Quiz 8: The Giant Planets

The giant planets are made primarily of carbon dioxide and methane.

Jupiter is approximately 30 times more massive than the Earth.

As seen from the outer giant planets,the Sun would appear as simply a very bright star in a sea of fainter stars.

Jupiter's mass is more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined.

The composition of the giant planets is consistent with solar abundance,but not with the composition of the universe as a whole.

All the giant planets,not just Jupiter,have atmospheric bands and storms.

The different cloud layers seen in Jupiter's bands represent clouds at different altitudes in Jupiter's atmosphere.

On the giant planets,the atmospheric vortices that occur almost always lie between oppositely directed zonal winds.

Jupiter and Saturn contain solid rocky cores that are approximately 5 to 10 times the mass of the Earth.

Jupiter radiates 70 percent more energy than it receives from the Sun,mostly because it is still contracting under its own gravity.

Uranus and Neptune are less massive than Jupiter and Saturn,probably because they formed earlier than Jupiter or Saturn.

Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants because they have deep salty oceans that give rise to their strong magnetic fields.

Jupiter's strong aurorae (figure below)result from particles ejected by Io's volcanoes.

The strong magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune arise from magnetic dynamos in their liquid rocky cores.

When charged particles oscillate around magnetic field lines of a planet they emit radiation in the microwave region of the spectrum.

Of the giant planets,only Saturn and Jupiter have ring systems.

It is theoretically possible for Earth to someday have a temporary ring structure.

The presence of shepherd moons keeps the giant planets' ring systems completely stable and the rings will last forever.

The gas giants are composed primarily of: A) hydrogen B) helium C) water D) ammonia

The compositions of Uranus and Neptune differ primarily from that of Jupiter and Saturn in that the outer two planets contain more: A) hydrogen B) helium C) water ice D) carbon dioxide

Why are Jupiter and Saturn not perfectly spherical? A) They formed from the collision of two large planetesimals. B) They rotate rapidly. C) They have storms that develop preferentially along their equators. D) They have very active aurorae that heat the atmospheres along the poles.

Which of the giant planets was predicted to exist mathematically before it was ever seen through a telescope? A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune

If you could find a large enough ocean,which one of these planets would float in it? A) Uranus B) Saturn C) Neptune D) Mars

As a group,the giant planets all rotate __________ terrestrial planets. A) faster than B) slower than C) the same as D) retrograde compared to

All the giant planets except __________ experience seasons. A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune

__________ has the most extreme seasons of any planet in the Solar System. A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune

You could fit roughly __________ Jupiters across the diameter of the Sun and roughly __________ Earths across Jupiter's diameter. A) 10; 100 B) 100; 10 C) 10; 10 D) 100; 100

Each season is 42 years long on Uranus because: A) they change on the timescale of Uranus' orbital period B) Uranus rotates so slowly C) Uranus's rotational axis is tipped by 45 degrees relative to it orbital axis D) Hadley circulation is ineffective in transferring heat in Uranus' atmosphere

A planet will have bands in its atmosphere like Jupiter and Saturn if: A) Hadley circulation is the main effect governing the atmosphere B) the planet rotates slowly C) the wind speeds vary greatly with latitude D) the planet has a high temperature

Uranus and Neptune are bluish green because they contain large amounts of: A) ammonia B) methane C) water vapor D) hydrocarbons

Why are all clouds on Jupiter not white,as on Earth? A) They are made of methane. B) They are made of carbon dioxide. C) There are impurities in their ice crystals. D) For the same reason that we see colors in rainbows on Earth.

The Great Red Spot,Jupiter's most prominent storm system,has a diameter that is __________ times the Earth's diameter. A) 2 B) 5 C) 10 D) 50

Band systems on Saturn,Uranus,and Neptune are most prominent when viewed in which wavelength regime? A) Visible B) Infrared C) Ultraviolet D) X-ray

Why do we find methane clouds above water clouds in the atmosphere of Saturn? A) Methane clouds are lighter than water clouds. B) Methane is far more plentiful than water on Saturn. C) Methane is in a liquid/gas state at lower temperatures than water. D) All of the above are good reasons.

