1. What is the center of mass of a system? Why is it an important concept for planet searchers? Where is the center-of-mass of our Solar System? How fast does the Sun move around the center-of-mass of our Solar System? What is the rough period with which the Sun moves around the center-of-mass of the Solar System?
2. What are the primary methods used to detect extra-solar planetary systems? What is the Doppler Effect? What is an occultation? What is a transit? Why did Kepler and why does TESS typically discover planets with short orbital periods? Why, typically, do workers who utilize spectroscopic searches discover massive planets in small orbits? How common are planetary systems according to Kepler, TESS, and other planetary searchers?
3. Compare and contrast the Terrestrial planets in terms of their sizes, masses, distances from the Sun, chemical compositions, atmospheres, magnetic fields, densities.
4. How does the condensation theory for the origin of the Solar System account for the Terrestrial planets? What are refractory elements? What are volatile elements?
5. Today, Venus has a massive atmosphere of CO₂, the Earth has a much less massive atmosphere of Nitrogen and Oxygen with little CO₂, and Mars has a very low mass atmosphere of primarily CO₂. What happened to the CO₂ that presumably was once in the Earth's and Mars's atmospheres? Where is the CO₂?
6. Venus and Earth are essentially twin planets in their general properties and initial states. What is the significance of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H ratio)? What happened to Venus's water? What caused the atmosphere's of the two planets to evolve so differently?
7. Earth and Mars are similar planets in terms of their general properties and initial states. Explain what caused the atmospheres of the two planets to evolve so differently. What is the significance of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H ratio)? What caused the atmosphere's of the two planets to evolve so differently?
8. What are the best current ideas concerning the origin of our Moon? Does our model for the origin of the Moon shed any light on the origin of the Earth's and other Terrestrial planet's atmospheres?
9. Describe how one uses radioactive age dating to determine the age of a rock. How has this been used to our advantage on the Moon?
10. Describe the surface features on the Moon. What are the oldest regions? What are the youngest regions? How are the relative ages of the various features determined? How are their absolute ages determined? The period of late heavy bombardment on the Moon occurred ~3.8-4.2 billion years ago. What is the period of late heavy bombardment? What has been proposed as a cause for the late heavy bombardment? Describe the rate of cratering on the Moon and the Earth over the last 4.5 billion years. Is the number of craters produced per year on the Earth greater than the number produced on the Moon? Explain your answer.
11. What are the signatures of Plate Tectonic activity? What drives plate tectonic activity? What are the lithosphere and the asthenosphere? How do they differ from the core, mantle, and crust?
12. Roughly, how many plates are on the surface of the Earth? What drives geology on any planet? What evidence and facts led Wegener to propose the theory of plate tectonics?
13. Why was the theory not immeditately accepted? What eventually led to the acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics?
14. What are oceanic plates? What are continental plates? How do they differ? What are rift zones, subduction zones? Describe what occurs at the places where different plates collide and the locations where different slide along each other.
15. What is the Juan de Fuca plate? Why is the Juan de Fuca plate of significance to us in Oregon? What geological activity is associated with the plate interactions in the Plate Tectonic theory? What are shield volcanoes? What makes the Hawaiian islands a chain of islands? What are plumes? Why don't the Hawaiian island volcanos fall near plate boundaries?
16. Do we believe that Plate Tectonic activity occured on Mars? Cite evidence that supports your answer. What about Venus?
17. What are maria? How were they formed? Where are they found? When were they formed? On what objects are they found?
18. What is the rate at which large craters (D > 100 km) are formed on the Earth (the rate at which the purported dinsoaur killer events occur)?
19. How are the ages of the surface features on the Moon determined? How are the ages of surface features on Mercury estimated? How do the ages of the surace features on the Earth, Venus, Mar, Moon, and Mercury compare? If different, why are they different?
20. What are the ways in which energy is transported (given in class)? Describe convection? What is conduction? What is radiation transport? Near a campfire, explain why you feel heated if you are above the flames, on the ground away from the flames, and why your hand feels warm if you hold an iron poker placed into the fire.
21. How does radar ranging work (on Venus by Magellan)? What information can be obtained from radar ranging? What is its significance for Venus and why was it used on Venus? What is Magellan?

