WorksheetsB Solar System Practice Scioly
Total questions: 100
Worksheet time: 50mins
Why was Pluto ultimately reclassified as a dwarf planet?
Due to the discovery of asteroids.
Because it was so small.
Due to the discovery of Ceres.
Because it was made of only gas.
Due to the discovery of Eris.
Which stellar stage is the star Betelgeuse in?
T Tauri
Main Sequence
Asymptotic Giant Branch
Red Supergiant
Which NASA mission received a gravity boost from Jupiter while capturing images of Io in 2007, visited Pluto in the summer of 2015, and is currently on its way to a second Kuiper Belt object?
New Horizons
Curiosity
Messenger
Venera
Dawn
What does VERITAS detect?
Gamma rays
Asteroids orbit in comparison to earth
takes sharp pictures of the sky
celestial objects
Periapsis
The point in the path of an orbiting body at which it is nearest to the body that it orbits.
The point in the path for an object orbiting the Earth at which it is nearest the Earth
The point in the path for an object orbiting the Sun at which it is nearest the Sun
When, approximately, was the Late Heavy Bombardment?
4.3 to 4.1 Gya
4.1 to 3.8 Gya
3.8 to 3.5 Gya
3.5 to 3.2 Gya
3.2 to 2.9 Gya
If Jupiter is approximately considered 5 times away from the Sun compared to the distance between the Earth and the Sun, approximately how much Solar energy would Jupiter receive?
5 times the energy received by the earth
10 times the energy received by the earth
1/25 times the energy received by the earth
1/5 times the energy received by the earth
1/125 times the energy received by the earth
Triton contains 99.7% of the mass of Neptune's satellite system.
True
False
Which of Kepler's Laws imply that a planet will be moving faster when closer to the star it orbits rather than farther?
First law
Second law
Third law
None of the laws
Which of the following detection methods relies on the same concept as eclipses?
Radial Velocity
Transiting
Direct Imaging
Spectroscopy
Astronomers use Cepheids principally as measures of what?
speed
size
distance
composition
Which of the following best describes 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko?
Comet that likely originated in the Kuiper belt
Comet that likely originated in the Oort Cloud
Asteroid that likely originated in the Kuiper belt
Asteroid that likely originated in the Oort Cloud
Minor Planet
Kepler's first law states that "All planets orbit the sun in a path that resembles an ellipse, with the sun being located at _______ of that ellipse."
The center
One of the foci
The center of a semi "minor" axis
The center of a semi "major" axis
Although still contested about the actual origins and whichever came first, life on Earth started with the arrival of ______ and ______.
Hydrogen and Helium
Amino Acids and RNA
Carbon and Oxygen
Amino Acids and DNA
Other: _______
Which method of detection uses eclipsing to detect exoplanets?
Radial Velocity
Direct Imaging
Transiting
None of the above
Which of the following permitted Martian volcanoes to become so massive?
The thick Martian crust
The absence of plate tectonics
The weaker gravity of Mars
All of the above
One use of exoplanet research is to better understand our own Solar System. Recently, amidst the debate surrounding a hypothetical "Planet Nine," astronomers observed an exoplanet orbiting around 737 AU (!!!) from its parent star. Considering this very large separation, which of the following exoplanet detection methods did they likely use to observe this exoplanet?
Transit
Radial Velocity
Direct imaging
How many known satellites does Makemake have?
0
1
2
3
4
Which of Saturn's moons has a low density and is mostly composed of water ice?
Phoebe
Mimas
Rhea
Titan
Iapetus
Do astronomers believe that this moon has potential for life?
Yes; there is a chance that organisms could live in environments similar to hydrothermal vents or like endoliths
Yes; The moon has liquid water on its surface and habitable temperatures
No; there is not enough liquid water to allow for life as we know it
No; the moon is too cold
The provided light curve shows the apparent brightness of a celestial object over time. What is the approximate period of this brightness variation?
~0.1 days
~0.1 years
~0.05 days
~0.05 years
~0.25 days
The light coming from a star that is moving away from the Earth appears:
Infrared
Redshifted
Blueshifted
Ultraviolet
Brighter
An organism that can survive hot temperature between 41 degrees C and 70 degrees C
Halophile
Thermophile
Psychrophile
Acidophile
If you can see a full moon at your position on Earth, what moon phase would exist if you went to exactly the opposite side of the world at the exact same instant?
New Moon
First Quarter
Third Quarter
Full Moon
DAVINCI
Jupiter
67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko
101955 Bennu
Venus
Mars
What kind of star is TOI-561?
Brown dwarf
Orange dwarf
Red dwarf
Main Sequence
What does Arrokoth's reddish color come from?
