Earth and Space Science
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
Earth and Space Science is an interdisciplinary course that explores the fundamental processes affecting our planet and the universe beyond. Covering topics such as geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy, the course examines Earth's structure, its dynamic systems, and the interactions between the planet and its space environment. Students learn about rock and mineral formation, weather patterns, climate systems, the solar system's composition, and recent discoveries in space exploration. Through laboratory experiments and observational activities, the course fosters an understanding of how scientific principles are applied to Earth's natural phenomena and the celestial bodies that surround it.
Recommended Textbook
Discovering the Essential Universe 6th Edition by Neil F. Comins
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15 Chapters
4447 Verified Questions
4447 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Discovering the Night Sky
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370 Verified Questions
370 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Moon is seen to keep one face toward Earth at all times.If viewed from a point directly above the plane of the planetary system,how does it have to rotate to maintain this alignment?
A) The Moon must rotate once per day to maintain its direction toward Earth.
B) The Moon must not rotate at all because we always see the same face from Earth.
C) The Moon must rotate once per year, as Earth and the Moon orbit the Sun together.
D) The Moon must rotate once per month, or once per orbit around Earth.
Answer: D
Q2) Which one of the following is NOT a zodiac constellation?
A) Pisces
B) Cancer
C) Ophiuchus
D) Cygnus
Answer: D
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3
Chapter 2: Gravitation and the Waltz of the Planets
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344 Verified Questions
344 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Where and when would Jupiter be seen from Earth when it is at opposition?
A) in the daytime sky
B) just before sunrise, on the eastern horizon
C) just after sunset, on the western horizon
D) high in the south at midnight
Answer: D
Q2) The phenomenological approach in science consists of sifting through large amounts of data and trying to fit them into an equation in the hope that the form of the equation will provide a clue to the underlying physics.Whose work was an example of this approach?
A) Pythagoras
B) Copernicus
C) Kepler
D) Newton
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Light and Telescopes
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413 Verified Questions
413 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When white light passes through a prism,a spectrum is formed.This is because the prism:
A) adds color to the light.
B) subtracts from the light, producing color.
C) causes different wavelengths of light to travel in different directions.
D) causes different parts of the light beam to vibrate at different frequencies.
Answer: C
Q2) In telescopes designed for any wavelength of electromagnetic radiation,the angular resolution is WORSE for:
A) larger-diameter lenses or mirrors or radio dishes and longer-wavelength radiation.
B) larger-diameter lenses or mirrors or radio dishes and shorter-wavelength radiation.
C) smaller-diameter lenses or mirrors or radio dishes and shorter-wavelength radiation.
D) smaller-diameter lenses or mirrors or radio dishes and longer-wavelength radiation. Answer: D
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5
Chapter 4: Formation of the Solar System and Other
Planetary Systems
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115 Verified Questions
115 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The composition of a typical asteroid is:
A) rock and metal.
B) ice with a liquid water core.
C) rock and ice.
D) pure ice, or perhaps ice with dust-sized grains of rock mixed in.
Q2) In order to produce a crater,the object that strikes a planet must be larger than about:
A) one centimeter.
B) half a meter.
C) half a kilometer.
D) 50 kilometers.
Q3) Only three elements are believed to have formed directly in the Big Bang.These elements do NOT include:
A) hydrogen.
B) lithium.
C) oxygen.
D) helium.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Exoplanets
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43 Verified Questions
43 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What type of search technique has discovered the second largest number of exoplanets?
A) distorted protoplanetary disks
B) the transit method
C) the radial-velocity method
D) the astrometric method
Q2) It is believed that the stellar disk around the star Beta Pictoris contains a Jupiter-size planet.What is the reason behind this belief?
A) The planet was imaged directly by the Hubble Space Telescope.
B) Effects of the intense magnetic field of this planet can be detected by powerful radio telescopes.
C) The gravitational effect of this planet has created an off-center disk of dust and gas around the star.
D) The planet causes a measurable decrease in the brightness of Beta Pictoris when it transits across its disk.
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Chapter 6: The Terrestrial Planets and Their Moons
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605 Verified Questions
605 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Experiments carried out to detect life on another world were performed by the:
A) Apollo astronauts.