1. What is meant by primary atmosphere? By secondary atmosphere?
2. What are the possible sources for the atmospheres of the Terrestrial planets? Which is the most likely for the Earth? How does the origin of the Moon play into our understanding of the origin of the Earth's atmosphere?
3. Describe the Faint Young Sun Paradox. What is the resolution of the Faint Young Sun Paradox? What is meant by equilibrium temperature? What is meant by albedo? What is the rough albedo for the Terrestrial planets?
4. Describe the Greenhouse Effect. What are the most important Greenhouse gases on the Earth?
5. What are the layers of the Earth's atmosphere? Where is the ozone layer and roles does it play for us? What is the water trap? Why is the water trap important? Why is oxygen so abundant on Earth?
6. Venus, Earth, and Mars likely started out under similar conditions. Describe the current thinking as to why each planet wound up so radically different from each other (in terms of their atmospheres). What happened to the Martian atmosphere? Why is it so thin? What happened to Venus's water? Why do we maintain such a mild climate?
7. If all of the water on the Earth were in liquid form and spread over the Earth, to what depth would the Earth be covered? If the same was done on Venus, to what depth would Venus be covered? What happened to Venus's water?
8. Are there liquid oceans on Mars today? If not, is there water on Mars? If there is water on Mars, where is the water? Was there liquid water on Mars in the past? Is there evidence for liquid water on Mars in the past? What evidence was presented by Curiosity (and other rovers and Martian missions) presented for a lusher Martian climate in the past?
9. The largest volcano in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars. Suggest reasons why the largest volcanoes are found on Mars and not on the Earth or Venus.
10. Briefly, contrast the surface features on Venus and Mars. Do either Venus or Mars show plate tectonic activity? If not, does this mean Venus and Mars do not show signs of geology?
11. Carefully describe why Mars is considered the best site for searches for extra-Terrestrial life in our Solar System. Cite the reasons that support your answer.
12. What biology experiments were carried out by the Viking Landers? What results were initially found by these experiments? How did Phoenix alter our interpretation of the Viking results? How did Curiosity alter our interpretation?

6.  The chemical composition of the atmosphere of Mars is 
    most similar to the atmosphere of
	a.  Jupiter
*	b.  Venus
	c.  the Earth
	d.  the Moon
	e.  Mercury

7.  The  plastic region in the interior of the Earth where energy is 
    transported by convective motions is the
	a.  core
	b.  mantle
*	c.  asthenosphere
	d.  lithosphere
	e.  crust

12.  The light-colored regions on the Moon are
	a.  the highlands and are thought to be the youngest features on the
            Moon 
*	b.  the highlands and are heavily cratered
	c.  the maria and are thought to be old; ages up to 4.6 billion years
	d.  the maria and are thought to be around 3.2 - 3.8 billion years old
	e.  wind-swept plains formed early in the Moon's history

13. The study of the Moon's surface and rocks has revealed that
	a.  a short period of intense bombardment occured around 1 billion years
            ago
	b.  the cratering history of the Moon is anomalous in that it is
            different from what we know about the cratering rates of the 
            other planets
*	c.  the rate of impacts was very high 4 billion years ago but then
            precipitously to its current levels
	d.  the far side of the Moon has never been struck by objects as large 
            as the ones which struck the near side of the Moon (and formed the 
            maria)

14.  The relative ages of the regions on Mars can be inferred from
	a.  the heights of their volcanos
	b.  the lengths of their canyons (e.g., Valles Marineris)
*	c.  the number of craters
	d.  the sizes of their largest craters
	e.  the number of volcanos they contain

15. Active geology on a planet
	a.  requires the existence of a lithosphere
	b.  requires an extensive and thick atmosphere
	c.  only occurs when the planet has a sizable moon
*	d.  will only occur if the planet has a hot interior
	e.  will only occur on smaller planets, in general