The colors of the cloud bands on Jupiter and Saturn are due primarily to differences in their: A) wind speeds B) chemical compositions C) altitudes D) temperatures

The Jovian atmospheric vortices are created by a combination of the Coriolis effect and: A) rapid rotation B) convection C) their strong magnetic fields D) Hadley circulation

All the giant planets radiate more energy into space than they receive from the Sun EXCEPT: A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune

Uranus and Neptune do not have bands as distinct as those on Jupiter and Saturn,because Uranus and Neptune: A) have wind speeds that vary more smoothly from the equator to the poles B) are composed entirely of hydrogen and helium and lack more complex molecules C) are much closer to the Sun and much colder D) rotate ten times slower

The fact that Jupiter's radius is contracting at a rate of 1 mm/year results in: A) differential convection that powers Jupiter's Great Red Spot B) Jupiter's rotation rate slowing down with time C) Jupiter's shape being noticeably oblate D) Jupiter radiating more heat than it receives from the Sun

The fastest zonal winds are found on: A) Jupiter and Saturn B) Saturn and Neptune C) Uranus and Neptune D) Jupiter and Uranus

Of the giant planets,only Jupiter and Saturn have thick inner layers of: A) liquid rock B) solid rock C) molecular and metallic hydrogen D) liquid methane

The inner core of each of the giant planets is made up of rocky material that is __________ times the mass of the Earth. A) 10 to 25 B) 5 to 10 C) 100 to 200 D) 25 to 50

Neptune and Uranus probably took longer to form than Jupiter and Saturn,because the solar nebula was __________ at the radius of Neptune and Uranus. A) rotating faster B) composed of rockier planetesimals C) not as dense D) hotter

We refer to some of the inner regions of Jupiter and Saturn as metallic hydrogen because they: A) are as dense as lead B) are solid C) provide support for the upper layers of hydrogen and helium D) efficiently conduct electricity

Despite the high temperatures deep in the interior of giant planets,their cores remain liquid because: A) they are under very high pressures B) gravitational potential energy is being converted into thermal energy in the cores C) they are composed of heavy materials like rock and water D) their rotations are rapid compared to those of the terrestrial planets

The strongest magnetic fields in the Solar System are found on which planet? A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune

Where do Uranus's and Neptune's high magnetic fields originate? A) Molten rocky cores B) Salty oceans C) Large magnetospheres D) Metallic hydrogen layers

What would you observe in order to accurately measure the rotational period of a giant planet? A) Clouds in the atmosphere B) Bands of storms on the equator C) Stellar occultations D) Synchrotron emission

Jupiter emits a large amount of radio emission because: A) charged particles blasted off of Io's surface move through Jupiter's magnetic field B) violent storms in its atmosphere produce a lot of lightening C) Jupiter is so cold that its blackbody radiation peaks at radio wavelengths D) Jupiter's thick inner shell of metallic hydrogen is electrically conductive

Two years after first being observed,astronomers reported that Saturn's rings vanished.What happened to them? A) The old ring system dissipated,and since then a new one has formed. B) The rings lined up with Earth,and they were too thin to be observed. C) Most telescopes used hundreds of years ago couldn't adequately resolve the ring system. D) Astronomers were looking at the wrong planet,leading to the chance discovery of Uranus.

Which of the giant planets does NOT have rings? A) Jupiter B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Neptune E) All of the giant planets have rings.

How do Uranus's rings differ from the ring systems of the other giant planets? A) Uranus has only one ring made up of fine dust. B) Uranus has the most spectacular ring system with many bright,wide rings. C) Uranus has 13 rings that are narrow and widely spaced. D) Uranus has rings that are clumped into several arclike segments.

Why would a planet's rings reflect 50 percent of the sunlight they receive? A) They are made of ice. B) They are made of silicate rock. C) They are made of iron. D) They are very old.

