Homework Set 3
DUE: Friday, June 14
Please use a separate piece of paper for your answers
1. LOST IN SPACE ! On your last ski trip to the planet NESPA III, you fall asleep at the controls and crash-land on an unknown planet which you name CU-piter, since you're stuck there. The laws of physics still apply, (they do everywhere-or else they're not really laws ...) but the details of the solar system may be different.
On CU-piter, northern summers are much hotter than southern hemisphere summers.
(a) State a hypothesis for why this might be. (What property of the orbit or tilt might cause this?)
(b) Describe one type of observation you could make from the planet of the sun or stars (with telescope or naked eye) and how it would test your hypothesis. There are several possibilities but you need give only one.
2. There are two major kinds of atmospheric circulation patterns on the Earth, both of which were discussed in class. Pick one of these, briefly describe it, and either draw a diagram of it or describe the forces responsible for it.
3. The Moon consists of two major terrain types. Say what these are, and in each column list at least three differences between them.
4. Describe the current theory of the Giant Impact origin of the Moon, and cite Apollo lunar data to support it.