Astronomy 7 Midterm #1 Review
1. Impactor (stuff doing the hitting)
asteroid, comets, meteorites
know the definition of: Asteroids, Comets,
Meteors
meteor: steak in the sky
meteoroid: a meteorite in the Earth's
atmosphere
meteorite: object left on the ground
know where each of them are located in the
solar system
e.g. Apollo asteroids are Earth crossing
asteroids
know the composition of each type of object
e.g. comets are dirty ice balls
2. Impactee (stuff being hit)
know the factors that govern rate of
impacts
size of of the object (surface area)
mass of the object (gravity)
flux of impactors
How are craters destroyed (erosion)
water
sand
other impacts
volcanic cover-up
How do we tell the age of a surface
the more impacts there are, the older
3. Chance of being hit
factors governing our chance of being hit
more often for smaller impactors, less
often for bigger ones
know approximately how often
cm sized objects hit
meter sized objects hit
kilometer sized objects hit
4. Mass Extinction Events
know when the dinosaurs died
know the major geological eras
know the result of a major impact event
e.g. dust cover blocks sunlight and plants die
1. Life in the Solar System
Know where we've found conclusive evidence of life
okay, trick question, there is only 1 place: Earth
Know where in the SS we speculate there to be life
e.g. Europa, Mars, Titan
know the type of life for each planet
2. Factors Governing the Creation of life
know the general time scale of evolution on Earth
know the definition of the Goldilock's region
know around what type of stars we should be looking, and why
e.g. not around massive stars, because they have short lifetimes and may be around long enough to develop intelligent life
3. Search for ET
know why we don't plan to travel to nearby stars
e.g. need too much energy
know the methods of searching for ETs
know what SETI does and how it searches for ETs
know why SETI is no longer funded by the government
1. Mission success rates
know the approximate success rate of NASA missions
know some examples of famous failures
2. Hubble Space Telescope
know the basic function of HST
know what science HST is capable of
know why we want to build telescopes in space
e.g. to get away from the atmosphere
understand why it's the focus of so much attention
3. Mars Missions
understand why Mars missions are so high profile
know some successful Mars missions and what they do
4. Space Station
know the scientific goals of the Space Station
know the "other" goals of the Space Station
understand why the Space Station is important for future missions