B) Venera landers.
C) Galileo spacecraft.
D) Viking landers.
Q2) The heat energy that powers tectonic activity on the surface of Earth originates deep in Earth's core.What is the main reason Earth's core does not cool rapidly as a result?
A) Earth is still contracting gravitationally and converting gravitational potential energy into heat.
B) Convection returns heat energy to the core from the upper mantle.
C) Conduction returns heat energy to the core from the upper mantle.
D) Radioactivity in the core and lower mantle provides additional heat.
Q3) Mercury's iron core takes up approximately what fraction of the volume of the planet?
A) about 17%, very similar to that of Earth
B) greater than 95%
C) about 65-70%
D) about 40%
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8
Chapter 7: The Outer Planets and Their Moons
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366 Verified Questions
366 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which statement is NOT a reason we suspect Ganymede has a subsurface ocean?
A) It has a variable magnetic field.
B) The craters are white.
C) There is evidence of salts on the surface.
D) Ganymede is in synchronous rotation about Jupiter.
Q2) The major gaps in the rings of Saturn are MOST likely to be caused by:
A) beams of charged particles, similar to Earth's Van Allen belts, in Saturn's magnetosphere that clear out this region.
B) mutual gravitational interactions between the multitude of particles in the rings.
C) the intervention of a massive body that moved through the rings in their early history, leaving the gaps.
D) combined gravitational forces from Saturn and its moons that deflect the paths of particles that stray into the gaps.
Q3) What is the source of Jupiter's intense magnetic field?
A) electric currents in ionized layers of Jupiter's atmosphere
B) electric currents in Jupiter's molten iron core
C) permanently magnetized iron core
D) electric currents in Jupiter's liquid hydrogen layer
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Chapter 8: Vagabonds of the Solar System
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196 Verified Questions
196 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Haumea is all of the following exceptNOT a(n):
A) a tTrans-Neptunian oObject.
B) a dwarf planet.
C) a Kuiper belt object..
D) an asteroid.
Q2) A comet''s tail always:
A) points toward the nearest planet, attracted by the planet''s gravity field as the comet passes by the planet.
B) trails behind the comet in its orbit and so points away from the Sun only while the comet is approaching the Sun.
C) points away from the Sun, regardless of the motion of the comet.
D) points toward the Sun because the tail is caused by jets of gases evaporated from the comet''s nucleus on the side heated by the Sun.
Q3) The measured diameter of the core of Comet Halley is about:
A) 10 km.
B) 10 km.
C) 10 km.
D) 100 m.
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Chapter 9: The Sun: Our Extraordinary Ordinary Star
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274 Verified Questions
274 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the three ways in which energy is transported in nature,which two are important in the Sun?
A) radiation and conduction
B) convection and conduction
C) The question is wrong; all three ways in which energy is transported are equally important in the Sun.
D) radiation and convection
Q2) Where would you expect to find heavy atoms like iron stripped of many of their electrons?
A) the photosphere
B) the chromosphere
C) the corona
D) sunspots
Q3) The dominant energy source that powers the Sun at the present time is:
A) the release of gravitational energy as the Sun slowly contracts.
B) thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in the core.
C) thermonuclear fission of helium into hydrogen in the core.
D) thermonuclear fusion of helium into heavier elements in the core.
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Chapter 10: Characterizing Stars
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261 Verified Questions
261 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What condition is necessary to see from Earth eclipses of stars in binary star systems?
A) The stars must have very similar surface temperatures, whatever the inclination of their orbital plane to the line of sight, to see a significant eclipse.
B) The line of sight from Earth to the star system must be very close to perpendicular to the orbital plane of the stars.
C) The line of sight from Earth to the star system must be in or very close to the orbital plane of the stars.
D) One of the stars must be much bigger than the other so that it can hide its smaller companion when the orbital plane is at a large angle to the line of sight.
Q2) A star of apparent magnitude +1 appears _____ than a star of apparent magnitude +2.
