•Q1: If you were an astronomer in the Alpha
Centauri system (assume 4.2 light
years from Earth) looking toward the solar system, what would be the maximum angular separation between Jupiter and
the sun you could ever see?
(Hint: 1 ly equals 63,000 AU).
–Small
Angle formula, Jupter 5.2 AU from sun, yields 4 arcseconds
•Q2: If the Atlantic Seafloor is spreading at 30
mm/year and is now 6400 km
wide, how long ago were the continents in contact?
–6400
km/30 mm/year = 210 million years.
•Q3: Which effect is the most important for
clearing the remaining gas and dust
in the solar nebula following planet formation?
–Radiation
pressure.
•Q4: Europa has few craters because
–It
has erased craters nearly as fast as they form.
•Q5: A meteor shower is produced when
–Earth
passes through the orbital path of a comet.
•Q6: An asteroid has an orbital period around
the sun of 5.2 years. How far
from the sun is this asteroid?
–Kepler’s
Law. P2 = a3.
P = 5.2 years, so a in AU is the cube root of 5.2 squared, which is 27, making a = 3 AU.