1. Cassini is:
- NASA's orbiter now taking photos of Saturn.
- the French astronomer who first discovered a gap in Saturn's rings.
- a gap in the rings created by a resonance with Mimas.
- all of the above
- none of the above
2. How many large moons does Saturn have?
2
1
4
3
0
3. Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon, might best be described as:
having the leading hemisphere six times darker than the following one.
being composed of the densest material of any saturnian moon and dark in appearance.
orbiting in a highly elliptical orbit, far from Saturn.
being the only major moon of any planet not in synchronous rotation.
having a very reflective, icy surface that is heavily cratered.
Titan is an interesting moon because:
• it has a rich atmosphere that may resemble that of the early Earth.
• the Huygens rover has sent back images of sedimentary rocks there.
• it is known to have ice volcanism on its surface.
• beneath its clouds, Titan may be Earth-like, with liquid water.
4. What evidence suggests that Enceladus has ongoing geological activity?
• Voyager 1 showed sulfur eruptions all over its pizza-pie colored surface.
• Lack of impact craters on much of its surface and evidence of ice flows from possible volcanic activity.
• Enceladus is located within Saturn's Roche limit, and ready to blow up.
• Voyager 2 photographed liquid nitrogen geysers 10 kilometers tall.
• Enceladus undergoes severe tidal stresses from its resonance with Titan.
5. Why was it thought that Titan may have oceans of methane?
• The abundance of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere of Titan, led scientists to believe that Titan had an abundance of methane on its surface.
• The atmospheric pressure at Titan's surface and its surface temperature are such that methane should be liquid on Titan's surface.
• Since Saturn has methane ice in its atmosphere, methane should be abundant in this region of the solar system. The sheer abundance of methane in the region led scientists to hypothesize methane oceans on Titan.
• Titan's atmosphere is like Earth's (mostly nitrogen), but its temperature is too low for water to be in the liquid phase. The only other possible liquid was methane.
• Titan's atmosphere contains traces of methane. Similarly, Earth's atmosphere contains traces of water vapor. So, scientist thought Titan should have methane oceans.
What is interesting about Saturn's large moon Titan?
• It has its own moon.
• It orbits Saturn in a retrograde sense.
• It is one of Saturn's two large moons.
• It has a 2:1 resonance with Mimas and a 4:1 resonance with the Cassini gap.
• It has an atmosphere.
6. The Cassini spacecraft found evidence that the E Ring is related to Enceladus through
• their common origin: both the E Ring and Enceladus have a common "ancestral" comet parent.
• the gravitational interactions by Enceladus on the particles in the E Ring.
• the deposition of gases from Enceladus on the particles of the E Ring making them more reflective as the gas condenses on the particles.
• a continual supply of icy particles spewed via volcanism on Enceladus.
• the impact history of Enceladus -- a major impact caused parts of the moon to be ejected from the surface and cross the Roche Limit to become the E Ring.
7. The "wispy terrian" on Rhea was revealed by the Cassini spacecraft to be
• ice cliffs created by tectonic fractures.
• water ice flows from geyser-like activity.
• the icy ash of water volcanoes.
• "maria" created during the period of high impacts.
• water ice flows from past impacts that cracked its icy surface.
8. What did the Huygens and Cassini probes find on the surface of Titan?
• rocks and no water
• lakes and oceans of water
• no methane, no water; just rocks
• an ocean of some unknown liquid and methane lakes
• methane oceans
9. Why do scientists think Titan has an atmosphere while the large moons of Jupiter (Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io) do not?
• The jovian satellites never formed atmsopheres because the solar nebula was too hot there.
• The jovian satellites had their atmospheres stripped by Jupiter's gravitational pull.
• The jovian satellites lost their atmospheres because of Jupiter's thermal radiation.
• The jovian satellites experienced too many collisions in their lifetimes to maintain atmospheres.
• Titan got its atmosphere by accreting gases from Saturn. The jovian satellites were competing with one another to do this, so it was unsuccessful for any of them.
10. Which Saturnian moon has the leading hemisphere black as tar, the back side icy white?
• Titan
• Enceladus
• Iapetus
• Rhea
• Mimas
11. While not yet observed in eruption, it is likely that ________ has active volcanoes; it certainly has one hemisphere greatly reworked by tectonic and volcanic forces.
• Titan
• Mimas
• Enceladus
• Dione
• Rhea
12. The reason the rings of Saturn exist is because:
• there has not been sufficient time for the ring particles to form a moon.
