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11/29/2011 Samrakshak lamichhane @02639206 Section #3

Chapter 6 1. . Briefly describe the layout the solar system as it would appear from beyond the orbit of Neptune. It would have comets beyond the orbit of the Neptune. Large bodies in the solar system have orderly motion. All planets have nearly circular orbits going in the same direction in nearly the same plane. Most large moon orbits their planets in this same direction, which is also the direction of the Suns rotation. 2. It is better to have a camera than using your eye if you want to remember your observation or study it in detail further. There are three advantages to having a CCD than photographic film: more sensitive to light, have a much wider dynamic range (more easily record both dim and bright light at the same time), and the image can be manipulated through image processing to bring out details of the image. 5. Nebula theory is the hypothesis concerning the origin of the solar system according to which a rotating nebula cooled and contracted, throwing off rings of matter that contracted into planets and their moons, while the great mass of the condensing nebula became the sun. It is widely accepted because the theory of evolution meets these requirements- it fits the facts as we know them, subsequent research results are subsistent with the theory of evolution and there is no other theory that better fits the facts known to science. 8. Metal, rock, hydrogen compounds, hydrogen and helium gas. Metal condensed at temperature 1000-1600 K in the inner solar system near Mercury. Rocks condensed at a temperature 500-1300 k near the present- day location of Venus, Earth and Mars. The most common material in these terrestrial planets is rocks. Hydrogen compounds such as snow and dry ice condense below 150 K. they are accreted onto moons of gas giant planets. The hydrogen and helium gas do not condensed and they are mostly accreted by Jovian planets 11. Asteroids and comets are small planets, ranging in size from baseball sized meteors to 1/3 the size of the moon. They are the rocky and icy bodies left over from the formation of the solar system. With time, however, most of these bodies have either collided together to form the major planets, were ejected from the inner solar system into the cloud. A comet usually consists of water and other sediments and gasses. Asteroids are usually made of rock and/or other metals. Asteroids that enter the earths atmosphere are called meteors. 13. Scientists have some information about the age and composition from the moon rocks that they brought back. The number of craters and their shape also helps determine age and composition. They know the atmosphere, the total mass, the rotation speed and the distance from earth. All these things help in developing a theory on how the moon was formed. Moon formed from an impact to the earth when

it was still molten. Evidence of this is from extremely similar composition of the earth and the moon and the fact that the moon is slowly drifting away from us. 15. i) Observing the radiation and light coming from the star that the planet is orbiting. The planet will come in between us and the star and cause a dimming in the stars light. This method will tell you how fast the planet is revolving around the star. ii) Observing the gravitational pull that the planet has of the surrounding bodies or the effect it has on its star. This method will tell you how big or dense the planet is by the gravitational field it produces. iii) Detecting radio waves coming from the planet. This method will tell you intelligent life is on the planet. 16. The direct detection of extra solar planets is difficult because extreme precision is needed to register the planets effect on the much larger star. Also, the atmosphere distorts our view of the stars, limiting the accuracy of the observations. From direct detection we can learn that low resolution images can reveal important surface features and spectra can tell us about their compositions and properties of their atmospheres. 18. Orbit, Masses, Compositions, and Size and density are the properties of extra solar planets. The planetary migration and gravitational encounters in the solar system can modifies the nebular theory to explain above properties. Jovian planets should form only in the cold outer regions of star systems and should have nearly circular orbits. Hot Jupiter were born in their outer solar systems but later migrated inward caused by waves passing through a gaseous disk. Similarly, a Jovian planet could migrate inward as a result of multiple close encounters with much smaller planetesimals. So, it modified that the nebular theory is incomplete. It explains the formation of planets and the simple layout of a solar system needs new features such as planetary migration and gravitational encounters. 19. A solar system is discovered with four large Jovian planets in its inner region and seven small terrestrial planets in its outer reaches. This is not true because our solar system contains 1 star, 8 planets, 166 moons, 5 dwarf planets, 7 asteroids and more than 100 kuiper belt objects. 20. A solar system has ten planets that all orbit the star in approximately the same plane. However, five planets orbit in one direction while the other five orbit in the opposite direction. It is senseless because in a solar system every planet is supposed to orbit the star in the same direction.

