Team Name: Team Number: Score: SOLAR SYSTEM SCIENCE OLYMPIAD ROCKFORD INVITATIONAL 12 JANUARY 2019

Transcription

1 Team Name: Team Number: Score: SOLAR SYSTEM SCIENCE OLYMPIAD ROCKFORD INVITATIONAL 12 JANUARY 2019

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3 1. A sidereal month is the time between (A) New moon and new moon (C) Two eclipses (B) The moon passing by the same star (D) Two moon apogees 2. The full moon is visible (approximately) from (A) noon-midnight (B) 6pm-6am (C) midnight-noon (D) 6am-6pm 3. The last quarter moon is visible (approximately) from (A) noon-midnight (B) 6pm-6am (C) midnight-noon (D) 6am-6pm 4. A lunar eclipse is visible (A) Everywhere on Earth (C) During every full moon 5*. A solar eclipse happens (A) Very rarely (C) Several times a year (B) Everywhere the moon is up (D) Along a narrow strip on Earth (B) Every 5-10 years (D) Every month 6. The ecliptic is (A) The path of the Sun between the stars (C) The places where an eclipse is visible (B) The path of the Moon in the sky (D) Another name for "eclipse" 7.* During an annular eclipse the part of the Sun that is visible is (A) The corona (B) The chromosphere (C) The photosphere (D) The "diamond ring" 8. Longitudinal lunar libration is due to (A) The moon's elliptical orbit (C) The rotation of the Earth (B) The moon's inclined orbit (D) The changing illumination by the Sun 9*. Most of what we know of Mimas comes from which mission? (A) Voyager 1 (B) Voyager 2 (C) New Horizons (D) Cassini 10. The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting (A) 4 Vesta (C) Ryugu (B) 1 Ceres (D) Bennu

4 11.* The goal of the OSIRIS-REx mission is to (A) retrieve a sample of an asteroid (B) orbit a comet (C) land on Mars (D) orbit Saturn 12. In early 2019 China sent a spacecraft to (A) Mars (B) The Moon (C) Ceres (D) Pluto 13*. 'Oumuamua is (A) an asteroid (C) a Kuiper Belt Object (B) a centaur (D) an interstellar object 14. Craters on Ceres form mostly due to (A) cryovolcanism (B) impacts (C) iceflows (D) Ceres has no craters 15. The reddish color of Kuiper Belt Objects is due to (A) nitrogen ice (B) paint (C) tholins (D) refracted sunlight 16. The surface of Pluto is covered mostly by (A) carbon dioxide ice (B) water ice (C) tholins (D) nitrogen ice 17*. What is the best evidence that Haumea is very elongated? (A) It looks elliptical in images (B) The shape of its lightcurve (C) The pattern in which it occulted stars it passed in front of (D) Images from New Horizons passing by 18. "Trojans" are asteroids that (A) orbit Jupiter (C) are very iron-rich (B) cross the Earth's orbit (D) orbit 60 o away from an object in its orbit 19. An "Amor asteroid" has an orbit that (A) lies completely outside 1 AU (B) lies completely inside 1 AU (C) has semi-major axis > 1 AU, but perihelion inside 1 AU (D) has semi-major axis < 1 AU, but aphelion outside 1 AU 20. Objects in the Kuiper Belt have a typical surface temperature of (A) 500 K (B) 270 K (C) 170 K (D) 40 K

5 Name the moon phases shown in the image below (Write the name of the phase on the answer sheet) A Northern hemisphere B C D E Southern hemisphere F G H 21.* A= 22.* C= 23.* D= 24.* F= 25.* G= 26. The image below is a composite of a lunar eclipse. Why does the moon look red in the middle image? (A) A red color filter was used on the camera (B) When the moon is reflecting just a little sunlight it preferentially reflects red light (C) During totality the moon was very low above the horizon, so that the Earth's atmosphere caused a reddening, just like during a sunset (D) During totality the only light we see was first refracted by the Earth's atmosphere.

6 Name the spacecraft in the images below A B D E 27. A= 28. B= C 29. C= 30. D= 31. E= The image above shows the distribution of semi-major axes of the asteroids. 32. What is the name of the regions pointed to by the labels "3:1", "5:2", "7:3", "2:1"? 33. Does this imply that if one travels through the asteroid belt there are regions where no asteroids are encountered? Answer "yes" or "no".

7 A B C F G H J K L D E I M 34. Which mission created the image shown in image A? 35*. What is the name of the object shown in image B? 36. Image C shows Saturn's moon Phoebe. Which object in image set A-M is the most similar to it? 37. Which object in image set A-M is the most water rich? 38. Which image in the set A to M has the smallest known satellite? 39.* Of the objects in images A to M which object is the furthest from the Sun? 40.* What kind of asteroid is the object in image M (orbit-wise)? 41. Which lunar mare is outlined by the red circle in image H? 42,43.* Which TWO images in image set A-M show Pluto? 44,45. Which TWO images in image set A-M are moons of Pluto? 46,47. Which TWO images in image set A-M were not taken from a spacecraft? 48,49. Which TWO images were taken by the Dawn spacecraft?

8 50. What does this image show? (A) A very thin solar corona seen during a solar eclipse (B) The Earth as obscured by the Moon as seen from one of the lunar orbiters (C) Backscattered sunlight through the nitrogen atmosphere of Pluto (D) An eclipse of Pluto by Charon as seen by the New Horizons mission 51.* These two images show two moon craters. Which one is younger? The one on the left or the one on the right? 52.* This image shows a false-color map of which object? 53. What kind of geological information is shown in the image? 54. Which mission allowed us to create this image?

