Terrestrial Planets Review

Because of its weird 3:2 orbital resonance, Mercury experiences a period each day where the Sun ___.

• travels backward in the sky

• is eclipsed by Venus

• appears much farther away.

• sets in the Easet

While it is over 800 degrees during the Mercurian day, at night it is -260 degrees. Why does it have such a wide range of temperatures?

• Mercury has no atmosphere to keep the heat in after dark.

• Ice volcanoes tend to erupt only on the night side.

• Because of its elliptical orbit, when it is night time, Mercury is much farther away from the Sun.

• No one know.

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS1-4

Despite Venus being farther from the Sun, it is even hotter than Mercury, because its thick CO2 atmosphere causes a powerful _____. This is the discovery that led scientists to question the amount of Carbon we put into our atmosphere, hoping to avoid a similar fate.

• Greenhouse Effect

• Convection Current

• Temperature Inversion

• Polar Vertex

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-5

Venus' surface has man ____, which are much larger and flatter than Earth's because of the heat in its atmosphere.

• volcanoes

• fault lines

• impact craters

• oceans

For decades, many people, even scientists, believed that Mars might have a civilization equal to our own, because the American astronomer Percival Lowell mistranslated Giovanni Schiaparrelli's claim to have seen certain man made features on Mars' surface. What did Schiaparrelli actually think he had seen?

• River channels

• Air ports

• A railroad system

• Cities with electric light

Mars is by far the most Earthlike planet in the solar system, because it has a day that is 24 hours and 40 minutes long, it once had a liquid water on its surface, and it even has _____ that grow and shrink with the seasons.

• polar ice caps

• lakes and seas

• volcanoes and canyons

• moons and craters

The Earth's original CO2 and Sulphur atmosphere would have been toxic to modern animal life. Where did the Earth's atmosphere get its Oxygen?

• from the breakdown of water (H20)

• from collisions with protoplanets

• from photosynthesizing plankton (cyanobacteria) during the Great Oxidation Event.

• from the sun

Tags

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What phenomenon, caused by CO2 and methane in the atmosphere, helps keep Earth warm enough for life, but is also causing the climate to heat up rapidly?

• the greenhouse effect

• the Goldilocks zone

• Daylight Savings Time

• Aurora Borealis

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-4

NGSS.MS-ESS3-5

Which of the following is a feature that we think is UNIQUE to Earth, not shared by any other planet we know of? Mark ALL that apply. There are 4 correct choices.

• active plate tectonics

• a thick atmosphere

• a large moon, relative to the size of the planet

• liquid water at the surface

• life exists there

We are almost certain that Plate Tectonics is unique to Earth because ...

• Only Earth has continents

• Mars, the Moon, and Venus do not have tectonic features like deep ocean trenches or mid ocean ridges, although they do have volcanoes

• No other planet has volcanoes

• In order to have plate tectonics a planet must have liquid oceans first