Chapter 7 8. The greenhouse warms planet. It raises the temperature. The greenhouse effect stops the suns heat radiating back out into space. When sunlight comes in and warms the earths surface, it warms the gases in the air too. The special greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor and a few others are mixed evenly through the entire atmosphere. When the gases are warm they share their heat with all their gas molecule neighbors and heat the atmosphere generally. 10. Based on analyses of the rocks, crater densities and surface features geologists describe the newly formed moon (about 4.45 billion years ago) had a huge magma ocean over a solid interior. Later the magma cooled, iron and magnesium silicates crystallized and sank to the bottom. About 4 billion years ago, magma rose and reacted chemically to form the basalt. The magma ocean continued to cool and as the moon lost heat, the atmosphere shrank toward the core and lithosphere became very large. From about 4.6 to 3.9 billion years ago, the moon was intensely bombarded by meteors and other large objects. As a result lunar crust became larger and multi ringed basins and mountains produced. When the bombardment ceased, lava flowed from the inside of the moon through volcanoes and cracks in the crust. The lava filled the Maria and cooled to become the mare basalts. The period of lunar volcanism lasted from about 3.7 to 2.5 billion years ago. Much of the moons heat was lost during this period. Once the volcanic period ended, most of the moons internal heat was gone, so there was no major geologic activity, however, the meteoric bombardment that continues today has produced some large craters on the Maria and the fine soil that covers the lunar surface. 12. Differences between earth and mars i. Mars in much, much colder as it orbits round the sun further away than earth does. ii. Mars has no oceans or seas as earth does. iii. Mars is half the size of earth. iv. Mars hasnt been found with living beings on the planet. v. Mars is red. Similarities between earth and mars i. Both planets orbits are not round, but elliptical. ii. Atmospheric chemistry is relatively similar in both planets. iii. Both planets have large, sustained polar caps. iv. Both planets have water and volcanoes. 16. Venus is the large, circular and it has coronae that were made by hot, rising plumes of mantle rock. The surface is geologically young. The composition of Venuss clouds suggests that volcanoes must still be active. Venus has lack of erosion since it is far too hot for any type of rain or snow on its surface and Venus has virtually no wind or weather because of its slow rotation. Venus shows no evidence of Earth-like plate tectonic and the

mission features is more surprising. Plate tectonics shapes nearly all of earths major geological features but Venus lacks any similar features. Instead, Venus shows evidence of very different type of global geological change. On Venus, the relatively few impact craters are distributed fairly uniformly over the entire planet that suggests the same age everywhere. The lack of plate tectonics on Venus therefore suggests either that it has weaker mantle convection or that its lithosphere somehow resists fracturing. 18. Surface liquid water: Earth is the only planet on which temperature and pressure conditions allow surface water to be stable as a liquid. Atmospheric Oxygen: Earth is the only planet with significant oxygen in its atmosphere and an ozone layer. Plate tectonics: Earth is the only planet with a surface shaped largely by this distinctive type of tectonics. Climate stability: Earth differs from the other terrestrial worlds with significant atmospheres (Venus and Mars) in having a climate that has remained relatively stable throughout its history. 23. This discovery would be a big surprise, because Mercury never had an atmosphere sufficient for significant erosional activity. 25. This discovery would be very surprising. Erosion is virtually negligible on Venus, due to the lack of liquid water and significant winds. Even if Venus had more water early in its existence, more recent geological activity has wiped out every trace of such ancient surfaces. 27. This would be surprising. Under the current conditions of Marss atmosphere, pools of liquid water should rapidly freeze and/or evaporate. 28. This would be surprising. Erosion has been so strong in that region that no ancient terrain would be recognizable. Furthermore, earth had little continental crust so long ago that South America wouldnt even have existed as a large land mass at that time. 30. It would be very surprising. With the atmosphere of the earth and the oxygen, there should have been some kind of life form because it meets the requirements to exhibit life in the planet.

