Phy 1040 Tutorial – Questions

As a reminder, to work on the Tutorials you have to login onto the Mastering
Astronomy website:
http://www.masteringastronomy.com
1) Click on the 'Study Area' tab on the left-hand side.
2) Click on 'Self-Guided Tutorials' also on the left.
3) Choose the Tutorial: Shaping Planetary Surfaces.
Here you click on:
- Introduction, then
- Objectives, then
- Lesson 1, and so on
Follow the instructions.
Tutorial # 12 – Surface Temperature of Terrestrial Planets
Questions on Lesson 1:
1) How is the change in temperature between day and night affected by the
rotation rate of a terrestrial planet? Explain your reasoning.
The change in temp is affected by the rotation rate because
when a planet is not facing the sun it has more time to cool off,
when planets don’t have seasons where they are facing different
ways then it leads them to be much hotter because they have little
to no time to cool off.
Questions on Lesson 2:
2) Use the tool in this session to predict the Earth’s surface temperature.
The Earth is 1 AU from the Sun. Also, use the tool to predict Mercury’s
surface temperature (0.39 AU from the Sun) and Venus’ surface
temperature (0.72 AU from the Sun).

Earth: 6.9oC Mercury: 175.9oC Venus: about 56 oC

3) Explain why the average surface temperature of Mercury and the Earth
predicted by the tool is not particularly meaningful.

Because the tool is only taking into account the surface temps
based on the distance only and not other things about the planet
itself.

4) Explain why the average surface temperature predicted by the tool for
Venus is not accurate.

Because the tool does not let you see exactly .72 AU away from
the sun and is therefore an estimated temperature.
Questions on Lesson 3:
5) The albedo of a planet’s surface affects its temperature. Using the tool in
this session, calculate the predicted temperature of the three planets
based on their distance from the Sun and their albedo. Earth (1 AU, a =
0.30); Mercury (0.39 AU, a = 0.12); Venus (0.72 AU, a = 0.75)

Earth: -16.8 oC Mercury: 156.9 oC Venus: -40

oC

6) How does the albedo seem to affect the overall temperature of a planet?

With a lower albedo, there seems to be a higher temperature.

The answers to these questions should be sent to my grader:

 dhelberg@oakland.edu
The subject of your e-mail should read:
'Phy 1040 - Tutorial #12 – Group xx – your three Lastnames'
Any questions about the Tutorials should be directed to me.