End of Chapter Questions

Review Questions

Question 4.1

About how long after the universe came into existence did our solar system form?

  1. 0 years (they formed together)

  2. a million years

  3. 10 million years

  4. a billion years

  5. 10 billion years

Question 4.2

Pluto is most similar in composition to which of the following objects?

  1. Eris

  2. Jupiter

  3. our Moon

  4. Earth

  5. the Sun

Question 4.3

Which planets are terrestrial and which are giant?

Question 4.4

What is the Nice model’s explanation for why there is no planet in the vicinity of the asteroid belt?

Question 4.5

Which giant planet formed first?

Question 4.6

According to the Nice theory, where did the Kuiper belt objects and Oort cloud objects come from?

Question 4.7

What created most of the craters in the solar system? What else could create craters? (Hint: Think of craters on Earth.)

Question 4.8

Jeans instability is responsible for what event in the evolution of the solar system?

Question 4.9

Name and briefly describe one small solar system body.

Question 4.10

Name one dwarf planet (other than Pluto) and state where it is located.

Question 4.11

Asteroids, meteoroids, and comets are also classified as what (one) kind of object today?

Advanced Questions

Question 4.12

Why would it have been hard for the first generation of stars to have planets? If they did have planets, of what would those bodies have been composed?

Question 4.13

If Saturn had not formed, how would Jupiter have evolved after entering inside the snow line, and how would Jupiter have then affected the formation and evolution of Earth?

Question 4.14

What is significant about the snow line described in this chapter?

Got It?

Question 4.15

Which elements on Earth were created during the Big Bang?

Question 4.16

How long has the universe existed and how long has the solar system existed?

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