If you wanted to search for faint rings around a giant planet by sending a spacecraft on a flyby,it would be best to do so: A) as the spacecraft approached the planet B) after the spacecraft passed the planet C) during the closest flyby D) while orbiting one of its moons

Ring material: A) is made mostly of fine dust B) has always orbited the giant planets C) must constantly be renewed D) is made of only house-sized rocks

How does the thickness of Saturn's bright ring system compare to its diameter? A) It's about 10 times thinner. B) It's about 1,000 times thinner. C) It's about 100,000 times thinner. D) It's about 10 million times thinner.

Jupiter's rings are made of material from: A) its largest,innermost moons B) its upper atmosphere C) only Io D) only its retrograde moons

Particles that make up the rings of Uranus and Neptune are composed of: A) rocky material from tidally disrupted moons B) organic material that has darkened due to bombardment by cosmic rays C) icy material from tidally disrupted comets D) all of the above

Rings of giant planets are very thin compared to their diameters mainly because: A) of collisions between ring particles B) moons that tidally disrupt have small diameters C) energy is conserved when a moon tidally disrupts D) the planets have large tidal forces

You observe Neptune as it occults a background star when the relative velocity between Neptune and the Earth is 30 km/s,and the star crosses through the middle of the planet and disappears for 27.6 minutes.What is Neptune's diameter? A) 5 × 10⁴ km B) 800 km C) 4,000 km D) 9 × 10³ km

If you monitor Saturn's atmosphere and you see a storm at a longitude of 0° west on one day and at a longitude of 90° west 3 days later,what is the average wind speed on Saturn at this storm's latitude? Note that these positions are measured on a coordinate system that rotates with the planet's interior.(The radius of Saturn is 6 × 10⁷ m.) A) 720 m/s B) 120 m/s C) 360 m/s D) 540 m/s

If you monitor Jupiter's atmosphere and you see a storm move from a longitude of 60° west to a longitude of 80° west over 6 days,what is the wind speed at this storm's latitude on Jupiter? Note that these positions are measured on a coordinate system that rotates with the planet's interior.(The radius of Jupiter is 7.2 × 10⁴ km.) A) 700 m/s B) 300 m/s C) 100 m/s D) 50 m/s

If the flux of sunlight on a planet suggested its temperature should be 200 K,but its actual temperature was 220 K,then how much more energy does this planet emit relative to the energy it receives from its parent star? A) 5.3 times more energy B) 2.2 times more energy C) 1.1 times more energy D) 1.5 times more energy

Suppose Neptune moves with an average orbital speed of 3.5 km/s.If it takes Neptune 4 hours to pass directly in front of a star,what is Neptune's diameter? Give Neptune's radius in units of Earth diameters,where the diameter of Earth is 12,800 km.

What is the ratio of Jupiter's volume to that of Earth's if both planets can be modeled as spheres and Jupiter's radius is 11 times that of Earth's?

How does the discovery of Neptune relate to the discovery of extrasolar planets?

If Saturn's orbital period is 30 years and the obliquity is 26 degrees,how long is it from the first day of spring to the first day of autumn on Saturn?

Define cloud cannibalism.Where is it observed in the Solar System?

What causes the horizontal bands on Jupiter and Saturn to have different colors? How can they be used to probe different altitudes in their atmospheres?

If Saturn's rotational period is 11 hours and its radius is 6 × 10⁷ m,what is the average speed of a cloud in its atmosphere that is rotating with Saturn? (Neglect differential speeds due to winds.)

Examine the figure below.Why are winds on the giant planets far faster than those on Earth?

On which of the giant planets do we think we can find deep oceans of water? Why do we think this?

What clues do the differences in the masses of the giant planets give about conditions in the early Solar System?

What gives rise to the large magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune? How does this source help explain why the axes of their magnetic fields are misaligned and significantly offset from their rotational axes?

Explain why it was difficult for the Voyager space probe to detect Jupiter's ring system as it was approaching the planet,but easy to detect the rings once it passed behind Jupiter.

Why do astronomers believe that Saturn has such prominent rings,and does the observed total mass in the ring system support this theory?

Do a planet's rings last forever? Why or why not?

Why do we suspect that the inner planets do not have rings?

Based on the flux of sunlight that it gets,Jupiter should have a temperature of 109 K.However its temperature is observed to be 124 K.How much more energy is Jupiter radiating out into space compared to what it gets from the Sun?