1. Which of the following objects has an orbit so eccentric that its orbit loops inside that of another planet?
a) Jupiter
b) Saturn
c) Uranus
d) Pluto
2. What causes the solar day of a planet to be a different from its sidereal day?
a) solar tides
b) lunar tides
c) the planet's atmosphere
d) the motion of the planet around the sun
e) [both a and b above]
3. The orbits of the planets are
a) all in nearly the same plane, that of the ecliptic
b) all in nearly the same plane, that of the equator
c) in seemingly randome planes, mostly at great angles with one another
4. A volatile element is one that
a) exists as a gas only at high temperatures
b) exists as a gas at relatively low temperature
c) burns at a relatively high temperature
d) burns at a relatively low temperature
5. When the law of conservation of angular movement was first applied to evolutionary theories of the development of the solar system, it predicted that the sun
a) would not be rotating
b) would be rotating faster than it is
c) would be much hotter than it is
d) would be much cooler than it is
6. A catastrophe theory of the developement of the solar system is one that
a) holds that the solar system formed because of a collision
b) predicts that the solar system will be destroyed in a catastrophic collision
c) predicts the end of the solar system when the sun becomes a red giant
d) holds that the angular momentum of the sun is distributed among the planets
7. The HST has found dust disks around other stars. This lends credence to
a) catastrophe theories
b) evolutionary theories
c) neither catastrophe nor evolutionary theories
8. The gravitational microslensing method of detecting a planet around a star takes advantage of the fact that
a) we can measure the doppler shift
b) the gravitational forces between the planet and the star result in the star's wobbling
c) neither of the above