The Solar System

Can You Answer the Following Questions?

SCIENTIFIC THEORY/INTRODUCTION

1. A theory cannot gain acceptance with the scientific community unless _______________ verify the concepts of the hypothesis.

2. The ____________________ involves the recognition of a problem, the collection of data through observations and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

3. The idea which expresses that the planets and their moons were born from the collision or near collision of the sun and another star is the major idea expressed by the ______________________________________.

4. The _______________ hypothesis basically states that the solar system had its origin from the collapse of a large cloud of gas and dust about five billion years ago.

5. If the _______________ theory is correct then stars with planets revolving around them should be quite common in our galaxy.

6. Write the names of the planets in their traditional order from the sun.

DEFINITIONS

7. A natural satellite of the sun or another star is referred to as a ___________________.

8. The distance from the sun to the earth, 93 million miles (150 million km), is the basis for a unit of measurement called the ____________________________.

9. The amount of time it takes for a planet to make one ______________ around the sun or a primary body is called a planet's ______________ period.

10. The plane of the earth's orbit, created by earth's motion as it sweeps around the sun, is referred to as the _______________.

11. The tilt of a planet's orbital plane with respect to the ecliptic is referred to as that planet's orbital _______________.

12. ______________ is a measurement of the "ovalness" of an elliptical orbit. More precisely it is the measurement of the distance between the foci of an ellipse divided by the major axis of the ellipse.

13. The time period it takes for a body to make one complete spin about its axis is referred to as that body's _______________ period.

14. The ____________________ of a planet represents the inclination of the imaginary line about which a planet rotates to the perpendicular of that planet's orbital plane.

15. The quantity of matter an object contains represents that object's _______________.

16. Which is more massive, 100 pounds of lead or 100 pounds of feathers? Explain your reasoning.

17. A body has a mass of 50 kilograms at the surface of the earth. What will be the mass of the same body at an altitude of 6000 kilometers above the earth's surface?

18. The distance from the center of a circle or sphere to its boundary is called the ________________.

19. The area of a circle is a "squared" relationship while the volume of a sphere is a _________________ relationship.

20. Mass divided by volume equals the _________________ of the body.

21. The force of attraction acting on a less massive body at the radius of a more massive body equals the _____________________ of that object.

22. A _________________ is a body of lesser mass revolving around a body of greater mass formed as a consequence of natural evolution.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

23. The sun comprises more than ________________ of the total mass of the solar system.

24. Planetary orbits all lie near the plane of the ________________.

25. The rotational axis of the sun is nearly ________________ to the plane of the solar system.

26. Planetary eccentricities are so small that the orbital paths of these bodies look basically like __________________.

27. The direction of revolution of all of the planets is the _______________. With respect to a clock face, this directional motion is always represented as ____________________.

28. Planetary rotations are in the same ________________, and the axial tilts of the planets are basically ________________ to their orbital planes.

29. The Bode-Titius "law" indicates that there may be a ________________ relationship with respect to the distances of the planets from the sun.

30. Jupiter and Saturn contain 99% of the ____________________ of the solar system.

31. The formula which represents the answer to the last question is L = (mr2)w; where "L" equals _____________________, "r" is the ________________, "m" is equivalent to the ________________, and "w" represents the _____________________.

32. If a rotating body could be made to contract, the rate of its spin would INCREASE/DECREASE (circle one).

33. In the solar system there are two distinct classes of objects, the Jovian planets and the terrestrial planets. These can be identified by their differences in _______________, ______________, ______________, and _______________.

34. ______________, ______________, and ______________ form distinct classes of objects in the solar system which must be explained with respect to their origin and evolution. Why are these objects classified uniquely?

MODERN NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS REVEALED

35. Name two methods for collecting gas and dust in sufficiently large quantities that would allow gravity to initiate the collapse of this material to possibly form a star and planetary system.

a. _________________________________
b. _________________________________

36. In order for the nebular hypothesis to work, a large cloud of gas and dust must obtain a high enough ________________ for it to collapse due to the force of ________________ acting upon itself.

37. Once a cloud of gas and dust begins to collapse, forces acting on it causes the cloud to _______________ (hint: a shape) and spin more _______________. Temperatures in the interior of the cloud become LOWER/HIGHER (circle one).

38. The early sun possessed large quantities of plasma which was in rapid motion. Anytime large quantities of charged particles are made to move or flow, a ____________________ is produced.

39. A large magnetic field was inherent in the early sun. It affected the motion of the plasma in the near vicinity of the sun, causing it to ______________ around the field lines and move outward.

40. Once the plasma reached a cooler area of the solar system it became ______________ and was no longer affected by the sun's magnetic field.

41. Not only was a large quantity of matter transported away from the sun, but this situation also caused the sun to spin more slowly as a m was transferred from the inner solar system to the region of Jupiter and Saturn.

42. In the formula L = (mr2)w, a change in "m"/"r" (circle one) was responsible for slowing the rotation of the sun?

43. Materials which boil and condense at low temperatures are considered ________________.

44. Since the region around the early sun was very hot, the volatiles remained in a plasma state for a much longer time period. The inner planets were able to accrete from material with a much HIGHER/LOWER (circle one) condensation temperature. This type of material is called ________________ matter. These inner planets would be expected to have much higher densities and therefore possess proportionately larger amounts of rocky material, as well as proportionately larger nickel-iron cores than the Jovian worlds.

45. The whole process which explains the sun's loss of angular momentum and the differentiation of the inner planets from the outer planets is called the ________________________________.

46. Cooling and condensation continued resulting in the formation of small bits and pieces of dust and ice which accreted by colliding with other particles of similar size. These small particles of material are called __________________.

47. When clumps of matter were massive enough to possess a sufficiently strong enough gravitational field, so that they could accrete with other concentrations of mass through gravitational interactions, the bodies were then called _________________. The solar system, as we know it today, then fell rapidly into place.

48. Provide a proper sequence for the following stages in the evolution of the solar system.

a. Protoplanets

b. Collapse of rotating nebula

c. Angular momentum transferred/planetary differentiation occurs/sun forms

d. Planetesimals

e. Mechanism which collects matter

f. Solar system as we know it today

49. The age of the solar system is about _________________ years.

GEOMETRY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

50. A planet which is nearer to the sun than the earth is termed an ________________ planet.

51. List the superior planet in the solar system.

52. Two cars are moving down a highway in the same direction. Observing the motion of the slower moving vehicle from inside the faster moving vehicle, as the faster moving vehicle is passing the slower moving vehicle, will show the slower moving vehicle to be moving ________________ relative to the faster moving vehicle.

53. The phenomenon mentioned in the last problem, as it applies to the motion of the planets, is called _____________________.

54. Draw the following planetary configurations and list their times of rise and set: opposition, quadrature, conjunction, inferior conjunction, superior conjunction, greatest western elongation and greatest eastern elongation.

55. The ________________ period of a planets is simply another word for the revolution period of the planet.

56. The time period it takes a planet to move from one configuration to the next similar configuration is termed the planet's _______________ period.