• Is Venus still geologically active?
• Why is Venus so hot?
• What is the greenhouse effect?
• Compare the greenhouse effect on Venus, Earth, &
Mars.
• How do gyres effect hurricanes?
• What are the 4 unique features of Earth that are
important to human life?
• How was the Moon created?
• What creates global wind patterns?
• Why are there deserts?
• How does rotation effect the creation of Hadley
cells?
• How is the Earth’s atmosphere different now
then it was 4 billion years ago?
• How does the CO2 cycle promote climate
stability on Earth?
• What happened to most of the CO2 in the
Earth’s atmosphere?
• Why isn’t Florida a desert?
• What are monsoons?
• What are the major features of the
Jovian planets?
• Why are Jovian planets so different from
terrestrial planets?
• What are the main elements of Jovian
Planets?
• Jupiter and Saturn are about the same
size, but much different mass….why?
• Do Jovian planets have Hadley cells?
• What is the Great Red Spot?
• How do other Jovian atmospheres
compare to Jupiter’s?
• Why can active geology occur on much
smaller worlds when they are made of
ice rather than rock?
• Why do we suspect a subsurface ocean
on Europa?
• What makes Io so volcanically active?
• Describe Saturn’s rings.
• How can planets migrate?
• How does conservation of momentum
factor into planetary migration?
• Which Jovian planets have ring
systems?
• What is the difference between a meteorite and
a meteor?
• How do other ring systems compare to
Saturn’s?
• What is the origin of planetary rings?
• How do you identify a meteorite?
• Why are so few meteorites found in Florida?
• What are resonances in the asteroid belt?
• What is a Dwarf Planet?
• How do impacts effect the Earth and the
evolution of species?
• Why are there no large asteroid belts outside of
Jupiter and inside of the Kuiper Belt?
• What is the composition of comets?
• What happens to a comet as it approaches the
Sun?
• How do we know that vast numbers of comets
reside in the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt?
• What is the difference between the plasma tail
and the dust tail?
• Why don’t Pluto and Neptune collide?
• Is Pluto a Kuiper belt object?
• Do asteroid/comets still collide with Earth?
• For a water-rich super-Earth what would happen to
most of its 2000 kilometer thick ocean?
• How does the Earth’s magnetic field protect the
atmosphere?
• For an iron and rock super-Earth what would happen to
mantle convection, plate tectonics, and plate motions?
• What are three ways that a planet can lose atmosphere?
• Why has Mars lost more atmosphere than the Earth?
• How does life effect the type of minerals you see on
Earth?
• What was the Red Earth period and why?
• Why do small, dry worlds like Mercury and the moon
possess simple surfaces of low mineral diversity?