Assignment:
Fill in the blank.
1. The use of fertilizers in agriculture causes _______ as agricultural runoff carries these fertilizers into nearby waterways.
2. As the population within an environment grows, it eventually reaches its _______.
3. As human populations continue to grow around the world, forests are cleared to make room for _______ to support the growing population.
4. Urban areas tend to have higher _______ than surrounding rural areas due to the heat island effect.
5. Urban areas generally are covered with asphalt or concrete; after precipitation, the water can't flow back into the _______, which lowers water tables.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Briefly describe how mining for minerals and metals can degrade water quality and cause acidification.
7. Earth's ozone layer is responsible for absorbing _______ from the sun.
8. Changes in the composition of the atmosphere have caused gradual changes in Earth's _______ throughout history, causing changes in plant and animal life that contributed to mass extinctions.
9. Chemical chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been banned and replaced with _______, which destroy about 1 percent of the ozone that CFCs do.
10. Naturally occurring volcanic eruptions can produce large amounts of gases that contain sulfur. These gases accumulate in the atmosphere in the same way as man-made _______.
11. Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and trap it as _______.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
1. Briefly describe which environmental factors are responsible for the greenhouse effect.
2. Increasing temperatures in the atmosphere have caused the temperature of the oceans to _______, leading to more powerful tropical storms.
3. Approximately 25 percent of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere is absorbed in the _______.
4. _______ treatment is critical to removing pollutants from contaminated water by using physical, chemical, or biological processes.
5. Water pollution can come from the _______ of dead organic matter or animal waste in waterways.
6. Water pollution increases the salinity and slows down major ocean _______ that are responsible for regulating Earth's climate.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
1. Describe steps that can be taken to improve water quality through water conservation.
Fill in the blank.
1. The sun's _______ keeps planets in our solar system in orbit around the sun.
2. Comets are examples of bodies that complete parabolic or _______ orbits.
3. The orbits of all the planets in the solar system are slightly elliptical with the exception of _______.
4. Kepler's laws describe how objects move through space; _______ laws describe why objects move in this way.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
5. Describe the differences between a geocentric model and heliocentric model. What model is the current Sun-Earth-Moon System based on?
Fill in the blank.
1. The autumnal _______ occurs in September when the days start getting shorter and the nights are longer in the Northern Hemisphere.
2. During a new moon phase, spring tides produce the _______ difference between high and low tides.
3. Tides are caused by _______ pulling the water of the oceans and causing it to bulge toward the large masses of the moon and sun.
4. During a lunar eclipse, the moon briefly passes through the _______, where it receives much less sunlight causing the moon to appear dim.
5. When the moon passes between the sun and the earth a/an _______ eclipse occurs which momentarily blocks the sun's rays from reaching certain areas of the earth.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. If the earth blocks light from the sun during a lunar eclipse, why does the moon appear red when it passes through the umbra?
Fill in the blank.
1. According to the _______ hypothesis, the moon formed far away from the earth and was later captured by the earth's gravity.
2. The most popular hypothesis for the moon's origin is the _______.
3. Telescopes can be engineered to gather light from any portion of the _______.
4. In 2021 the James Webb Telescope will begin operation focusing on infrared wavelengths and must be kept extremely _______.
5. Scientists estimated the age of the universe to be nearly _______ billion years using Hubble's pictures and images from the Wilkinson probe.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Briefly explain why the moon doesn't have an atmosphere or plate tectonic activity.
Fill in the blank.
1. An important unit in the solar system is the astronomical unit, or AU, that refers to the average distance between _______ and the sun of 93 million miles.
2. Except for the moon Hyperion that orbits Saturn, all known moons in the solar system are _______ locked.
3. Most moons have prograde orbits about their planets, meaning that they orbit in the same direction as their planets _______.
4. Many comets, meteorites, and other large bodies called dwarf planets can be found in the _______ Belt.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
5. Describe the processes occurring in a nebula and explain why rocky planets are formed closer to the center of the solar system.
Fill in the blank.
1. An object can be broken up by a planet's gravity once it passes the _______.
2. The Jovian planets are composed primarily of _______ and helium.
3. Hydrogen and helium don't exist in Earth's _______ because the terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars couldn't exert a strong gravitational pull on hydrogen and helium gas within the nebula.
4. _______ is the planet closest to the sun, has almost no atmosphere, and what little atmosphere exists is constantly getting blown away by solar wind.
5. The atmosphere of _______ is very hot and dense, comprised of approximately 95 percent carbon dioxide, and the surface is composed of molten bedrock.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Briefly describe why an object might break up under the force of gravity as it approaches a planet. What happens if the planet is very dense? What if the planet is less dense?
7. Briefly explain why the Jovian planets formed farther away from the sun than the terrestrial planets.
Fill in the blank.
1. The _______ causes the tail of a comet always to trail away from the Sun.
2. In general, an asteroid doesn't have an atmosphere, but some asteroids are large enough to have their own _______.
3. Most meteoroids that enter Earth's atmosphere vaporize before they ever reach the surface creating trails of light as they burn, known as _______ or shooting stars.
4. Space _______ travel along curved trajectories and take advantage of the gravity of other planets in the process.
5. The _______ probes explored Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and they were responsible for the first close-up images of these planets.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Give examples of the scientific knowledge that has been gained by space exploration.
Fill in the blank.
1. The life cycle of a star depends primarily on its mass with _______ stars burning their fuel more quickly.
2. For nuclear fusion in stars to begin, the elements must undergo extremely high _______ and pressures.
3. Elements heavier than hydrogen are scattered throughout the universe when a massive star explodes as a _______.
4. All elements heavier than _______ are produced in the core of a red supergiant.
5. The _______ spectrum emitted from a star changes as the star's temperature changes.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Briefly describe why the mass of a star determines its fate after a supernova explosion.
Fill in the blank.
1. The sun produces energy by fusing _______ into helium.
2. The major components of the sun are hydrogen and _______.
3. The sun is so hot that matter doesn't exist there in as state of a solid, liquid, or gas, but in the state of _______.
4. Near the poles, Earth's magnetic field turns inward, and some solar wind strikes the atmosphere, causing it to glow and produce _______.
5. The sun's _______ field reverses every 11 years.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Stars are classified according to their temperature and luminosity. Using the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram compare and contrast white dwarfs with super giants.
Fill in the blank.
1. Irregular and elliptical galaxies contain large amounts of _______ and gas that make it difficult to distinguish individual stars.
2. One mathematical tool that's used to quantify the rate of universal expansion is _______.
3. The Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, and 52 smaller galaxies are part of a cluster called the _______.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
4. How can you infer the existence of dark matter in a massive galaxy or in a cluster?
5. Briefly describe why different types of universes would produce different shifts in the light observed from distant galaxies.
Fill in the blank.
1. A massive body can bend the path of a beam of light as it travels through space; it causes light to travel on a _______ path rather than along a straight line.
2. Light waves compress as an object is moving toward an observer, causing the light to shift to the _______ end of the electromagnetic spectrum.
3. Black holes can't be observed directly because they don't produce _______, so the location is identified by examining the motion of nearby stars.
4. Even less understood than dark energy is dark _______, making up 27 percent of matter in the universe and cannot be observed with light.
5. Holding the Milky Way together is accomplished by the _______ provided by a supermassive black hole near the center of the galactic bulge.
Respond to the following based on your reading.
6. Explain why the galactic disk appears blue and the galactic bulge appears red.