Chapter 8 2. Jupiter is denser than Saturn because Jupiter has relatively larger gravitation field through its sheer mass and rotational pressures as well as its denser core of rocks and other minerals. Yes, bigger size doesnt always mean more mass. For example Jupiter is mainly made of gas, so many planet slightly smaller in size but made of solid material would have more mass than Jupiter. 4. Jupiter has a large, complex. The electrical currents arise by the rapidly spinning metallic hydrogen inside the Jupiter, so it has strong magnetic fields. Jupiter is 5.2 A.U. from the Sun on average. It is about 2 and half times the mass of all other planets combined. It has large diameter and its density is only 1.33 g/cc which is that of Earth and only slightly more than the 1 g/cc characteristic of water. Jupiter is almost entirely gas and liquid, so it does not rotate at exactly the same velocity. The atmosphere has clouds with a colorful and complex structure which are partially associated with the effect of very high velocity winds in the Jovian atmosphere. It has a system of 16 moons that is a kind of miniature Solar system unto itself. It has a faint ring and it has an internal heat source. It emits more radiation than it receives. 7. The Jovian planets have more than 160 moons orbiting them. Moons of the Jovian planets are categorized in three different groups by sizes: small, medium and large. Small moons less than about 300 kilometers in diameter, medium-size moons ranging from about 300 to 1500 kilometers in diameter, and large moons more than 1500 kilometers in diameter. Most of the medium and large moons are probably formed by accretion within the disks of gas surrounding individual Jovian planets. Medium and large planets are the origin of many of the small moons. 9. Titans atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen just like the earths atmosphere. Titans atmosphere is very dense and the air pressure at the surface is even higher than earths atmospheric pressure. Titan also has some methane in its air. Titan is very cold (-288 degree F). Sunlight breaks down the methane and forms other chemical that create layers of haze. During Cassini/Huygens mission, the instruments on the probe discovered that the surface has a hard crust but is a bit squishy below, perhaps like sand with liquid mixed in and has ice boulders rounded by erosion. All these results support the idea of a wet climate with liquid methane rather than liquid water. 10. Triton was captured by collision with a primordial regular moon of Neptune several billion years ago. The collision would have extracted a small amount of energy from the orbit of Triton, leaving it on a large, highly eccentric orbit around Neptune rather than around the sun. The high eccentricity was then rapidly reduced by tides on Triton raised

by Neptune. The energy extracted from the orbit was dumped into Triton, melting it, so it is called captured moon. 12. The rings of Jupiter are made of dust which probably came from knocked off of its moons by meteorite impacts. The rings of Saturn are made of chunks of water ice, mostly about 2 centimeters in size. The rings of Uranus are made of larger ice boulders several meters across and quite a bit of dust. These are made of darker stuff than Saturns rings, probably dirtier ice. Gaps within rings are primarily due to orbital resonances which mean that every time a given particle enters a specific point in its orbit, it feels a consistent gravitational push that clears it out and creates a gap. 15. This discovery would be surprising. Like earth and Uranus also appear blue from space which is not caused by liquid water, Neptune also appear blue. Like other planet, Neptune has methane gas in its atmosphere that absorbs red (long wavelength) and reflects blue (short wavelength). 16. This is surprising. The moon is the seventh largest satellite in the solar system, but it was not formed by accretion processes. The majority of the confirmed large planets found so far are more massive than Jupiter is, so it is reasonable to conclude that a massive planet could easily have a moon with as much mass as Mars. 17. It is surprising because H and He would make out the gaseous planet with larger sizes than the Jovian planets. 20. It is not surprising as Jupiters moon exhibit the same nature. 22. Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system which has higher density meaning it is not surprising to know if it is heavily created. 23. It is not surprising as Jupiter and Saturn takes moons of other planets occasionally.

