Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Which element is critical to the formation of the volcanic surface of Io?
A) iron
B) silicon
C) sulfur
D) phosphorus
E) carbon
Page Ref: 8.1
2) What is thought to cause Io's volcanism?
A) Jupiter's magnetosphere
B) Jupiter's gravity
C) tidal stresses from both Jupiter and Europa
D) radioactive decay of Uranium in its dense core
E) impact energy left over from SL-9
Page Ref: 8.1
3) Which of the Galilean moons is densest and most geologically active?
A) Io
B) Europa
C) Ganymede
D) Callisto
E) Titan
Page Ref: 8.1
4) Which are the four Galilean moons of Jupiter?
A) Europa, Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto
B) Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan
C) Europa, Ganymede, Io, and Triton
D) Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
E) Io, Titan, Triton, and Charon
Page Ref: 8.1
5) The surface of Europa is most like the earth's
A) tundra.
B) deserts.
C) Arctic Ocean.
D) Himalayan peaks.
E) South Pole.
Page Ref: 8.1
6) The weak magnetic fields around Europa and Ganymede were found during flybys of
A) Voyager 1.
B) Pioneer 10.
C) Cassini.
D) Galileo.
E) Stardust.
Page Ref: 8.1
7) In size and density, both Io and Europa resemble
A) Mercury.
B) our Moon.
C) Mars.
D) Pluto.
E) Charon.
Page Ref: 8.1
8) The mare on Ganymede were formed by
A) basalt erupting onto the surface.
B) plate tectonics.
C) gravitational interactions with Callisto and Europa.
D) water erupting and spreading over the surface.
E) sulfur spewed from volcanoes.
Page Ref: 8.1
9) In terms of dark, smoother mare and cratered highlands, which Jovian moon most resembles the near side of our own?
A) Io
B) Europa
C) Ganymede
D) Triton
E) Titan
Page Ref: 8.1
10) Of the Jovian satellites, which shows the oldest, most cratered surface?
A) Enceladus
B) Callisto
C) Triton
D) Ganymede
E) Miranda
Page Ref: 8.1
11) The largest moon in the solar system, bigger but not as massive as Mercury, is
A) Europa.
B) Ganymede.
C) Callisto.
D) Titan.
E) Triton.
Page Ref: 8.1
12) A moon with a smooth, uncratered surface would imply
A) meteorites have never struck the moon.
B) a strong magnetic field surrounds the moon.
C) the surface is very young.
D) the moon lies within the planet's Roche Limit.
E) the surface is completely liquid.
Page Ref: 8.1
13) Which of these moons has the densest atmosphere?
A) Io
B) Europa
C) Callisto
D) Titan
E) Triton
Page Ref: 8.2
14) Which of these moons are most interesting to exobiologists?
A) Io and Enceladus
B) Europa and Titan
C) Titan and Triton
D) Europa and Miranda
E) Triton and Charon
Page Ref: 8.2
15) At Titan, the oceans are made of liquid
A) water.
B) carbon dioxide.
C) ethane.
D) metallic hydrogen.
E) nitrogen.
Page Ref: 8.2
16) The Huygens probe of the ESA made a successful landing on
A) Mars.
B) Europa.
C) Saturn.
D) Titan.
E) Triton.
Page Ref: 8.2
17) The atmosphere of Titan is composed mainly of
A) hydrogen and helium.
B) carbon dioxide.
C) nitrogen.
D) methane.
E) hydrogen sulfide.
Page Ref: 8.2
18) The grooves and ridges on Ganymede are thought to
A) be due to crustal tectonics motion (plate tectonics)
B) have formed within the last thousand years.
C) have grown considerably larger since the Voyager spacecraft discovered them.
D) be part of an ongoing volcanic process.
E) be due to the moon's rapid rotation.
Page Ref: 8.2
19) What is true of Titan's atmosphere?
A) It is similar to Earth's in composition and density.
B) It is primarily hydrogen.
C) It is oxygen rich.
D) It was discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
E) It has produced a runaway greenhouse effect.
Page Ref: 8.2
20) The erupting geysers of nitrogen gas on Triton
A) can be viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
B) are caused by a not yet determined internal energy source.
C) produced the large liquid oceans.
D) are increasing the moon's rotation rate.
E) produced the frozen nitrogen surface.
Page Ref: 8.2
21) Voyage 1 was unable to image Titan's surface because
A) of "smog" in Titan's atmosphere.
B) of Titan's high reflectivity.
C) the moon was in shadow during the mission.
D) the cameras were damaged by Saturn's magnetic field.
E) volcanic activity spewed sulfur clouds, obscuring the surface.
Page Ref: 8.2
22) The brightest and probably youngest surface of any moon of Saturn belongs to
A) Titan.
B) Tethys.
C) Mimas.
D) Enceladus.
E) Iapetus.
Page Ref: 8.3
23) Which Jovian moon shows the most diverse terrain, suggesting a violent impact broke it into many pieces, some of which reformed it as a jumbled puzzle?
A) Io
B) Ganymede
C) Enceladus
D) Miranda
E) Triton
Page Ref: 8.3
24) What statistic below has changed the most in the last decade?