16.  On the Earth, the oceanic plates
	a.  are less dense than the continental plates
*	b.  are re-cycled roughly every 100 - 200 million years
	c.  contain some of the oldest surface features found on the Earth
	d.  are thought to be composed mainly of iron and nickel
	e.  tend to float on top of the continental plates

17.  Continental drift (plate tectonic activity) may be driven by
	a.  strong winds
	b.  ocean currents
	c.  earthquakes
	d.  volcanism
*	e.  convection

18. The Tharsis region on Mars
	a.  shows some of the oldest surface features on Mars
	b.  lies for the most part below the sea level on Mars
*	c.  is a region of very recent volcanism
	d.  contains both heavily cratered and relatively uncratered regions
	e.  is strong evidence that, in the past, Mars showed extensive plate 
            tectontic activity

19.  The Martian surface shows a striking asymmetry between its 
     northern and southern  hemispheres.  The differences show up
	a.  in the composition of the atmosphere above each region
*	b.  in the elevations of the regions
	c.  in the number of continents each contains
	d.  in the amount of plate tectonic activity each exhibits
	e.  All of the above are examples of the striking differences between 
	    the two hemispheres

20.  Which of the following statements about the surface of Venus is correct?
	a.  The surface of Venus is thought to be ancient, 4.6 billion years old
	b.  There is an overabundance of craters with diameters less than 30 
            km on Venus
	c.  Most of the surface of Venus is fairly young, only 3 billion 
            years old
	d.  The surface of Venus is covered primarily by continental-type 
            regions
*	e.  Venus's lithosphere is thought to be weaker and more pliable than 
            the Earth's lithosphere

21.  The surface of Mercury is more like that of _____ while its
     interior is more like that of _____ .
	a.  the Moon; Jupiter
	b.  Mars; Venus
*	c.  the Moon; the Earth
	d.  Mars; Jupiter
	e.  Mars; the Earth

26. Compared with the side of the Moon facing the Earth, the lunar backside 
    has
	a.  more maria
	b.  substantially fewer craters
	c.  substantially fewer mountain ranges
*	d.  a thicker crust
	e.  an active volcano!

28.  The Solar System is thought to be
	a.  100 - 200 million years old
	b.  46 million years old
*	c.  4.6 billion years old
	d.  10 billion years old
	e.  300 - 800 million years old

29. Which of the following Terrestrial planets shows strong evidence for past
    or present plate tectonic activity?
	a.  Venus
*	b.  Earth
	c.  Mars
	d.  only the Earth and Venus
	e.  Venus, Earth, and Mars

30. The majority of the surface features on Mercury were formed via
	a.  plate tectonic activity
	b.  erosion
	c.  volcanism
*	d.  impacts
	e.  a few very large impacts due to asteroid-sized objects

31. What explains the lack of small impact craters (less than 1.4 km) 
    on Venus?
	a.  objects of the size needed to produce such craters never reach the
            surface of Venus due to Venus's strong magnetic field
*	b.  the thick atmosphere burns up most objects which produce craters 
            of this size
	c.  small impact craters have been eroded by water and wind
	d.  the statement is incorrect -- there are many such small craters 
            on Venus

32.  A measurement of the density of a planet can tell us
*	a.  the rough composition of the planet
	b.  the age of the planet
	c.  the mass of the planet
	d.  the size (diameter) of the planet
	e.  All of the above can be deduced from only the density of a planet.

34.  Based on the composition of the Earth, we define the following regions
     in the interior of the Earth (in order of increasing distance from the
     center of the Earth)
	a.  troposphere, mesosphere, stratosphere
*	b.  core, mantle, crust
	c.  mantle, core, crust
	d.  lithosphere, hydropshere, asthenosphere
	e.  core, asthenosphere, lithosphere

35.  Near subduction zones, we expect
	a.  to find large changes in the level of the oceans
*	b.  to find active volcanism
	c.  to see the formation of island chains (like Hawaii)
	d.  to observe the creation of new continental crustal material
	e.  to see sea-floor spreading

