REVIEW QUESTIONS 

CHAPTERS 8,10,11,12, 13.


Look at "Thought Questions": 

Chapters: 
8 2,5,7,10 
10 2,3,4,7,8,12 
11 3,4,6,7,10 
12 2,5,7,8, 
13 1,2,8,9,10 


1. What is the evidence that the outer crust of Mercury was torn off? 

2. What may have caused the retrograde rotation of Venus? 

3. Where did the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus come from? 

4. Since Earth and Venus are sister planets, these two planets should have roughly equivalent amounts of carbon If Venus has so much carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, where is the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide on the earth? 

5. Why do we believe that the moon was torn off of the earth by acollision? In that collision, any water would have been vaporized. Wherendid the water that has recently been found at the pole of the moon come from? 

6. Why are the maria of the moon so dark? Why do only the younger craters have rays? 

7. Why didn't the material that comprise the asteroids never coalesce into a planet? 

8. What causes the Kirkwood gaps? 

9. Mars once had running water and an extensive atmosphere. Where is that water and atmosphere now? 

10. Why do the terrestrial planets differ from the Jovian planets? 

11. Why do we believe that Pluto could have been a satellite of Neptune? 

12. For nearly a billion years after they were formed, the terrestrial planets were covered with a magma ocean. What produced that ocean of molten rock? 

13. What is the youngest large crater on the moon? What is the evidence that it is so young? 

14. In the following pairs, which is the younger?  15. The perihelion of Mercury advances by 574"/century.  16. Why was the planet Vulcan proposed to lie inside of Mercury's orbit? 

17. If Newton were correct and space is flat and gravity is a force, how much would the perihelion of Mercury advance a century? If space-time is curved but if that curvature remained constant and did not decrease with distance away from the sun, how much would the perihelion of Mercury advance a century? If the sun were to become a black hole, why would the rate of advance of Mercury's perihelion increase? What observations that we can make during a solar eclipse confirm that the curvature of space-time decreases with distance from the sun? 

18. The rotation and revolution of Mercury have a 3:2 resonance such that Mercury spins three times for every two revolutions. How did the highly elliptical obrit of Mercury cause that resonance? 

19. Why does Mercury have such a low albedo? 

20. Why do the terrestrial planets have higher densities than the Jovian planets? 

21. Is the high temperature of Venus due to a positive or negative feedback? Is the thin atmosphere of Mars due to a positive or negative feedback? 

22. What is the primary constituent of the atmosphere of Venus? 

23. A greenhouse functions because glass has differing opacity for visible and infrared radiation. What is that difference? What are two greenhouse gases? What gas probably started the run away greenhouse effect? 

24. What produced most of the surface features of Venus? 

25. Why is it likely that Venus once had water on its surface? 

26. Temperatures on Mars vary from -200 F to +80F; why is that variation so much greater than on the earth or Venus? 

27. How does chaotic terrain provide evidence for permafrost on Mars? 

28. How does the amount of water that once flowed in the channels of Mars compare to the outflow of the Amazon? Where in North America is there evidence of a similar quantity of flowing water? 

29. Give three observations that support the idea that life may have existed on Mars. 

30. Why don't the high tides on the earth's oceans line up with the moon. 

31. Why does the moon spiral out from the earth? 

32. What different conditions in the earth-moon system would cause the moon to spiral inward? 

33. Why is the tidal interaction between Io and Jupiter larger than that between the earth and moon? 

34. From where does the energy that drives the volcanoes of Io ultimately come? 

35. Explain how an electromagnet works? Why does the earth function as an electromagnet while Venus and the moon do not? 

36. Why is a huge current generated between Io and the poles of Jupiter. Why doesn't such a current exist between the earth and the moon? 

37. How is Cassini's division similar to Kirkwood's gaps? How is Cassini's division produced? How is the 1:2 Kirwood gap produced? 
Course Home Page | More Problem Sets