21St Century Astronomy The Solar System Fifth Edition By Kay -Test Bank

Chapter 11: Planetary Moons and Rings

Learning Objectives

11.1 Many Solar System Planets Have Moons

Predict why most moons in the solar system are found around the giant planets.

Multiple Choice: 1, 2, 4, 10

Short Answer: 1

Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

Multiple Choice: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Short Answer: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

11.2 Some Moons Have Geological Activity and Water

Compare and contrast volcanism and cryovolcanism.

Multiple Choice: 20, 24

Short Answer: 11, 13

Relate the presence or absence of surface features to deduce the history of a moon’s geological activity.

Multiple Choice: 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 23, 29, 30, 31

Short Answer: 15, 16

Summarize the observations or characteristics that differentiate between moons with current geological activity, possible activity, past activity, and no activity.

Multiple Choice: 16, 17, 22, 25, 28, 32, 33

Short Answer: 8, 9

Explain how moons can be geologically active today whereas comparably sized planets are geologically dead.

Multiple Choice: 11, 21

Short Answer: 10

Summarize the evidence for liquid oceans on giant planet moons.

Multiple Choice: 18, 26, 27

Short Answer: 12

11.3 Rings Surround the Giant Planets

Explain how rings are observed around planets.

Multiple Choice: 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 47, 48, 51

Short Answer: 17

Discuss the two proposed origins for rings around giant planets.

Multiple Choice: 34, 35, 36, 41, 52, 56

Short Answer: 18, 22

Illustrate how moons provide orbital stability to ring material.

Multiple Choice: 42, 57

Short Answer: 19, 21

Describe the typical composition of rings.

Multiple Choice: 40, 45, 46, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55

Short Answer: 20

11.4 Ring Systems Have a Complex Structure

Relate a ring’s appearance to its composition and density.

Multiple Choice: 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68

Short Answer: 23, 24

Summarize the substructure of planetary rings.

Multiple Choice: 67

Short Answer: 25, 27, 28

Predict why some giant planets have bright rings and others only have diffuse rings.

Multiple Choice: 58

Short Answer: 26

Estimate the likelihood of life on moons of the giant planets.

Multiple Choice: 69, 70

Short Answer: 29, 30

Working It Out 11.1

Use a moon’s orbit to calculate the mass of its parent planet.

Short Answer: 6

Working It Out 11.2

Compare the tidal forces experienced by two different moons.

Short Answer: 14

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Who first discovered moons around a planet in our Solar System other than Earth?
   1. Newton
   2. Kepler
   3. Galileo
   4. Huygens
   5. Einstein

ANS: C         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1

MSC: Remembering

OBJ: Predict why most moons in the solar system are found around the giant planets.

1. How many moons are known in the Solar System?
   1. Less than 50
   2. At least 150
   3. Around 10
   4. Many thousands

ANS: B         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1

MSC: Remembering

OBJ: Predict why most moons in the solar system are found around the giant planets.

2. How do regular moons rotate in comparison to their planets?
   1. in the same direction
   2. in the opposite direction
   3. sometimes in the same direction and sometimes in the opposite direction
   4. Unlike their planets, moons don’t rotate at all.

ANS: A         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1

MSC: Remembering

OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

3. The only planet(s) without a moon is (are)
   4. Mercury and Venus.
   5. Mercury, Venus, and Mars.
   6. ANS: D         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1MSC: RememberingOBJ: Predict why most moons in the solar system are found around the giant planets.
      1. Which of the following is not a characteristic of regular moons?
         1. They revolve around their planets in the same direction as the planets rotate.
         2. They have orbits that lie nearly in the planets’ equatorial plane.
         3. They are usually tidally locked to their parent planets.
         4. They are much smaller than all of the known planets.
         5. They formed in an accretion disk around their parent planet.

      ANS: D         DIF: Medium        REF: Section 11.1

      MSC: Remembering

      OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

      2. Most large regular moons probably formed
         1. when passing asteroids were captured by the gravitational field of their planet.
         2. at the same time as their planets and grew by accretion.
         3. after a collision between a planet and a large asteroid fractured off a piece of the planet.
         4. after the period of heavy bombardment in the early Solar System.
         5. after a planet got kicked out of its orbit and was gravitationally captured by another planet.

      ANS: B         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1

      MSC: Remembering

      OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

      3. Which property of a moon might lead you to believe it was a captured asteroid?
      4. 1. It is tidally locked.
         2. Its orbital axis is tilted by 5 degrees compared to the planet’s rotational axis.
         3. It rotates in the opposite direction than its planet rotates.
         4. Its surface is very smooth and lacks craters.
         5. It is roughly the size of Earth’s moon.

         ANS: C         DIF: Medium        REF: Section 11.1

         MSC: Applying

         OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

         2. Assume that we discover a new moon of Jupiter. It orbits Jupiter at a large distance and in the opposite direction that Jupiter rotates. It is much smaller than most of Jupiter’s other moons and has a density close to that of Earth rocks. Therefore, this moon is most likely
            1. a regular moon that formed with Jupiter in the early Solar System.
            2. an irregular moon that is most likely a captured asteroid.
            3. an irregular moon that is most likely a captured comet.
            4. an irregular moon that is most likely a protoplanet that collided with Jupiter in the early Solar System and then was caught in orbit by Jupiter’s gravity.
            5. More information is needed before any conclusion can be made.

         ANS: B         DIF: Medium        REF: Section 11.1

         MSC: Understanding

         OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

         3. If a moon has a retrograde orbit, then it
            1. orbits in the opposite direction than its planet rotates.
            2. orbits in the opposite direction than its planet revolves around the Sun.
            3. 1. orbits in a clockwise direction as viewed from the planet’s north pole.
               2. both a and c
               3. all of the above

               ANS: D         DIF: Difficult       REF: Section 11.1

               MSC: Understanding

               OBJ: Compare and contrast the origin of moons with regular and irregular orbits.

               2. Why do the giant planets have the largest share of moons in the solar system?
                  1. There was more rocky material present at their orbital positions, so they collected more moons
                  2. Being the most massive planets in the solar system, they were able to gather more material to form moons than the terrestrial planets
                  3. The temperature of the solar nebula at other locations in the solar system was too high for moons to form around the terrestrial planets
                  4. Since they rotate faster than the terrestrial planets, the giant planets were able to ‘spin off’ clumps of material which formed moons

               ANS: B         DIF: Easy              REF: Section 11.1

               MSC: Understanding

               OBJ: Predict why most moons in the solar system are found around the giant planets.