Our Solar System

Practice Test
      
  1.Why does Jupiter have a banded appearance?  
  a.   it's rings  
  b.   the Great Red Spot causes the bands  
  c.   due to it's four moons  
  d.   flow patterns in its atmosphere  
      
  2.Where are most asteroids located?  
  a.   orbiting all planets  
  b.   between Mars and Jupiter  
  c.   between Earth and Venus  
  d.   outside of Pluto's orbit  
      
  3.Use the table to determine the smallest gas giant planet.

Planet Orbital Radius, a (AU) Planetary Radius, r (km) Planetary Mass, m (1024 kg)
Mercury 0.387 2439.7 0.3302
Venus 0.723 6051.8 4.8685
Earth 1.0 6378.1 5.9736
Mars 1.524 3397 0.64185
Jupiter 5.204 71 492 1898.6
Saturn 9.582 60 268 568.46
Uranus 19.201 25 559 86.832
Neptune 30.047 24 764 102.43
Pluto 39.236 1195 0.0125


 
  a.   Neptune  
  b.   Uranus  
  c.   Saturn  
  d.   Jupiter  
      
  4.The wobble in Earth's axis is called __________.  
  a.   eccentricity  
  b.   precession  
  c.   tilt  
  d.   seasons  
      
  5.What characteristics do the gas giants have in common?  
  a.   are very large, 15 to 300 times the mass of Earth  
  b.   ring systems and moons  
  c.   all of the answers are correct  
  d.   composed of lightweight elements such as hydrogen and helium  
      
  6.What is the composition of Saturn's atmosphere?  
  a.   sulfuric acid and hydrogen  
  b.   helium and oxygen  
  c.   hydrogen and helium  
  d.   hydrogen, helium, and ammonia ice  
      
  7.Which planets in the figure have solid surfaces?



 
  a.   5-8  
  b.   1-4 and 9  
  c.   9  
  d.   1-4  
      
  8.The eccentricity of a perfect circle is __________ and a very elongated ellipse is __________.  
  a.   one, zero  
  b.   nearly zero, one  
  c.   zero, nearly one  
  d.   zero, one  
      
  9.The inner four planets of our solar system are called the __________ planets and the next four are called the __________ planets.  
  a.   hard, soft  
  b.   terrestrial, gas giant  
  c.   gas giant, terrestrial  
  d.   rocky, gas-like  
      
  10.What explains why the Sun governs the motion of all planets in our solar system?  
  a.   retrograde motion of planets  
  b.   the law of universal gravitation  
  c.   Kepler's third law  
  d.   telescopic observations of the planets  
      
  11.The objects that eventually formed planets by colliding and merging are called __________.  
  a.   asteroids  
  b.   stars  
  c.   planetesimals  
  d.   solar nebula  
      
  12.What is the Sun-centered model of our solar system called?  
  a.   heliocentric  
  b.   epicycle  
  c.   eccentric  
  d.   geocentric  
      
  13.What causes Uranus' blue appearance?  
  a.   the ammonia ice droplets  
  b.   the vast oceans  
  c.   the methane in its atmosphere  
  d.   surfuric acid in its atmosphere  
      
  14.The __________ of a planet is its apparent backwards movement as seen from Earth's sky.  
  a.   perihelion  
  b.   epicycle  
  c.   retrograde motion  
  d.   eccentricity  
      
  15.Mercury's extremely slow spin causes only __________ days to pass in __________ of Mercury's years.  
  a.   one hundred, one  
  b.   twenty-four, one  
  c.   three, two  
  d.   one, two hundred  
      
  16.What are the three labeled parts of the comet shown in the figure?



 
  a.   corona, nucleus, end  
  b.   head, cone, tail  
  c.   ice core, cloud, fan  
  d.   coma, nucleus, tail  
      
  17.Why can't astronomers directly observe the surface of Venus without landing probes on the surface?  
  a.   Venus has a high albedo.  
  b.   The surface is covered by thick ice sheets.  
  c.   The surface is covered by thick clouds.  
  d.   Venus has a clockwise spin.  
      
  18.What shape describes the orbits of the planets?  
  a.   an ellipse  
  b.   a circle  
  c.   a sphere  
  d.   a line  
      
  19.Comets are bodies that are __________ that orbit __________.  
  a.   icy, each planet  
  b.   larger than Earth, Earth  
  c.   ice and rock, the Sun  
  d.   helium gas, the Sun  

 
   
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