Origin of the Solar System Test - Zucker

_________ played an important role in determining many of the irregularities of the solar system.

First fly-by of Jupiter

The orbits of the planets all lie near the ecliptic plane.

The major bodies that orbit the Sun are known as:

The direction of planetary revolution is in the same direction as the Sun's rotation.

Jupiter was first visited by the U.S. spacecraft __________.

Both Voyager missions visited all four Jovian planets.

The Titius-Bode law, giving the spacing of planetary orbits, is not a true law at all and is not very accurate.

The landing of the Soviet Venera 7 on Venus was notable because it was the first soft landing on another planet.

Roamed the surface of Mars.

The Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions sent orbiters and landers to the planet ____________.

Most of Gliese 581 planets lie within the orbit of Mercury

First fly-by of Mercury

Most planets orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane as Earth.

The U.S. spacecraft ___________ is the only probe to have visited each of the giant outer planets.

Asteroids and meteoroids have a ___ composition, while comets have a ___ composition.

The U.S. Magellan probe mapped the entire surface of Venus using ____________.

According to the diagram, Earth and Mars lie within the habitable zone.

Currently orbiting and mapping Mars

Initially, the accretion of matter into larger bodies occurred through ________ btwn particles in a solar nebula.

Most extrasolar planets observed so far have masses comparable to the mass of _______ and orbits ____ to the parent star

This planets orbit closely matches planet d in the diagram above.

Which planet (e,b,c, or d) lies within the habitable zone of Gliese 581?

First to soft-land on Mars.

All planets have moons.

The reason the planetesimals of the asteroid belt did not form a larger object was the gravitational influence of:

Moons usually revolve in a direction opposite to the rotation of their parent planet.

Random collisions, a part of condensation theory, can explain many of the odd properties found in solar system objects.

The Cassini mission was designed to explore the atmosphere and moon system of Saturn.

Unlike the terrestrial planets, the planetesimals that formed the Jovian planets were made up of _____ material.

Spacecraft visiting one planet often use a __________ assist to visit another planet.

Asteroids are similar in composition to the ___________ planets.

Used radar to map the surface of Venus.

In the final stage of accretion, the large protoplanets were able to attract large amounts of ____ from the nebula.

The total mass of all the planets is about half the mass of the sun.

Mars Pathfinder is the last US spacecraft scheduled to visit Mars

The other terrestrial planets all rotate more rapidly than Earth.

Orbiting Saturn and mapping its moons.

Each planet is relatively isolated in space.

Approximately how far (in AUs) is planet d from Gliese 581?

The star Gliese 581 is approximately how many solar masses?

Mapping and orbiting Mercury

Series of spacecraft that explored Venus

Visited all four Jovian planets.

The solar system objects with orbital tilts are ________ and _________.

The Jovian planets all rotate more rapidly than Earth.

There are hundreds of extrasolar planets discovered so far.

Moons are small bodies that orbit the __________.

The largest and the most massive in the solar system is _______________.

The outer planets are known as the _____________.

The largest planets also have the largest densities.

The condensation theory, which is used to explain the formation of solar system, is a refined version of:

How many planets orbit Gliese 581?

The inner planets are known as the _________ planets.

Astronomers can detect extrasolar planets by observing the _____________ of their parent stars.

In condensation theory, astronomers realized the critical role played by ______ in starting the formation of matter.

Comets have compositions similar to the _______ moons of the __________ planets.

By the time planetesimals had formed, the accretion process was accelerated by the effect of:

All of Gliese 581 planets lie within the habitable zone.

The ____ are bodies that orbit the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.