Exam 4 Study Guide
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Dec 6, 2023
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EAPS 105, The Planets
Exam 4 Study Guide
Know the following:
Unit 10: Exoplanets
1. How the transit detection method works.
Detects distant planets by measuring the minute dimming of a star as an orbiting planet passes between it and the earth 2. The method the Kepler Spacecraft use to find exoplanets.
The transit method – photometer that continually monitored the brightness of 150k stars 3. What the time between observed exoplanet transits represents.
4. What a bigger drop in brightness means for an exoplanet transits.
Amount of light blocked by a planet
5. The types of planets the transit method detects most easily.
Big planets close to their stars
6. How the radial velocity detection method works.
Analyzing the motion of a star and detecting variations in light
Gravitational pull of an orbiting planet will cause a star to wobble – move slightly towards the earth and then away 7. What the Doppler Effect is.
Apparent change in the frequency of a wave caused by relative motion between the source of the wave and the observer 8. What combining observations from the radial velocity and transit method provides.
Mass of the planet 9. What we can estimate from knowing the mass and size of an exoplanet.
Its composition 10. How the gravitational microlensing detection method works.
The same as a magnifying lens – a closer star warps space to bend light of a more distant star and make it look bigger 11. What the gravitational microlensing method detects better than other methods.
Planets around very distant stars
12. How the direct imaging detection method works.
Blocks the overwhelming glare of stars to reveal the reflected light of orbiting planets
13. The types of planets the direct imaging method detects better than other methods.
Planets far from their stars 14. How we infer the chemistry of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.
If passed through a prism, light spreads out into a spectrum. Missing colors show us black lines, indicating specific gases are absorbing that part of the spectrum.
15. What the absorption spectrum of sunlight passing through our atmosphere reveals.
Reveals that we have oxygen, ozone, water, and carbon dioxide, but not nitrogen 16. How the James Webb Space Telescope improves over the Hubble Space Telescope.
Shows infrared spectrum – 100 times resolution. Can better see through dust and able to see objects moving away whose light has redshifted beyond visible spectrum 17. How the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope improves over the Hubble Space Telescope.
100x field view of Hubble – combination of transit, microlensing, direct imaging 1
18. Why so few other solar systems look like ours.
Telescopes not sensitive enough 19. The most abundant types of exoplanets found so far.
Range from super earths to mini neptunes 20. What a hot Jupiter is.
A Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbiting so close to its star that its temperature is extremely hot
21. What a lava world is.
Rocky planets that orbit so close to its star that their surfaces are above melting temperatures 22. How super-Earth’s different from our planet.
Substantial oceans covered by a thick water-rich atmosphere
23. What it means for a planet to be in the habitable zone.
Range of orbits around a star within which the temperature is in the range to enable liquid water 24. How the habitable zone is influenced by the size of the star.
The bigger the star, the hotter it is, the further away the habitable zone
25. The factors considered in the calculation of an exoplanet’s Earth Similarity Index.
Radius, density, escape velocity and surface temperature 26. What is unique about the exoplanet Teegarden’s Star b.
Same size and surface temperature as Earth, orbits a quiet low-mass red dwarf star. Orbits in less than 5 days, probably tidally locked. Only 12 lightyears away. 27. What is unique about the exoplanet Proxima b.
closest potentially habitable exoplanet, at 4 lightyears away
28. How the relative size of the stars in binary star system effects habitability.
The distance of planets from the stars would vary greatly during each orbit, causing big changes in
temperature, making it unhabitable. If one star in binary system has most of mass, then it is possible that planetary orbits could look similar to a single star system and be habitable.
29. Whether a Star Wars double sunset is realistic.
yes
30. Why Mini-Neptunes (Hycean planets) might be habitable despite a hydrogen atmosphere.
They don’t have a habitable hydrogen atmospheres, but their oceans may be habitable.
