Sample Questions for the Second Exam
1. Which planets are known to have polar ice caps?
a. Earth
b. Earth and Mars
c. all of the terrestrial planets
d. Earth, Mercury, and Mars
2. If Venus had no atmosphere it would be ___________ it actually is.
a. warmer on average than
b. cooler on average than
c. the same temperature as
d. drier than
3. The canals that Percival Lowell thought he saw on Mars
a. are a worldwide system of natural cracks
b. are fault lines created by continental drift
c. do not exist
d. are remnants of ancient oceans
4. The atmospheres of which planets are mostly carbon dioxide?
a. Earth
b. Venus
c. Mars
d. Earth and Mars
e. Venus and Mars
5. To be a good “greenhouse” gas, a gas should
a. be relatively transparent to visible light but opaque in the infrared
b. block ultraviolet light
c. reflect all light
d. reflect all visible light
6. The craters on the moon are believed to be mostly
a. volcanoes
b. ancient lake beds
c. impact craters
d. created within the past 100 million years
7. The lunar highlands are
a. the oldest part of the moon
b. heavily cratered
c. made by flowing lava about 3 billion years ago
d. (a) and (b)
8. Uranium-238 turns into lead with a half life of about 4 billion years. Suppose that we started with a block of 100 percent uranium 12 billion years ago. How much of the block would be uranium today?
a. none
b. 12.5 percent
c. 25 percent
d. 2 percent
9. Consider two areas of the surface of the moon. Each is 1000 square kilometers in size. Area A has 100 craters. Area B has 50 craters. Assume that the rate at which the moon has been hit by asteroids and comets has not changed over time. If area A is 4 billion years old, how old is area B?
a. 1 billion years
b. 2 billion years
c. 3 billion years
d. 4 billion years
10. The radioactive dating of rocks from the moon has told us that
a. the moon was entirely liquid 2 billion years ago
b. the moon once had oceans
c. the rate at which moon craters were formed was higher early in the history of the moon
d. the maria are less than 100 million years old
11. Compared to the Earth, Mars
a. has a stronger magnetic field
b. has bigger moons
c. has more water
d. has a much colder surface
12. Of all the terrestrial planets, the one with the highest average surface temperature is
a. Mercury
b. Earth
c. Mars
d. Venus
13. The Great Red Spot of Jupiter is believed to be
a. a volcano
b. an impact crater
c. a giant eye staring at us
d. a long-lived weather feature
14. Erupting volcanoes have been seen on
a. Io
b. Mercury
c. Mars
d. Phobos
15. Europa may have
a. sulfur volcanoes
b. nitrogen geysers
c. an ocean
d. a strong magnetic field
16. Organic chemical compounds
a. cover the lunar maria
b. have not yet been found in the soil of Mars
c. have a half life of about 1 million years
d. have been found in the clouds of Venus
17. ________ have been called “dirty snowballs”.
a. comets
b. asteroids
c. the Galilean moons
d. Jovian planets
18. We have witnessed which planet get hit by a comet?
a. Venus
b. Mars
c. Jupiter
d. Saturn
19. The rings of Saturn are believed to be mostly made of
a. carbon molecules
b. liquid hydrogen
c. helium
d. ice or ice-covered rocks
20. The Jovian planets are mostly made of
a. rock and metal
b. carbon
c. light elements, like hydrogen and helium
d. iron
21. The terrestrial planets are mostly made of
a. rock and metal
b. hydrogen and helium
c. carbon
d. ice
22. The solar system is believed to have formed about
a. 13.7 billion years ago
b. 3 billion years ago
c. long before the sun
d. 4.6 billion years ago
23. Comets have a lot of ice. This indicates that
a. they formed after the terrestrial planets
b. they spend most of their existence in the outer solar system
c. they were once liquid
d. they formed in the inner solar system
24. As the solar nebula collapsed it
a. heated
b. spun more rapidly
c. became a liquid
d. became more transparent
e. (a) and (b)
25. Most rocky asteroids are found
a. between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
b. closer to the sun than Mercury
c. farther from the sun than Pluto
d. in a ring around Jupiter
26. The Kuiper belt
a. surrounds Saturn
b. contains icy asteroids and comet nuclei
c. is in the outer solar system
d. (b) and (c) above
e. all of the above
27.) Which theory for the formation of the moon is currently regarded as best?
a. the moon split off from the Earth when the Earth spun too rapidly
b. the Earth captured the moon
c. the proto-Earth collided with a Mars-sized object
d. the moon was once a comet
28. _______________ discovered the planet Uranus.
a. Galileo
b. Herschel
c. Tombaugh
d. Kepler
29. Pluto was discovered in 1930 when
a. it was seen to have moved on two photographic plates
b. it had an especially close approach to the earth
c. it developed a tail
d. it was bright enough to see in binoculars
30. Consider a giant ball of gas, 10 million miles across. The gas ball is rotating and takes 100 days to spin around once. Under the pull of gravity, the gas ball collapses to only 1 million miles across. Then we would expect that
a. it would be colder than when it started
b. it would take more than 100 days to spin around once
c. it would still take 100 days to spin around once
d. it would take less than 100 days to spin around once
31.) The answer to question 30 depends on the principle of
a. conservation of angular momentum
b. Kepler’s second law
c. radioactive decay dating
d. electromagnetic equivalence
32.) In 1908
a.
b. a small asteroid or comet seems to have exploded over
c. Martians
invaded
d. a comet hit Saturn
33.) ______________ may have been responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs about
65 million years ago.
a. the formation of the first oceans on the Earth
b. a collision of the Earth and moon
c. the impact of a comet or asteroid
d. the locking up of carbon dioxide in ocean rocks
34) We see meteor showers when the Earth encounters
a. the asteroid belt
b. debris from a comet
c. the solar wind
d. the Oort cloud
35.) The tail of a comet generally
a. points away from the sun
b. points toward the sun
c. contains most of the mass of the comet
d. is visible when the comet is farthest from the sun
36.) The Galileo spaceprobe was crashed into Jupiter a few weeks ago to make sure
a. it did not hit the Earth
b. Jupiter was made of a sea of liquid hydrogen
c. Jupiter had a ring
d. it did not contaminate Europa with living organisms
37.) The surfaces of Jovian planets which we can see are really
a. liquid water
b. the tops of clouds
c. metallic helium
d. sulfuric acid droplets
38.) The first planet to be predicted before it was discovered was
a. Uranus
b. Saturn
c.
d. Pluto
39.) Smaller planets
a. lose their internal heat more quickly than large planets
b. have shorter days than large planets
c. have a lower density than large planets
d. are younger than large planets
40.) __________ rotates on its axis backwards compared to the other planets.
a. Mars
b. Jupiter
c. Venus
d.
Answers: 1) b 2)b 3)c 4) e 5)a 6)c 7)d 8)b 9)b 10)c 11)d 12)d 13)d 14)a 15)c 16)b 17)a 18)c 19)d 20)c 21)a 22)d 23)b 24)e 25)a 26)d 27)c 28)b 29)a 30)d 31)a 32)b 33)c 34)b 35)a 36)d 37)b 38)c 39)a 40)c