Reference no: EM132305705

MULTIPLE CHOICE.

Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

1) The farthest galaxies that modern telescopes are capable of seeing are up to _______

A) 10 billion light-years away.

B) 1 trillion light-years away.

C) 1 billion light-years away.

D) 10 million light-years away.

E) 5 billion light-years away.

2) Where is our solar system located within the Milky Way Galaxy?

A) in the halo of the galaxy

B) at the far edge of the galaxy's visible disk

C) roughly halfway between the center and the edge of the visible disk of the galaxy

D) very near the center of the galaxy

3) If the entire galaxy (with a diameter of 100,000 light-years) were represented by a circle with a diameter of 4,400 km (similar to the width of the continental United States), then how far apart would be the Sun and its nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (which is 4.2 light-years away)?

A) about 0.2 meters (about the length of an adult's forearm)

B) about 20 meters (about the size of a large classroom)

C) about 2 meters (about 2 long footsteps)

D) about 200 meters (about 2 football fields)

4) One light-hour is the distance light travels in one hour. The speed of light is about 300,000 km/s (3 × 105 km/s). If Jupiter is 0.72 light hours from the Sun, how far is this?

A) 778 million km (7.78 × 108 km)

B) 216 thousand km (2.15 × 105 km)

C) 1.5 billion km (1.5 × 109 km)

D) 13 million km (1.3 × 107 km)

5) The universe is defined as _______

A) the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

B) all the stars and galaxies that we can see with telescopes.

C) all the objects we can see and the space between them.

D) all material, space, and energy that exist: everything.

6) Which of the following has your "cosmic address" in the correct order?

A) you, Earth, solar system, Local Group, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Supercluster

B) you, Earth, solar system, Local Group, Local Supercluster, Milky Way Galaxy

C) you, Earth, solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Local Supercluster

7) Suppose we imagine the Sun to be about the size of a grapefruit. How big an area would the orbits of the eight planets of the solar system cover?

A) the size of a small city

B) the size of a typical college campus

C) the size of a small room

D) the size of a building

E) the size of a western state (e.g., Colorado)

8) What is the Sun mainly made of?

A) hydrogen and helium

B) nearly equal portions of all the elements

C) hydrogen and oxygen

D) oxygen and carbon

E) carbon and nitrogen

9) Which of the following best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?

A) a spherically shaped collection of about 1 million stars that is about 100 light-years in diameter

B) a spherically shaped collection of stars, including our solar system and about a dozen other solar systems, stretching about 4 light-years in diameter

C) a disk-shaped galaxy about 50,000 light-years in radius and containing between 100 billion and 1 trillion stars

D) a disk-shaped galaxy about 50,000 light-years in diameter and containing between 100 million and 1 billion stars

E) a disk-shaped galaxy about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing between 100 million and 1 billion stars

10) The distance of Mars from the Sun is about 1.5 AU. How far is this in kilometers?

A) 1.5 × 150,000,000 km

B) 1.5 × 150,000,000,000 km

C) 150,000,000 / 1.5 km

D) 150,000,000,000 / 1.5 km

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.

Chapter 8: Jovian Planets

1) Why is Jupiter denser than Saturn?

A) The extra mass of Jupiter compresses its interior to a greater extent than that of Saturn.

B) Its core is much larger than Saturn's.

C) It has a greater proportion of helium to hydrogen compared to Saturn.

D) It is made of a different composition than Saturn, including a higher proportion of hydrogen compounds and rocks.

E) Scientists do not know why this is so.

2) Why is Neptune denser than Saturn?

A) The extra mass of Neptune compresses its interior to a greater extent than that of Saturn.

B) It has a greater proportion of hydrogen than Saturn.

C) It has a different composition than Saturn, including a higher proportion of hydrogen compounds and rocks.

D) Its hydrogen is molecular, whereas Saturn's hydrogen is atomic.

E) It is not denser than Saturn.

3) How do the jovian planet interiors differ from one another?

A) The core mass decreases with the mass of the planet.

B) All have cores of about the same mass, but differ in the amount of surrounding hydrogen and helium.