A) either brighter or fainter, depending on the distance to the stars,
B) farther away
C) brighter
D) fainter
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Chapter 11: The Lives of the Stars From Birth Through Middle Age
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322 Verified Questions
322 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the H-R diagram shown in Figure 11-28b of Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th ed.,the brightest stars in the Pleiades cluster are not on the main sequence but away from it toward the upper right.Explain.
A) The brightest stars have not yet reached the main sequence and are in the T Tauri phase.
B) The brightest stars have already evolved through the red giant phase and have now returned to the blue giant phase on their way to the white dwarf phase.
C) The brightest stars have already become white dwarf stars, as shown by their position.
D) These blue supergiant stars have already begun to evolve toward the red supergiant phase.
Q2) In which regions of the Milky Way Galaxy are giant molecular clouds of H and CO gas found?
A) uniformly spread throughout the Galaxy, both in and above and below the spiral arms
B) the center of the Galaxy
C) above and below the plane of the spiral arms, over the galactic poles
D) along the spiral arms
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Deaths and Remnants of Stars
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395 Verified Questions
395 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the binary pulsar Hercules X-1 the periodic Doppler shift,once every 1.7 days,was discovered rather quickly.Even though the binary pulsar Centaurus X-3 was discovered earlier,its Doppler shift was discovered only much later.What might be a reason for this?
A) The orbital plane of Centaurus X-3 is in the plane of the sky and therefore has no radial motion and no Doppler shift.
B) Centaurus X-3 is too far away to see the Doppler shift easily.
C) The orbital period of Centaurus X-3, 2087 days, suggests that it moves relatively slowly.
D) The binary companion of Centaurus X-3 is a black hole that distorts the pattern of its radiation output.
Q2) What property separates a black hole from the rest of the universe?
A) a crystalline crust
B) the surface of the ergoregion
C) a singularity
D) an event horizon
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14
Chapter 13: The Galaxies
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465 Verified Questions
465 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Milky Way Galaxy is NOT orbited by:
A) globular clusters.
B) dwarf elliptical galaxies.
C) the Magellanic Clouds.
D) individual (field) stars.
Q2) The method of stellar parallax:
A) can be used to measure the distance to stars in distant galaxies, just as it can be used for stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
B) can be used for distant galaxies, but only when used with giant molecular clouds (which can be seen at such distances), not with stars.
C) cannot be used for distant galaxies because redshift spectra are inherently imprecise at such distances.
D) cannot be used for distant galaxies because of the difficulty of resolving the spectra individual stars.
Q3) Seyfert galaxies are:
A) active galaxies with bright, starlike nuclei.
B) irregular galaxies with no shape or structure.
C) very small elliptical galaxies.
D) the largest galaxies in the universe.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Cosmology
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205 Verified Questions
205 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Opposite sides of the universe have the same temperature,yet according to the standard Big Bang theory,these points are too far apart for light to have traveled from one to the other in the age of the universe; that is,they cannot have exchanged heat to even out their temperature.Why,then,do they have the same temperature?
A) Light (and heat) could travel much faster in the early universe, allowing them to exchange heat while the universe was young.
B) The expansion of the universe has always been the same everywhere; therefore, all parts of the universe have the same temperature, regardless of whether they have ever exchanged heat or not.
C) It is pure coincidence that opposite sides of the universe have the same temperature. D) Opposite sides of the universe were originally close together and evened out their temperature, and then a rapid inflation of the universe carried them far apart.
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16
Chapter 15: Astrobiology
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73 Verified Questions
73 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/41427
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the current state of the search for extraterrestrial radio communications?
A) Several extraterrestrial civilizations have been found, but they are not intelligent enough for us to bother with and the search is continuing.
B) Occasional single-frequency searches have been made for extraterrestrial signals, but funds are still being sought for the first major continuous monitoring effort.
C) A number of frequencies in the "water hole" are being monitored, but there has been no major effort as yet to send out continuous signals from Earth at these frequencies.
D) Continuous transmissions are being sent out from Earth at several frequencies in the "water hole," and tens of millions of other frequencies are being monitored.
Q2) The numerical value given by the Drake equation:
A) is exactly 10.
B) is generally agreed to be around 10, certainly between 8 and 12.
C) could be almost any value from zero up to 1 billion.
D) has a lower limit of 1 but could be much larger than 10.
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