Kepler's Impact: In four years of operation, the Kepler satellite discovered nearly three times as many extrasolar planet candidates as had been discovered in the previous 15 years (since the first discovery of an extrasolar planet)

Discuss how these observations changed our understanding of the population of planets and of planet formation.


May include: mention of finally being able to have good statistics on planet frequencies across a wide range of sizes and to orbital distances of 1 AU or larger. Discovery that Earth, super-Earth, and small-Neptune size planets are much more common than gas giants.

Physics & Space Science

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Which of the following best describes the nature of planetary rings?

a. They are composed of countless individual particles. b. The are solid, concentric rings around a planet. c. They are a solid sheet of material around a planet, looking much like a DVD or blu-ray disk. d. They are composed of reflective molecules of gas.

Physics & Space Science

What is the change in area (in cm2) of a 60.0-cm by 150-cm automobile windshield when the temperature changes from 0°C to 36.0°C. The coefficient of linear expansion of this glass is 9.0 × 10^?6/°C

a. 1.6 b. 2.9 c. 3.2 d. 4.9 e. 5.8

Physics & Space Science

A spectroscopic binary shows periodic variations in its

a. radial velocity. b. proper motion. c. brightness. d. mass. e. spectral type.

Physics & Space Science

A bimetallic strip is usable as a thermometer because of the property of __________

Fill in the blank(s) with correct word

Physics & Space Science