C) The composition changes from mostly ammonia in Jupiter and Saturn to mostly methane in Uranus and Neptune.

D) The composition changes from mostly hydrogen in Jupiter and Saturn to mostly helium in Uranus and Neptune.

E) All have about the same amount of hydrogen and helium but the proportion of rocks is greater in those planets closer to the Sun.

4) Why are there no visible impact craters on the surface of Io?

A) Any craters that existed have been eroded through the strong winds on Io's surface.

B) Its close proximity to Jupiter protects it from impacts.

C) They have been covered up by Io's active surface geology.

D) It is too small to have been bombarded by planetesimals in the early solar system.

E) Io's thick atmosphere obscures the view of the craters.

5) What is the primary reason an icy moon is likely to be more geologically active than a rocky moon of the same size?

A) Ice has a lower melting point than rock.

B) Ice is less rigid than rock.

C) Ice is affected by tidal forces to a greater extent than rock.

D) Ice contains more radioactive elements than rock.

E) Ice is less dense than rock.

6) What mechanism is most responsible for generating the internal heat of Io that drives its volcanic activity?

A) radioactive decay

B) bombardment

C) accretion

D) differentiation

E) tidal heating

7) Which of the following statements about Titan is not true?

A) Its temperature is too cold for liquid water to exist.

B) It is the coldest moon in the solar system.

C) It may have oceans of liquid methane.

D) Its atmosphere is mostly nitrogen.

E) Its surface is hidden from view by its thick atmosphere.

8) Which of the following best describes the composition of the particles forming Saturn's rings?

A) hydrogen and helium

B) water ice

C) volcanic rock

D) metallic grains

E) methane ice

9) Planetary rings

A) are composed of a large number of individual particles that orbit their planet in accord with Kepler's laws.

B) exist around all of the jovian planets.

C) orbit in the equatorial plane of their planet.

D) all of the above

10) Where is Jupiter's strong magnetic field generated?

A) rocky core

B) gaseous hydrogen layer

C) metallic hydrogen layer

D) cloud tops

E) liquid hydrogen layer

11) Why do Uranus and Neptune appear blue?

A) The methane gas in their atmospheres absorbs all colors except blue.

B) The nitrogen gas in their atmospheres absorbs all colors except blue.

C) Oceans that are visible through their atmospheres are blue.

D) Small dust grains preferentially scatter blue light.

Chapter 8: Small bodies

12) How do asteroids differ from comets?

A) Asteroids and comets are both made of rocky and icy material, but asteroids are smaller in size than comets.

B) Asteroids are made mostly of icy material. Comets are made of mostly rocky material.

C) Asteroids and comets are both made of rocky and icy material, but asteroids are larger in size than comets.

D) Asteroids are made mostly of rocky and/or metallic material. Comets are made mostly of icy material.

13) What causes the "gaps" observed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?

A) Jupiter's gravity causes orbital resonances that nudge asteroids out of these areas.

B) There are either pure metal or pure rock asteroids, but no mixtures. Thus there is a "gap" in the composition of asteroids.

C) Asteroids cluster together due to their mutual gravity and this creates gaps in their distribution.

D) There are very few asteroids with diameters between 1 and 100 kilometers, creating a gap in the size distribution.

E) There is a large population of asteroids too faint to see called the "gap" asteroids.

14) Why aren't small asteroids spherical in shape?

A) Large asteroids were once molten and therefore became spherical, but small asteroids were never molten.

B) The force of gravity in small asteroids is less than the resistance of the rock to deform.

C) Small asteroids have odd shapes because they were all chipped off larger objects.

D) Large asteroids became spherical because many small collisions chipped off pieces until only a sphere was left; this did not occur with small asteroids.

15) What is a meteorite ?

A) a fragment of material from the solar system that has fallen to Earth's surface

B) a comet that burns up in Earth's atmosphere

C) a streak of light caused by a small particle from space burning up in Earth's atmosphere

D) a streak of light caused by a star moving across the sky

E) a small moon that orbits one of the giant planets

16) Why does the plasma tail of a comet always point away from the Sun? 16)

A) Gases from the comet, heated by the Sun, push the tail away from the Sun.