Chapter 9 1. The appearance of comets has more than once altered the course of human history when out ancestors acted on superstitions related to comet sightings. Asteroids or comets falling to earth have scarred our planet with impact craters and have altered the course of biological evolution. As remnants from the birth of our solar system, they teach us about how the solar system formed; comets, asteroids and meteorites are so useful in helping us understand the history of the solar system. 2. It is smaller than any Jovian moon. It is about the size of Pluto. It is the size of terrestrial planet. The total mass of all asteroids would be greater than the mass of Earth but less than the mass of Jupiter. 3. The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter because Jupiter has strong gravity. If and asteroid were to exist somewhere outside of where the asteroid belt was located, it would face many tugs as the asteroid passed by Jupiter. These tugs eventually pull all the asteroids into the location where they face the fewest amount of pulls from Jupiter, and asteroids that have orbital periods that are , 1/3, 2/5, 3/7and of Jupiters 12 year cycle, will quickly be pulled into a different orbit. 5. Primitive meteorites are simple mixtures of rock and metal sometimes also containing carbon compounds and small amount of water. Processed meteorites appear to be pieces of large asteroids that like the terrestrial worlds. Some are made mostly of iron that came from the core of shattered asteroid. Primitive meteorites are 4.6 billion years old where processed meteorites are typically a few hundred million years younger than primitive meteorites. 6. Comets look like the normal asteroid when they are far from the sun because they are composed of rock and ice, dirty snowball. When they approach to the sun they can be seen with two tails, an ion tail and a dust tail, which are blown by solar wind. When it passes near the sun, sun causes jets to form within the comet that result not only in the formation of the tail, but also resulting in debris left behind. 9. The leftover planetestimals that cruised the spaces between Jovian planets were doomed to suffer either a collision or a close gravitational encounter with one of the young Jovian planets. The Planet is hardly affected but some small object may have been flung off at high speed that they completely escaped the solar system and drift through interstellar space. The rest ended up with orbits at very large average distances from the sun, becoming the comets of the Oort cloud. Beyond the orbit of Neptune, the icy planetstimals were much less likely to be cast off by gravitational encounters. Instead they remained in orbits going in the same directions as planetary orbits and concentrated relatively near the ecliptic plane. These are the comets of the donut shaped Kuiper Belt.

10. Eris is the largest object in the Kuiper belt and it is 5% larger and 27% more massive than Pluto. Pluto has therefore fallen to second place in the ranking of large objects in the Kuiper belt. Pluto, Eris, Makemake, Haunea are qualify and dozen of other objects of the Kuiper belt may also qualify as dwarf planets. In terms of composition of ice and rock, all these object really just large comets. 11. Pluto and Charon are smaller, icier and more distant than any of the planets. They can have moons, atmospheres and possibly geological activity. Eris and other large Kuiper belt objects are also similar in nature and composition to Pulto and Charon. Hundreds of Kuiper belt comets have the same orbital period and average distance from the sun as Pluto itself. Like Pluto and Charon, Eris and Kuiper belt objects are also known to have moons, masses and densities as well as compositions of ice and rock also. 16. This would be surprising. Most meteorites formed at the beginning of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago. A meteorite that is 7.9 billion years old would predate solar system. 17. This would be surprising. Comets are largely composed of ice. If it spent most of its time in the inner solar system we would expect the ice to evaporate. 20. This would be surprising. Pluto is far too cold to have liquid water. 21. It is not surprising as the crater fits the requirements to not burn out in the atmosphere and has potential to strike the earth as many of the craters on earth formed the same way. 22. It is surprising because after the human civilization there has not been a substantial impact due to crater on earth. 23. It is surprising as asteroids would have a definite path along the solar system, unlike comets and they also orbit the sun in a regular pattern. So, to say it will impact the earth, it could be exaggerating it.

Chapter 10 3. Suns radius is just under 700,000 kilometers and more than 100 times the radius of Earth. Even sunspots which appear as dark splotches on the suns surface can be larger in diameter than earth. Suns mass is about 2 X 10 to the power 3 kilograms which is some 300,000 times the mass of earth and nearly 1000 times the mass of all the planets in our solar system put together. The sun releases an enormous amount of radiative energy into space. Suns luminosity is 3.8 X 10 to the power 26 watts and its temperature is 5800 K in average.

