Essential Cosmic Perspective
9th Edition
ISBN: 9780135795033
Author: Bennett
Publisher: PEARSON
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Textbook Question
Chapter 10, Problem 40EAP
Group Activity: Time to Move On. A common theme in science fic-tion is “leaving home” to find a new planet for humans to live on. Now that we know about thousands of planets, we can start imag-ining how to choose. Note: You may wish to do this activity using the same four roles described in Chapter 1, Exercise 39.
a. Make a list of characteristics that you would look for in a planet that might make a good home.
b. Examine the planets in Figure 10.13. Does this graph give enough information to determine which planets might make good homes, or poor ones? If not, what’s missing?
c. Suppose you also knew the orbital distance for each of the plan-ets in Figure 10.13. Would that make it easier to find potential good homes? Why or why not?
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Tutorial
A radio broadcast left Earth in 1923. How far in light
years has it traveled?
If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light
years, how many star systems has this broadcast
reached?
Assume that the fraction of these star systems that
have planets is 0.50 and that, in a given planetary
system, the average number of planets that have
orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.40.
How many possible planets with life could have heard
this signal?
Part 1 of 3
To figure out how many light years a signal has
traveled we need to know how long since the signal left
Earth. If the signal left in 1923, distance in light years =
time since broadcast left Earth.
d = tnow - broadcast
d = 97
97 light years
Part 2 of 3
Since the radio signal travels in all directions, it
expanded as a sphere with a radius equal to the
distance it has traveled so far. To determine the
number of star systems this signal has reached, we
need to determine the volume of that sphere.
V, =
Vb…
Tutorial
A radio broadcast left Earth in 1925. How far in light years has it traveled?
If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast
reached?
Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.30 and that, in a given planetary
system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.85. How
many possible planets with life could have heard this signal?
Part 1 of 3
To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth.
If the signal left in 1925, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth.
d = tnow - tbroadcast
d =
light years
Submit
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For which of the following reasons (select all that apply), is it useful/important to send rovers to other planetary bodies in our solar system?
O a. The engineering innovations developed to produce successful/viable rovers and landers on other planets can help lead to developments in the technology used here on Earth that may have taken far more time to develop without the limitations provided by space travel
to foreign worlds.
O b. The data collected can help improve our understanding of the evolution/development of our solar system.
O. Rovers/landers can be outfitted with various tools and equipment that can be used to inform of us of the geological histories of each of the planets they visit.
O d. More direct probes of the planetary surface are possible to detect signs of the building blocks of life.
O e. Rock samples can be used to calibrate our estimations of the age of the solar system.
Chapter 10 Solutions
Essential Cosmic Perspective
Ch. 10 - Prob. 1VSCCh. 10 - Prob. 2VSCCh. 10 - Prob. 3VSCCh. 10 - 4. Match the planet's po,sitions at points 1, 2,...Ch. 10 - How would the plot change if the planet were more...Ch. 10 - Prob. 1EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 2EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 3EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 4EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 5EAP
Ch. 10 - Prob. 6EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 7EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 8EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 9EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 10EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 11EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 12EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 13EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 14EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 15EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 16EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 17EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 18EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 19EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 20EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 21EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 22EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 23EAPCh. 10 - It’s the year 2025: The TESS mission has announced...Ch. 10 - Prob. 25EAPCh. 10 - Prob. 26EAPCh. 10 - 27. Which method co uld detect a planet in an...Ch. 10 - Which detection method(s) measure(s) gravitational...Ch. 10 - 29. Which one of the following can the transit...Ch. 10 - 30. To determine a planet's average density, we...Ch. 10 - 31. Based on the model types shown in Figure 10.12...Ch. 10 - Look at the dot for Jupiter in Figure 10.13, then...Ch. 10 - 33. The term "super-Earth" refers to a planet that...Ch. 10 - 34. What's the best explanation for the location...Ch. 10 - 35. Based on computer models, when is planei ary...Ch. 10 - Prob. 36EAPCh. 10 - When Is a Theory Wrong? As discussed in this cha...Ch. 10 - Unanswe,erd Questions. As discussed in this...Ch. 10 - Unanswered Questions. As discussed in this...Ch. 10 - Group Activity: Time to Move On. A common theme in...Ch. 10 - 40. Explaining the Doppler Method. Explain how the...Ch. 10 - Prob. 42EAPCh. 10 - 42. No Hot Jupiters Here. How do we think hot...Ch. 10 - 43. Low-Density Planets. Only one planet in our...Ch. 10 - Prob. 46EAPCh. 10 - Transit of TrES-1. The planet TrES-1, orbiting a...Ch. 10 - 47. Planet Around 51 Pegasi. The star 51 Pegasi...
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