Rings, Moons, & Pluto

The composition of Saturn’s ring particles is predominantly water ice.

True

Saturn’s rings exist because they lie within the planet’s Roche limit.

True

Two small shepherd satellites are responsible for the unusually complex form of Saturn’s F ring

True

Titan’s surface is obscured by thick clouds of ammonia ice

False

Triton’s orbit is unusual because it is retrograde

True

The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Titan is

about one-and-a-half times greater than the atmospheric pressure at Earth’s surface

Which of the Galilean moons is the densest and most geologically active?

lo

Pluto’s density is most similar to

moons of the jovian planets.

Pluto was discovered in

1930

The two names most associated with the discovery of Pluto are

Lowell and Tombaugh

Charon’s orbit

is highly inclined to Pluto’s orbital plane.

Pluto is most similar to

Triton

What is so unusual about Pluto’s orbit?

It is more inclined to the ecliptic than any of the eight planets.

Triton and Pluto both probably originated in the Kuiper Belt

True

Pluto is smaller than many moons in the solar system.

True

Pluto’s classification as a planet has been called into question

True

Pluto is visible to the naked eye on extremely dark nights

False

is probably one of the largest of the Kuiper Belt bodies beyond Neptune

True

What is thought to be the cause of Io’s volcanoes?

…gravitational tidal stresses from both Jupiter and Europa

Which are the four Galilean moons of Jupiter?

Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto

In size and density, both Io and Europa resemble

Our Moon

The mare on Ganymede were formed by

water erupting and spreading over the surface.

Of the Jovian satellites, which shows the oldest, most cratered surface?

Callisto

The largest moon in the solar system, bigger but not as massive as Mercury, is

Ganymede.

Which of these moons has the densest atmosphere?

Titan

At Titan, the oceans are made of liquid

ethane.

The atmosphere of Titan is composed mostly of

nitrogen.

What is true of Titan’s atmosphere?

It is similar to Earth’s in composition and density.

The erupting geysers of nitrogen gas on Triton

are caused by a not yet determined internal energy source.

Which statement about Jupiter’s rings is true?

They lie inside Jupiter’s Roche Limit.

Inside the Roche Limit

large moons are torn apart.

The surface of Io looks most like the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean of Earth.

False

Io’s internal heat is due to tidal interactions with Jupiter and Europa

True

Of all the Galilean satellites, the surface of Europa is the youngest in age.

False

Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system.

True

Titan’s surface has been mapped using Earth based visual telescopes

False

Methane drives the weather of Titan, for there it can be liquid, solid, or gas

True

Like Titan, Triton has a nitrogen atmosphere

True

Alone among all the large moons, Triton orbits Neptune retrograde, and also at a 20 degree inclination to Neptune’s equator

True

Probably the next satellite to get turned into ring debris will be Neptune’s backward moon, Triton

True

Saturn’s rings are composed of __________.

lots of individual particles of ice and rock

Saturn’s rings look bright because __________.

light from the Sun reflects off the material in the rings

Which of the following statements correctly describes the motion of the particles in Saturn’s rings?

Particles in the inner rings orbit Saturn at a faster speed than particles in the outer rings.

The largest moon in the solar system is

Ganymede

The jovian moon with the most geologically active surface

lo

Strong evidence from both surface features and magnetic field data support the existence of a subsurface ocean on

Europa

What is responsible for the volcanic activity on lo?

Tidal Heating

The most distant of Jupiter’s moons

Callisto

The fact that Europa orbits Jupiter twice for every one orbit of Ganymede is an example of

orbital resonance