Rogue Comet Rescue Palen Complete Test Bank - Understanding Our Universe 3e Complete Test Bank by Stacy Palen. DOCX document preview.
Mission 6: Rogue Comet Rescue
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. What type of spectrum does the material streaming off the comet produce?
a. a continuous spectrum c. an absorption spectrum
b. an emission spectrum
2. CORI refers to Kepler-62’s Oort Cloud as the origin of the rogue comet. Which of the following best describes the Oort Cloud?
a. A belt of icy objects located tens of AU from the host star.
b. A spherical distribution of icy objects located thousands of AU from the host star.
c. A belt of icy objects located thousands of AU from the host star.
d. A spherical distribution of gas, ice, and dust particles located hundreds of AU from the host star.
3. Which of the following does not contribute significantly to the composition of comets?
a. silicate rocks d. methane ice
b. water ice e. iron and nickel
c. ammonia ice
4. Which of the following semimajor axes cannot be associated with the orbit of comet?
a. 2 AU d. 50 AU
b. 5 AU e. 1,000 AU
c. 30 AU
5. Which of the following comets have we not visited with a spacecraft?
a. Wild-2 c. 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
b. Halley d. Hyakutake
1. Is it realistic to expect that there are comets and analogs to our Solar System’s Oort Cloud in other planetary systems such as Kepler-62f? What might this tell us about the process of star and planet formation?
2. Based on the composition and distribution of comets in the Solar System and, potentially, in other planetary systems, what can we conclude about where they formed in the planet-forming disks that once surrounded the host stars?
3. What is the most likely explanation for why the comet broke apart as we attempted to redirect the comet by firing the remote thruster?
4. Given the high content of water ice, many planetary scientists and astronomers believe that during the formation of the Solar System, water would have been delivered to the Earth’s surface by many impacts of icy comets with the young Earth. How might scientists go about linking the water on Earth to the water ice present in a comet?