4. Solar wind- the stream of charged particles continually blown outward in all directions from the sun. It helps shape the magnetospheres of planets and blows back the material that forms the plasma tails of comets. Corona- The outermost layer of this atmosphere is called the corona. Photosphere- The lower layer of the atmosphere is called photosphere which is the visible surface of the sun. Although this layer looks like a well defined surface from earth, it consists of gas far less dense than earths atmosphere. The temperature is under 600 K in average. Convection zone- The zone where we can see spouts of hot gas rising upward, surrounded by cooler gas cascading down from above is convection zone where energy generated in the solar core travels upward, transported by the rising of hot gas and falling of cool gas called convection. Core- The inner part of the atmosphere is called core. This is the source of the suns energy: nuclear fusion transforming hydrogen into helium. The temperature is about 15 million K, the density is more than 100 times that of water and the pressure is 200 billion times that on earths surface in the core of sun. The energy produced in the core will take a few hundred thousand years to reach the surface. Sunspot- The dark splotches on the suns surface is known as sunspots which can be larger in diameter than earth. Radiation zone- This is the zone from where energy moves outward primarily in the form of light photons. The temperature rises to almost 10 million K. Chromospheres- The middle layer of the solar atmosphere that radiates most of the suns ultraviolet radiation is called chromospheres. The temperature drops to about 10,000 K in this layer. 5. The process of splitting an atomic nucleus is called nuclear fission. In contrast, the sun makes energy by combining or fusing two or more small nuclei into a larger one is called nuclear fusion. The nuclear fission is used in nuclear power plants and nuclear fusion is used by the sun. 6. High temperature requires in nuclear fusion because the nuclei must collide at very high speeds if they are to come close enough together to fuse. The higher the temperature, the harder the collisions; makes fusion reactions more likely at higher temperatures. The high pressure is also important because without it, the hot plasma of the solar core would simply explode into space, shutting off the nuclear reactions. 11. Some of the energy released in nuclear fusion is carried off by subatomic particles called neutrinos. Early experiments to measure neutrinos from the sun produced puzzling results because they detected only about a third of the expected number of neutrinos. The disagreement between model predictions and actual observations came to be called the solar neutrino problem. Since most of the neutrinos were going undetected because their properties changed during their journey from the solar core to earth, we can thing the problem has now been solved.

12. Most of the suns surface churns constantly with rising and falling gas, and then different features including sunspots, solar flares and gigantic loops of hot gas appear. All these features are created by magnetic fields which form and change easily in the convecting plasma in the outer layers of the sun. The activity is known as solar activity. Sunspots are the most striking features of the solar surface. They are less bright than the surrounding photosphere because they are cooler in temperature. 16. A cycle in which the average number of sunspots on the sun gradually rises and falls is called sunspot cycle. Sun changes its locations during the cycle. As a cycle begins at solar minimum, sunspots form primarily at mid latitudes on the sun. the sunspots tend to form at lower latitudes as the cycle progresses, appearing very close to the solar equator as the next solar minimum approaches then again it begin to form near mid latitudes. Similarly, the suns magnetic field at each solar minimum: the suns entire magnetic field stats to flip, turning magnetic north into magnetic south and vice versa. Despite the changes that occur during the sunspot cycle, the suns total output of energy barely changes at all. Sunspots tend to occur in pairs which are connected by a giant loop called solar prominences. They rise to heights of more than 100000 km above the suns surface. The magnetic fields winding through sunspots and prominences sometimes undergo dramatic and sudden changes producing short lived but intense storms on the sun. The most dramatic of these storms are called solar flares which send bursts of x rays and fast moving charged particles shooting into space. Flares and other solar storms sometimes eject large numbers of highly energetic charged particles from the suns corona. These particles travel outward from the sun in huge bubbles that we call coronal mass ejections. These bubbles have strong magnetic fields and can reach earth in a couple of days if they happen to be aimed in our direction. 19. No, is doesnt make sense. If fusion in the core ceased, the photons would continue to percolate out of the sun at about the same rate for many thousands of years. No dimming would be possible to measure the day after such an event. It is a debatable point as to when such an event might be noticed- certainly neutrino fluxes would drop noticeably and eventually the structure of the sun would be affected. 25. Yes, it makes sense. The disappearing act of sunspot is possible because suns magnetic fields are the primary reason for sunspots to form.