B) The conservation of the angular momentum of the tail keeps it always pointing away from the Sun.

C) The solar wind pushes the plasma ions directly away from the Sun.

D) The particles in the plasma tail are more massive than those in the dust tail.

E) Radiation pressure from the Sun's light pushes the ions away.

17) Where did comets that are now in the Oort cloud originally form?

A) inside Jupiter's orbit

B) outside Neptune's orbit

C) near the jovian planets

D) within the solar nebula, but far outside the orbit of Pluto

E) all of the above

18) How is Pluto's moon system thought to have formed?

A) by gravitational capture of passing comets

B) by gravitational capture of passing asteroids

C) from accretion in a disk surrounding Pluto

D) from a giant impact

E) by stealing them during a close encounter with Neptune

19) What surprising discovery did the New Horizons spacecraft make during its recent flyby of Pluto?

A) Pluto really is a lost moon of Neptune.

B) Pluto's surface shows signs of very recent geological activity.

C) Pluto has the largest known volcano in the solar system.

D) Pluto's surface consists mostly of rocky material.

E) all of the above

Chapter 11: The Sun

20) The core of the Sun is

A) at the same temperature but much denser than its surface.

B) at the same temperature and density as its surface.

C) much hotter and much denser than its surface.

D) constantly rising to the surface through convection.

E) composed of iron.

21) Sunspots are cooler than the surrounding gas in the photosphere because

A) magnetic fields lift material from the sunspot and quickly cool the material.

B) strong magnetic fields slow convection and prevent hot plasma from entering the region.

C) they are regions where convection carries cooler material downward.

D) magnetic fields trap ionized gases that absorb light.

E) there is less fusion occurring there.

22) By what process does the Sun generate energy?

A) nuclear fusion

B) nuclear fission

C) gradual expansion

D) gravitational contraction

E) chemical reactions

23) Why do sunspots appear dark?

A) They are regions that are significantly cooler than the rest of the photosphere.

B) They are composed of different elements than the rest of the sun.

C) They are regions that do not emit any radiation.

D) They are regions nearly devoid of gas.

24) At the center of the Sun, nuclear fusion converts hydrogen into

A) hydrogen compounds such as methane.

B) radiation and elements such as carbon and nitrogen.

C) molecular hydrogen.

D) radioactive elements such as uranium and plutonium.

E) helium, gamma rays, and neutrinos.

25) How much mass does the Sun lose through nuclear fusion per second?

A) 4 million tons

B) 600 tons

C) 4 tons

D) 600 million tons

E) None; mass - energy is conserved so the sun cannot be losing mass.

26) The light radiated from the Sun's surface reaches Earth in about 8 minutes. However, the energy of this light was released by fusion in the Sun's core about

A) 11 years ago.

B) 8 minutes ago.

C) several hundred years ago.

D) several thousand years ago.

27) What are coronal holes?

A) areas of the corona where magnetic field lines project out into space, allowing charged particles to escape and form the solar wind

B) areas in the corona that allow us to see through to the photosphere

C) regions in the photosphere where magnetic lines gather, creating cooler areas with much less plasma

D) tunnels in the outer layers of the Sun that allow photons to escape and form the solar wind

E) all of the above

28) It takes for the sun to progress through one sunspot cycle from a maximum area covered with sunspots, to a minimum, and back to a maximum. Refer to the graph above.

A) about 1 year

B) about 110 years

C) about 11 years

D) This figure cannot be used to answer this question.

29) What observations characterize solar maximum?

A) The Sun rotates faster at its poles.

B) The Sun becomes much brighter.

C) The Sun emits light of longer average wavelength.

D) There are many sunspots visible on the surface of the Sun.

E) all of the above

30) Which of the following processes is involved in the sunspot cycle? 30)

A) the winding up of magnetic field lines inside the Sun due to its differential rotation

B) an imbalance in the operation of the solar thermostat

C) a slight gravitational contraction of the Sun

D) a large change in the amount of visible light emitted by the Sun

E) small variations in the rate of nuclear energy generation in the solar interior