The Solar System – ASTR 121

Second Midterm – November 10, 2014, 9:00-9:50

Instructions:  Print your name and student identification number at the top of this page.  Answer each of the questions A through J in the space provided.  Be clear and thorough in your answers using sentences, sketches, and formulas where appropriate.  Each question is worth two points.

A.  Describe two major features of the Solar System which give us clues to how it formed.

B.  Describe two key processes which led the Solar Nebula to take the form of a spinning disk.

C.  What was the heavy bombardment and when did it occur?

D.  What is a half life and how is it used to determine the age of the Solar System?

E.  Give two reasons extrasolar planets are hard to detect directly,

F.  What is differentiation in the terrestrial planets and why did it happen?

G.  Explain why we think there is no liquid water on Mars now, but that there was in the past.

H.  Explain how the greenhouse effect works in the Earth's atmosphere.

I.  How are Mercury's great cliffs (scarps) thought to have formed?

J.  Why is it surprising that Venus lacks plate tectonics and what might explain this lack?