Suppose we discover a "super-Earth" at a distance of 10AU from its star. Should we consider it to be potentially habitable?
A) Yes, its atmosphere may contain substantial amounts of greenhouse-type gases that can keep the planet warm beyond the usual boundaries assumed for habitable zones.
B) Yes, because its host star must be much bigger in order to have a super-Earth, so it will be much hotter there.
C) No, only planets at approximately 1AU will ever be potentially habitable.
D) No, greenhouse gases "freeze-out" at those distances.
A
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The Virgo cluster
a. is the galactic cluster that contains the Milky Way. b. is the oldest known cluster of galaxies. c. is located at the center of the universe. d. contains mostly spiral galaxies and very few elliptical galaxies. e. is a rich cluster and the closest cluster of galaxies outside of the Local Group.
Applications to Astronomy: A white dwarf star with a mass equal to that of the sun is about the size of
A. the sun. B. the earth. C. a basketball. D. a proton.
In science fiction movies, spaceships are often shown dodging through large numbers of closely spaced, boulder-size objects. Which of the following real things in our solar system would look most like such science fiction dangers?
A) the rings of Saturn B) the asteroid belt C) the Oort cloud D) the atmosphere of Jupiter
This photograph shows a small portion of the Sun's photosphere. What is going on in the bright regions (such as the bright region indicated by the arrow)?
A) Hot gas is rising up from the solar interior. B) Cool gas is falling back down into the solar interior. C) The bright spots are regions of unusually intense magnetic fields. D) The bright spots are what we call sunspots.