Oxidized iron
Cinnabar
Alkali feldspar
Tholins
Spectral line splitting due to the influence of magnetic fields is called:
Boltzman Effect
Zeeman Effect
Planck Effect
Zanstra's Effect
Which of Kepler's laws predicts a planet will move more slowly when it is far from the sun and more rapidly when it is close to the sun?
First
Second
Third
None of these
Roughly how long does it take for a stellar iron core to collapse during a supernova?
1 year
1 day
1 second
1 minute
How many miles is 1 AU?
69 million
93 million
89 million
78 million
Which of the following planets has been observed to have extensive Van Allen belts similar to those of Earth?
Mercury
Mars
Jupiter
Venus
Distances within our solar system are measured using all of the following units EXCEPT _____?
Light year
Mile
Astronomical Unit
Kilometer
Now, let's consider a different system where the planet has an equilibrium temperature that is twice as cold as necessary to support liquid water on its surface. If its host star grew 4x larger in radius but became 2x cooler, would the planet now be warm enough to host liquid water?
No, because the planet would remain at the same temperature
No, because the planet is even colder now
Yes, because the planet is exactly twice as warm now
Yes, because the planet is more than twice as warm now
Which of the following planets has the lowest average surface temperature?
Venus
Earth
Mars
Mercury
Ceres, the largest asteroid, is nearly the size of Earth's Moon.
True
False
How far is Mars from the sun?
141.6 million km
300 million miles
232 million km
141.6 million miles
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft that flew past all four giant planets.
True
False
Trojans are located at Lagrangian points.
True
False
Select all of the following bodies that are thought to have had cryovolcanism at some point in the past
Vesta
Mercury
Titan
Ceres
Io
This reaction takes place in the core of Sun.
Chemical Ignition
Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear Fission
Combustion of gases
Which of the following objects has the longest sidereal period?
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Neptune
Pluto
Titan is thought to contain a subsurface ocean composed primarily of:
CH4 and C2H6
CH4 and C2H2
H2O and CH4
H2O and NH3
In our solar system, which planet has a moon with a mass closest to its own?
Earth
Mars
Venus
Neptune
Pluto is tilted 57 degrees from its plane of orbit.
True
False
Mars has the largest volcano in the Solar System
True
False
Mercury is synchronously tidally locked to the Sun.
True
False
One of the few dark areas on the Moon's far side is named:
Apollo crater
the Sea of Moscow
Korolev crater
49. Landed and explored Gale Crater
Phoenix
Curiosity
Opportunity
Perseverance
Spirit
System of 4 Gas Giants orbiting an F-type star. The discovery of these planets were announced/confirmed in 2008-2010. The planets were discovered using Direct Imaging.
HR 8799
Kepler 138
K2-18b
K2-33b
TOI-561
Who discovered the first asteroid?
Fabio Caruso
Giuseppe Piazzi
Leonardo de Vinci
Galileo Galilei
Jupiter has roughly twice as many known moons as Saturn.
True
False
Which of the following NASA missions performed a close-up study and sample return from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu?
OSIRIS-REx
Rosetta
Cassini
Galileo
What is the approximate diameter of a K-T Impactor?
0.1km
1km
10km
100km
Scientists believe that all of the terrestrial planets have iron cores.
True
False
If the Sun were to instantly disappear, how long would it take for us to notice on Earth?
Instantly
10 seconds
3 minutes
8 minutes
A type of Venusian volcanic structure that is not present on Earth.
Olympus Mons
Pancake dome
Oxygen
Batholith
Kuiper Belt
What shape best describes the orbit of this object?
Ellipse
Hyperbola
Circle
Parabola
Moonquakes are caused by tectonic activity.
True
False
Kirkwood Gaps
Jupiter
Oort Cloud
Asteroid Belt
Europa
Sun
What happens when a protostar becomes a "true" star?
The core of the star reaches 1 million K.
Stellar winds and jets eject material outward from the central region.
Nuclear Fusion begins in the core.
A certain amount of thermal energy is confined in the center of the star.
Why would global temperature drop if the Earth was struck by an asteroid several km in diameter or larger?
The impact would move the Earth farther from the Sun
The dust from the impact would block the light from the Sun
The low temperature of the asteroid would chill the oceans
The ices in the asteroid would increase the Earth's albedo.
TOI-700 is a red giant in the Dorado Constellation discovered by TESS.
True
False
The Earth's moon is the ________ largest moon in our solar system.
third
fourth
fifth
sixth
Which spacecraft was the first to land on an asteroid and collect samples?
Kazabuya
Hayabusa
Kazakaya
Yasainosekai
Yakuzaga
A satellite is considered a projectile.