A) the masses of the Galilean moons
B) the compositions of moons of Uranus
C) the rotational period of the Jovian moons
D) the densities of the larger moons
E) the number of known Jovian moons
Page Ref: 8.3
25) Which moon of Saturn shows the largest impact crater, relative to its size?
A) Titan
B) Callisto
C) Mimas
D) Miranda
E) Enceladus
Page Ref: 8.3
26) For a moon the same density as its planet, the Roche limit lies at ________ times the radius of its planet.
A) 1.4
B) 2.5
C) 3.6
D) 5.2
E) 7
Page Ref: 8.4
27) Why are the rings of Saturn so bright?
A) They are made of frozen metallic hydrogen.
B) They are made of glassy beads expelled by the volcanoes of Enceladus.
C) They are made of metallic iron, never rusted by exposure to oxygen.
D) Light reflected off of gigantic Titan reinforces the sunlight.
E) They are made of young, fresh water ice.
Page Ref: 8.4
28) Which statement about Jupiter's rings is true?
A) They are larger than Saturn's, but darker.
B) They lie inside Jupiter's Roche Limit.
C) They are made, in part, of material ejected by Europa's volcanoes.
D) They are dark because their ices are dirtier than Saturn's.
E) They were discovered by Galileo at the same time he discovered the moons.
Page Ref: 8.4
29) When Saturn is at Equinox, its rings will
A) double the planet's brightness.
B) lie in the plane of the ecliptic.
C) contract closer to the planet's surface.
D) appear face-on to the earth.
E) lie perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.
Page Ref: 8.4
30) What best explains the darkness of the rings beyond Saturn's?
A) The sunlight is much fainter out there.
B) old, sooty debris and radiation darkening
C) Water ice reflects light poorly at the low temperatures beyond Saturn.
D) Rocky debris doesn't reflect as well as water ice.
E) They are pieces of captured comets.
Page Ref: 8.4
31) The Cassini Division is a gap in Saturn's rings caused by
A) Saturn's excess heat.
B) two shepherding moons.
C) Saturn's magnetic field.
D) gravitational interaction with Mimas.
E) the icy ring particles melting.
Page Ref: 8.4
32) Inside the Roche Limit
A) large moons are torn apart.
B) is where large moons form.
C) ring systems cannot exists.
D) there is a gap in a planet's magnetic field.
E) hydrogen can only exist in its liquid metallic form.
Page Ref: 8.4
33) If Saturn takes about 30 years to orbit the Sun, and its rings were seen edge-on in 1995, when will they appear most open at solstice?
A) 1998
B) 2002
C) 2005
D) 2007
E) 2010
Page Ref: 8.4
34) If Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun, and Voyager 2 found its rings wide open at solstice in 1989, when will they appear edge on, as seen from Earth?
A) 1995
B) 2003
C) 2010
D) 2025
E) They can never appear edge on, due to Uranus' 98 degree axial tilt.
Page Ref: 8.4
35) Which was not a Voyager discovery about the rings of Saturn?
A) They have dark spokes that defy gravity.
B) They are made of tens of thousands of narrow ringlets.
C) There are hundreds of smaller moons imbedded, creating the gaps.
D) The F ring particles are herded by two shepherd moons.
E) The E ring may have been made by volcanic eruptions from Enceladus.
Page Ref: 8.4
36) Which of the following rings of Saturn lies closest to the planet?
A) the A ring
B) the B ring
C) the C ring
D) the E ring
E) the F ring
Page Ref: 8.4
37) Which moon orbits a planet only twice as big as it is?
A) Triton
B) our Moon
C) Charon
D) Miranda
E) Mimas
Page Ref: 8.5
38) Pluto's density is most similar to
A) the terrestrial planets.
B) the jovian planets.
C) moons of the jovian planets.
D) Mercury, but nor Venus, Earth, or Mars.
E) Saturn, but not Jupiter, Uranus, or Neptune.
Page Ref: 8.5
39) Pluto was discovered in
A) ancient times.
B) 1789.
C) 1859.
D) 1930.
E) 1992.
Page Ref: 8.5
40) The two names most associated with the discovery of Pluto are
A) Adams and Leverrier.
B) Herschel and Bode.
C) Kuiper and Whipple.
D) Lowell and Tombaugh.
E) Shoemaker and Levy.
Page Ref: 8.5
41) Charon's orbit
A) lies exactly in Pluto's orbital plane.
B) is highly inclined to Pluto's orbital plane.
C) is perpendicular to Pluto's equator.
D) is retrograde.
E) has not been determined yet.
Page Ref: 8.5
42) Pluto is most similar to
A) Europa.
B) Miranda.
C) Triton.
D) our Moon.
E) Mercury.
Page Ref: 8.6
43) What is so unusual about Pluto's orbit?
A) It lies exactly on the ecliptic.
B) It has the lowest eccentricity of any planet's orbit.
C) It is the most inclined to the ecliptic of the 9 planets.
D) It has an unexpectedly short orbital period.
E) It's orbital period is exactly twice that of Neptune's.
Page Ref: 8.6