Exam 10: Worlds of Gas and Liquid the Giant Planets

Jupiter and Saturn are composed primarily of:

_________ has the most extreme seasons of any planet in the Solar System.

The Jovian atmospheric vortices are created by a combination of the Coriolis effect and:

How does the discovery of Neptune relate to the discovery of extrasolar planets?

The compositions of Uranus and Neptune differ primarily from that of Jupiter and Saturn in that the outer two planets contain more:

If you monitor Saturn's atmosphere and you see a storm near its equator at a longitude of 0° west on one day and at a longitude of 90° west three days later, what is the average wind speed on Saturn at this storm's latitude? Note that these positions are measured on a coordinate system that rotates with the planet's interior, and the radius of Saturn is 6* 10⁷ m.

Based on the flux of sunlight that it gets, Jupiter should have a temperature of 109 K. However its temperature is observed to be 124 K. How much more energy is Jupiter radiating out into space compared to what it gets from the Sun?

On which of the giant planets do we think we can find deep oceans of water? Why do we think this, when we can't directly see inside the giant planets?

The strongest magnetic fields in the Solar System are found on which planet?

Define cloud cannibalism. Where is it observed in the Solar System?

Suppose Neptune moves with an average orbital speed of 3.5 km/s. If it takes Neptune four hours to pass directly in front of a star, what is Neptune's diameter? Give Neptune's radius in units of Earth diameters, where the diameter of Earth is 12,800 km.

Which giant planet has the most prominent band structures?

All the giant planets except _________ experience seasons.

Jupiter radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun, mostly because it is still contracting under its own gravity.

The figure below shows a drawing of bands in the atmosphere of Jupiter, and the arrows indicate the direction the winds are blowing in those bands. At which of the labeled locations would you be most likely to find a vortex storm?

As a group, the giant planets all rotate _________ terrestrial planets.

What is the angular diameter of Neptune if its diameter is 50,000 km and its distance is 30 AU?

What could have caused the planets to migrate through the Solar System?

When you look at the visible surface of a gas giant planet, you are looking at that planet's _________.

If Saturn's orbital period is 30 years and the obliquity is 26 degrees, how long is it from the first day of spring to the first day of autumn on Saturn?