True
False
Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to cross the above-mentioned interface (the Heliopause) between the extent of the solar wind and the interstellar medium. The Oort cloud is located ________ than the interface between the solar wind and the interstellar medium.
Closer
Further
The name of the famous astronomer that came up with Kepler's laws of planetary motion is Jonathan Kepler.
True
False
What star has a right ascension of 19h 50m and +09 degrees?
Algol
Aquila
Spica
Procyon
Which spacecraft found Jupiter's rings?
New Horizons
Juno
Voyager 1
Magellan
Voyager 2
How old is 101955 Bennu?
4.5 billion years
2.3 billion years
9.8 billion years
6.4 billion years
Eris is included in which class of objects?
Asteroid
Comet
Trojan
Trans-Neptunian Object
The law of equal areas is Kepler's 3rd law.
True
False
An area that separates terrestrial planets from outer planets is referred to as the ________
Kuiper belt
Oort belt
Asteroid belt
Terrestrial belt
The closest dwarf planet to Earth.
Asteroid belt
Albedo
Charon
Dawn
Ceres
Which of these is the star that's closest to Earth (besides the Sun)?
Proxima-Centauri
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
101955 Bennu
Kepler-186
TOI-700
Why does the Phoenix spacecraft need a really powerful scoop in its robotic arm?
Because it is trying to break through solid metals
Because it is trying to break through permafrost
Because it wants to hold its sample in tightly
Because it needs to make sure it can collect enough sample before the arm is permanently broken
Earth and the Sun were formed from materials within the same cloud of interstellar matter.
True
False
The dark region of a sunspot is often surrounded by a less dark region called the
granule
penumbra
spicule
umbra
The beginning of which stage of stellar evolution is marked by the "helium flash"?
Contracting Protostar
Main Sequence
Red Giant
Horizontal Branch
Asymptotic Giant Branch
The Trojan group of asteroids in near the orbit of which planet?
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Over the course of a lunar cycle we can see more than 50% of the Moon's surface from the Earth. This is because of a combination of effects which are known as "librations" of the Moon.
True
False
The shape of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko indicates which of the following about its formation?
The abundance of molecular oxygen was initially present at its origin
The interior is differentiated by chemical composition
Loose impact debris became gravitationally bound
Its current form involved a slow collision
Which theory is recognized by scientists as a possible way Mars acquired its moons?
The moons were artificial satellites
The moons were captured from the asteroid belt
The moons formed in orbit at the same time Mars formed
The moons were part of a pre-existing ring system
What type of star system is Procyon?
a. a double star with a faint white dwarf companion
b. a binary star with two massive stars
c. a double star with two faint white dwarf stars
d. a single star
The biggest asteroid known is:
Vesta
Icarus
Ceres
Eros
Select each of the following objects that undergo a complete set of phases when viewed from Earth.
Venus
Mars
Io
The Moon
Ceres
In 2020, an international team led by Dr. Jane Greaves reported the discovery of phosphine gas in the atmosphere of which of the following planets?
Neptune
Jupiter
Venus
Saturn
Uranus
This dwarf planet has a heart shaped glacier on it.
Pluto
Haumea
Makemake
Eris
The lunar maria were formed by
the action of ancient seas
tectonic uplifts
volcanic calderas
lava flows into low areas
Which of these is a follow up to Kepler, designed to look for exoplanets using transit method?
TESS
Chandra
Spitzer
JWST
Hubble
M-type stars are ideal for long-term civilizations in exoplanets as...
They remain active for up to trillions of years
They are highly luminous
They posses great stellar stability
They produce non ionizing EM radiation
They never undergo CME's
The most common gas in the Earth's early atmosphere is thought to have been
oxygen
hydrogen
water
carbon dioxide
Which of the following planets have a rocky, mountainous surface like Earth's?
Mercury, Neptune
Venus, Jupiter
Jupiter, Neptune
Mercury, Mars
What characteristic differentiates between Type I and Type II supernovae?
Type I supernovae always involve a white dwarf
Type I supernovae are much brighter
Type I supernovae have high redshifts
Type II supernovae emit visible light
Type II supernovae show hydrogen in their spectra
What is the diameter of Mars?
4,220 miles
9,999 miles
90 miles
250 miles
Some asteroids are known to cross Earth's orbit.
True
False
The lunar surface is covered by a layer of unconsolidated debris called the lunar regolith. The thickness of the regolith varies from...
5cm to 10cm
5m to 10m
50cm to 1m
50m to 100m
Which of these galaxies produces over 4,000 stars per year?
Big Boy Galaxy
Baby Boom Galaxy
Big Baby Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Radial velocity uses the Doppler effect to measure motion of exoplanets around a star.
True
False
