What is the Milankovitch hypothesis and what evidence is there to support this hypothesis?
What will be an ideal response?
The Milankovitch hypothesis, which states that small changes in the shape of Earth's orbit and axis inclination, along with a subtle effect of precession, could combine to influence Earth's climate and cause ice ages.
Oceanographers drilled deep into the seafloor to collect long cores of sediment. In the laboratory, geologists could take samples from different depths in the cores and determine the age of the samples and the temperature of the oceans when they were deposited on the seafloor. From this, scientists constructed a history of ocean temperatures that convincingly matched the predictions of the Milankovitch hypothesis.
In 1997, a new study of the ages of the samples confirmed that those from the ocean floor were correctly dated. But the same study found that the ages of the Devils Hole samples were also correct. Evidently the temperatures at Devils Hole record local climate changes in the region that is now the southwestern United States. The ocean floor samples record global climate changes, and they fit well with the Milankovitch hypothesis.
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Galileo used a telescope to observe the phases of Jupiter
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
The resolving power of a telescope is
a. a measure of the minimum angular separation that can be seen with the telescope. b. a measure of the maximum angular separation that can be seen with the telescope. c. a measure of the amount of light that the telescope can gather in one second. d. the separation between the objective and the image. e. a measure of how blurry object appear in the telescope.
A shock wave is produced when a wave source moves
A) nearly as fast as the waves it produces. B) as fast as the waves it produces. C) faster than the waves it produces. D) none of the above
Which of the following has virtually no effect on the structure of a planet?
A) its composition B) its size C) its magnetic field D) its mass