31. How many stars are estimated to be in our Milky Way galaxy.
Andromeda – 1 trillion, milky way – 100-500 billion, 300 billion per galaxy
32. How many galaxies are estimated to exist.
4 trillion galaxies in the visible universe 33. How the number of grains of sand on Earth compares to the number of Earth-like planets.
150,000 stars for each grain of sand 34. What the Drake equation calculates.
Calculates number of civilizations we can expect to find in our galaxy with which communication is possible 35. Possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox.
Transmissions from alien civilizations are too weak bc of vast distances
Not looking in right places
Alien civilizations do not communicate in the radio spectrum
Civilizations always die out
We are alone Unit 11: Robotic Spacecraft Missions
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36. The first spacecraft to make use of a gravitational assist from another planet.
37. How a gravitational assist from a planet works.
38. What a spectrometer measures.
39. The first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
40. Why Mercury is the most difficult planet to orbit.
41. Why MESSENGER was inserted into a highly elliptical orbit.
42. What a radar return from the surface of a planet tells us. 43. The milestones the Soviet Union’s Luna 1 spacecraft achieved. 44. How many spacecraft comprised GRAIL.
45. The cause of high gravity observed in larger impact basins on the Moon.
46. Why Mars is the most explored planet.
47. The first spacecraft to fly by Mars.
48. The first spacecraft to sample the Martian atmosphere.
49. The first spacecraft to provide high resolution photos of the Martian surface.
50. The spacecraft studying the loss of Mars' atmospheric gases to space.
51. The spacecraft the detected Martian quakes.
52. Why Jezero Crater was chosen as the landing site for the rover Perseverance.
53. What Ingenuity can do on the Martian surface that no other robot can.
54. How the Dawn spacecraft measured topography.
55. The spacecraft that orbited two asteroids.
56. The spacecraft that was the first to orbit a comet.
57. The robotic lander that landed on Comet 67P.
58. The first spacecraft to collect dust samples from a comet and return them to Earth.
59. The spacecraft that collected samples from an asteroid and returned them for study at Purdue.
60. The first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet.
61. The first spacecraft sent to the outer planets powered by solar sails.
62. The first spacecraft to orbit Saturn.
63. The first space probe to land on the moon of an outer planet (Hint: it landed on Titan).
64. The only spacecraft to complete the grand tour of visiting all four giant planets.
65. The spacecraft that have left the Heliosphere.
66. The spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Sun.
67. The information contained on the plaque placed on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft.
68. The information contained on the Golden Records placed on the Voyager spacecraft.
69. The only spacecraft to fly by Pluto and a Kuiper Belt object.
Unit 12: Hazards of Space Travel
70. What killed the Apollo 1 astronauts.
71. Why the Apollo capsules did not use a nitrogen/oxygen mixture for air.
72. What mishap happened during the Apollo 13 mission.
73. Where the Apollo 13 astronauts lived during the return trip to Earth.
74. What killed the Soyuz 11 astronauts.
75. Why Jerrie Cobb was denied entry into the Mercury Astronaut Program.
76. What a field joint is on the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters.
77. The physical cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
78. How NASA and Thiokol management failed the Challenger astronauts.
79. What killed the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts.
80. The dangers of micrometeoroids to humans and the space station.
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81. What spacesuits are designed to protect astronauts from.
82. What the solar wind is.
83. What a solar flare is.
84. The dangers of a large solar flare.
85. Where most cosmic rays originate from.
86. The greatest danger to humans wishing to colonize Mars.
87. Where to live on the Moon or Mars and be protected from radiation.
88. Why space junk is dangerous to satellites and spacecraft.
89. What the Kessler Syndrome is.
90. The consequences of prolonged weightlessness on the human body.
91. How one can simulate the force of gravity on a spacecraft or space station.
92. That sound cannot travel in space.
93. What would kill you first if you took off your helmet in space.
94. What is the best way to move around on the Moon’s 1/6th gravity.
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