9 A B C D Match the following maria with images A-E Imbrium, Orientale, Nectaris, Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis E 55. Image A = 56. Image B = 57. Image C = 58. Image D = 59. Image E = 60.* From left to right these three images show the craters Albategnius, Sosigenes and Tycho. Their internal structure is clearly different. Why is this? (A) They are on different parts of the Moon with different underlying substrates causing different results when the crater was formed. (B) They are of different size, leading to different reactions of the ground to the impact. (C) Albategnius is more eroded than Sosigenes or Tycho, making the central peak disappear. (D) Albategnius is younger than Sosigenes or Tycho, so there are fewer later craters inside it.

10 61.* Which object is shown here? 62. What do the colors on the right half represent? 63 This image shows a major crater on Ceres. What is the name of this crater? 64. The bright white spots (Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Facula) in the image are made of (A) Water ice (B) Sodium chloride salt (C) Sodium carbonate salt (D) Frozen carbon dioxide 65. How was the composition of the bright spot on Ceres determined? (A) From a sampling mission (B) From the reflected IR spectrum (C) From a model predicting the kind of materials that are present under the surface (D) Observing the eruption of briny water

11 66.* This image of Eris also shows its moon Dysnomia. Why is Dysnomia important? (A) It shows that Kuiper Belt objects can be double, indicating a slow, possibly still incomplete accretion process (B) It shows that small Kuiper Belt objects can be captured by larger ones (C) It allows us to determine the mass and density of Eris (D) It allows a better determination of the orbit of Eris around the Sun 67. This image shows mottled terrain on Pluto. What is the name of this region? 68. Which mission took this image? 69. What causes the mottling? (A) Glacial flows (B) Convection of the ices due to Pluto's internal heat (C) Shrinkage of the ice as it cools when Pluto moves further from the Sun (D) The edges of the cells are hills made of darker material

12 70. (3 points) The scatter plot below compares the albedo and spectral shape of Kuiper Belt objects. It shows there are two groups - reddish objects that are relatively bright (albedo ~0.20) and slightly bluer objects that are relatively dark (albedo 0.08). The differently colored symbols show which sub-population the object belongs to. This reveals that plutinos, hot classicals, scattered disk objects and centaurs show up in both groups. even though all these objects have been in the outer solar system for over 4 billion years and were exposed to the same conditions. On the other hands, classical KBOs and KBOs in orbital resonances are all in the redder group. What does this imply for KBOs? (A) The two groups have different compositions because the solar nebula was not well mixed and objects with different compositions formed at a range of distances (B) The orbital evolution of the dark neutral objects was different - e.g. they were not always where they are now, but were exposed to less sunlight in the past. (C) The two groups formed at different distances, thus with different initial compositions. When their orbits were disturbed they mixed, but the dark neutral objects reacted differently to the 4 billion year of sunlight exposure.

13 The left image above shows the reflectivity of different types of asteroids as function of wavelength. The right image shows the fraction of each type as function of distance to the sun. C-type are the "carbonaceous asteroids" S-type are the "silicaceous or stony asteroids" M-type are the "metal rich asteroids" S and V-type are speial kinds that we will ignore for now. 71. Which kind is the darkest, C, S or M? 72. (3 points) What is the probable cause of the differences in asteroid compositions? (A) They formed at different distances from the Sun where material with different compositions was present (B) The varying reflectivity of the surface is the result of the deposition of different materials over the course of time as they are at different distances to the Sun (C) Originally large planetesimals formed, which melted and differentiated, but then collisions broke them up, exposing the metal-rich cores as M-type asteroids while unbroken ones are C and S type (D) The difference in distance to the Sun caused differential effects of solar radiation over time, affecting the composition of the surface

14 73. (3 points) The graph below shows a scatter plot comparing the albedo and diameter of a large number of TNOs. The four dwarf planets Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake stand out by having a relatively high albedo. What might be the cause of this?

15 ANSWER SHEET Team # School: Participants: * * * * * * * 41.* * * *

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17 KEY 1. B 26. D 51.* right 2. B 27. Cassini 52.* Moon 3. A 28. Dawn 53. Density 4. B 29. New Horizons 54. GRAIL 5.* C 30. Lucy 55. Imbrium 6. A 31. Voyager Tranquilitatis 7.* C 32. Kirkwood Gaps 57. Serenitatis 8. A 33. no 58. Nectaris 9.* D 34. Cassini 59. Orientale 10. B 35.* Mimas 60.* B 11.* A 36. M, Ryugy 61.* Mimas 12. B 37. F, Ceres 62. Temperature 13.* D 38. E/J, Pluto 63. Occator 14. B 39.* D, Ultima Thule 64. C 15. C 40.* NEO 65. C 16. D 41. Imbrium 66.* C 17.* B 42.* E or J 67. Sputnik Planitia 18. D 43.* J or J 68. New Horizons 19. D 44. G or K 69. B K 45. G or K 70.(3)C 21.* Full 46. H or L 71. C 22.* Waning gibbous 47. H or L 72.(3)C 23.* Waning crescent 48. E or F 24.* Waxing gibbous 49. E or F 25.* First quarter 50. C 73.(3)The larger objects have cryovolcanoes and atmospheres from which ice crystals condense, and thus end up with highly reflective surfaces