36.  Due to the continuous creation of crustal material
	a.  the Earth is growing in diameter by around 2 - 3 cm per year.
	b.  the land masses (continents) are being continuosly destroyed
	c.  the Earth is getting more massive as time goes by
*	d.  the ocean basins are replaced every few hundred million years
	e.  the sea level is rising by around 2 - 4 cm per year

37.  The mountains on the Moon are
	a.  strong evidence for the recent collision of continental plates
	b.  caused by hot-spots in the mantle of the Moon
*	c.  created by the impacts of large objects on the Moon
	d.  evidence of extensive volcanism in the early history of the Moon
	e.  evidence that the Moon was once part of the Earth

38.  We know that the Lunar maria formed after the Lunar highlands because
*	a.  the highlands are more heavily cratered than are the maria
	b.  the maria are at lower elevations than are the highlands
	c.  there is a lack of maria on the far side of the Moon
	d.  the highlands are darker in color than are the maria
	e.  most of the Moon is covered by highland regions

39.  Of the following planets, which has the largest iron core relative to its
     overall mass?
*	a.  Mercury
	b.  Venus
	c.  Earth
	d.  Moon
	e.  Mars

44.  The surface of Venus is around
	a.  4.6 million years old
	b.  several trillion years old
	c.  4.6 billion years old
*	d.  300 - 800 million years old
	e.  100 - 200 million years old

45.  Which of the following statements best describes the formation of the 
     Lunar maria?
	a.  melting and crust solidification followed by impacts
	b.  massive volcanism and the subsequent cooling of the crust
*	c.  large impacts followed by volcanism
	d.  massive volcanism followed by large impacts
	e.  uplifts and subsequent collapses of the lunar crust

46.  Modern data indicates that Venus
	a.  has extensive, rapid, and current continental drift
	b.  has never had volcanic activity
	c.  is covered mainly by continent-like regions (highlands)
*	d.  may have had recent volcanic activity
	e.  is covered by a layer of water to a depth of roughly 2 -3 kilometers

47.  A major reason for the large size of the volcanos on Mars is
*	a.  the probable lack of continental drift on Mars
	b.  the rapid motion of continental plates on Mars
	c.  the large number of volcanos on Mars
	d.  the small size of Mars

48.  Based on the appearances of the Moon, Mercury, and the Earth, plus
     knowledge of their interiors, we might conclude that
*	a.  Mercury and the Moon have changed little in the last 3 billion years
            while the Earth is evolving continuously
	b.  both Mercury and the Earth are still evolving, while the 
            Moon is dead
	c.  All three of the objects are geologically active today
	d.  The surface on all three of the objects may be considered permanent,
            that is, they are unchanging

49.  Large quantities of rock (new crustal material) are emerging from the
     mantle
	a.  along the tops of continental mountain ranges (such as the 
            Himalayas)
	b.  along the boundaries between continental and oceanic plates
	c.  along the major continental rivers (such as the Mississippi) 
            where the crustal plates are the thinnest
*	d.  along the rifts found between oceanic plates

11.  We expect the Earth's core to be more dense than its crust because
	a. in the early stages of the Earth's formation, its interior was molten (or at least, it was soft)
	b.  the density of material in the crust is less than the overall 
            average density of the Earth
	c.  any material becomes more dense as it is compressed by the weight of
            the material lying above it
*	d.  all of the above are correct
	e.  only a and b are correct

22. The atmospheric pressure of a planet
	a.  is a measure of the surface temperature on the planet
*	b.  is a measure of the mass contained in the atmosphere of a planet
	c.  is a measure of the temperature of the gas around the planet
	d.  tells you the composition of the atmosphere of the planet

32.  A measurement of the density of a planet can tell us
*	a.  the rough composition of the planet
	b.  the age of the planet
	c.  the mass of the planet
	d.  the size (diameter) of the planet
	e.  All of the above can be deduced from only the density of a planet.

39.  Of the following planets, which has the largest iron core relative to its
     overall mass?
*	a.  Mercury
	b.  Venus
	c.  Earth
	d.  Moon
	e.  Mars