WorksheetsExoplanets
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 10mins
Name
Class
Date
1.
Alien planets are faint, far away, and sitting right on top of their parent star, so it's difficult to get ___
a)
indirect evidence
b)
direct evidence
c)
anecdotal evidence
d)
circumstantial evidence
2.
The small movement of a star due to an orbiting planet is called ___
a)
centripetal motion
b)
reflexive motion
c)
retrograde motion
d)
centrifugal motion
3.
The first confirmed detection of planets outside our solar system occurred in which year?
a)
1952
b)
1972
c)
1992
d)
2012
4.
A planet outside of our solar system that orbits a star is officially called ___
a)
an alien planet
b)
an exoplanet
c)
a martian planet
d)
a distant planet
5.
The first discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a star very much like the Sun occurred in the year ___
a)
1955
b)
1975
c)
1995
d)
2015
6.
As the host star of the exoplanet makes its little circle, its light will undergo a ___
a)
polarization shift
b)
reflexive shift
c)
Mach shift
d)
Doppler shift
7.
A more massive planet pulls harder on the star, making it move ___
a)
more quickly
b)
more slowly
c)
erratically
d)
imperceptibly
8.
Giant gaseous exoplanets that orbit very close to their parent star are called ___
a)
"hot Jupiters"
b)
"quick Saturns"
c)
"short period Saturns"
d)
"high rate Jupiters"
9.
When a planet passes directly in front of its star, the event is called ___
a)
a transit
b)
en passant
c)
a transition
d)
a permutation
10.
The beauty of transiting exoplanets is that the amount of starlight blocked tells you ___
a)
how far away the planet is
b)
how big the planet is
c)
the density of the planet
d)
the mass of the planet
11.
If we know the planet's mass from the star's Doppler shift, we can use the planet's size to calculate ___
a)
its distance
b)
its density
c)
its luminosity
d)
its apparent brightness
12.
A gas giant like Jupiter has a relatively ___
a)
low mass
b)
high mass
c)
low density
d)
high density
13.
Designed to detect exoplanet transits, NASA launched a space-based telescope, in 2009, named ___
a)
Kepler
b)
the Hubble Space Telescope
c)
Planck
d)
the James Webb Space Telescope
14.
In what year was the first direct evidence, a picture, of an exoplanet released?
a)
1984
b)
1994
c)
2004
d)
2014
15.
The smallest exoplanet found is ___
a)
not much bigger than Earth's moon
b)
about the size of Mercury
c)
about the size of Mars
d)
not much smaller than Earth
16.
Planets bigger than Earth, but smaller than Neptune are called ___
a)
"Mini-Neptunes"
b)
"Super-Earths"
c)
"Neptune Dwarfs"
d)
"Earth Giants"
17.
Like Tatooine in the Star Wars saga, we've even found planets orbiting ___
a)
massive blue stars
b)
cool red dwarfs
c)
red giants
d)
binary stars
18.
We've seen so many exoplanets now that we can confidently estimate numbers by ___
a)
extrapolation
b)
interpolation
c)
Monte Carlo methods
d)
Bayes estimation
19.
How many exoplanets are estimated to be in our galaxy alone?
a)
millions
b)
hundreds of millions
c)
billions
d)
hundreds of billions
20.
What is the minimum condition when stating that there are "10 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy"?
a)
temperatures where liquid water could exist
b)
a similar atmosphere to Earth
c)
a strong magnetic field
d)
liquid water exists on their surface
100 %