• the ring material lies within the Roche limit of Saturn.
• Saturn's rapid rotation is spinning material away from its equator, out into space.
• the eruptions of Mimas' volcanoes are keeping them supplied with ice.
• the gravitational influence of Titan confines them to those orbits.
13. What are Saturn's rings?
• a great disk of liquid helium
• small icy particles moving in orbit around Saturn
• a solid thin disc of material encircling Saturn
• large rocky boulders moving in orbit around Saturn
• a glowing, flat magnetospheric auroral display
14. What did the Voyager mission discover about the main rings of Saturn?
• The ring system is much thicker than originally believed.
• There are hundreds of small moons in the ring system.
• There are several small moons inside the inner-most ring.
• They are composed of tens of thousands of narrow ringlets.
• They were less dense than the rings of Jupiter.
15. The Roche limit is the point at which
• the external tidal forces on an object become greater than the internal forces that hold it together.
• the internal forces that hold an object together weaken so that the object falls apart.
• a moon orbiting a planet experiences synchronous rotation.
• the mass of an object classifies it as a moon.
• the external tidal forces on an object are strong enough to be felt by the object.
16. Why are Saturn's rings so noticeable?
• Saturn is so bright, the rings reflect a lot of light from both Saturn and the Sun.
• They are made of nitrogen frost, like the bright surface of Triton.
• They are made of metallic hydrogen.
• The particles in the rings are highly polished from numerous collisions with other particles.
• They are made of lots of fresh, bright icy particles from a recent breakup.
17. Saturn's bands, oval storm systems, and turbulent flow patterns are powered by:
• the fusion in Saturn's core.
• the Greenhouse effect.
• a liquid metallic hydrogen interior.
• convective motion and rapid rotation.
• the tides of Titan.
18. At the surface of Saturn's atmosphere the strength of the magnetic field is
• about the same as Jupiter's magnetic field at its atmospheric surface.
• about the same as Venus' magnetic field at its surface.
• about the same as Earth's magnetic field at its surface.
• about the same as Mars' magnetic field at its surface.
• about the same as Mercury's magnetic field at its surface.
19. Why does Saturn radiate even more excess energy than Jupiter?
• Helium rain gives off heat as it differentiates toward Saturn's center.
• Saturn's atmosphere contains much methane, creating a large Greenhouse effect.
• Saturn is still radiating heat left over from its formation.
• Saturn can fuse hydrogen into helium in its core, like the Sun.
• Saturn's thick cloud layer contributes to a larger greenhouse effect.
20. Why does the atmosphere of Saturn appear to have only half the helium content of Jupiter?
• Because Saturn is so much colder, helium does not show up as strongly in its spectrum.
• Saturn was formed farther from the helium rich Sun.
• Much of Saturn's helium has differentiated towards its center.
• A red dwarf, Jupiter has fused some of its hydrogen into helium, whereas Saturn, a colder planet, has not.
• Much of Saturn's helium has reacted with water and formed helium oxide.
21. The wind speeds found in the bands and zones of Saturn, compared to those on Jupiter, are about
the same.
• 3 times slower.
• 3 times faster.
• 2 times slower.
• 2 times faster.
22. Saturn's cloud surface appears more uniform than Jupiter's because
• the cloud layers are thicker, allowing fewer holes to see the colorful layers.
• due to Saturn's greater distance from the Sun, the colorful cloud layers are just not visible.
• it is composed of completely different gases than Jupiter's.
• due to Saturn's lower gravity, the colorful cloud layers escaped.
• there is a thick outer cloud covering of water ice overlying the colorful ices.
The most abundant element in Saturn's atmosphere is
• helium.
• ammonia.
• methane.
• nitrogen.
• hydrogen.
23. Compared to Jupiter, Saturn's atmosphere is
• much thicker causing the visibility of the lower layers to be reduced.
• more calm with fewer disturbances or storms.
• more colorful with variations in color easily viewed from Earth.
• more violent with larger storm phenomena easily viewed from Earth.
• more uniform with no significant variation in color in the lower cloud levels.
24. If you could find a bathtub big enough for Saturn, the planet would:
• precipitate more helium.
• float.
• sink due to its metallic interior.
• explode due to its liquid metallic hydrogen.
• catch fire, as liquid sodium reacts with water.
No comments:
Post a Comment