Use these questions to test your understanding. If you get them wrong, you will be linked back to the relevant part of the notes. 

Be sure you study them thoroughly (don't just get a quick fix for your mistake) so your overall understanding is improved.

1. Pluto's atmosphere

        a. does not exist         b. freezes on Pluto's surface when it is far from the sun

        c. is made of oxygen          d. is like that of Venus          e. escaped long ago

2. A key ingredient in discovering Pluto was

        a. fly-by mission         b. comparison of photographs taken at different times

        c. use of modern electronic detectors          d. Kepler's Third Law          e. using a computer

3. We have determined the surface compositions of asteroids by

        a. finding pieces of them on the ground          b. studying spectra of sunlight reflected from them

        c. monitoring their motions          d. seeing what happens when they collide          e. both a. and b.

4. Comets originate

        a. from cloud surrounding the Solar System         b. from the asteroid belt

        c. from Jupiter              d. from the sun         e. from icy moons

5. Pluto is likely the largest member of

        a. the Oort cloud              b. the asteroid belt            c.the meteor belt              d. the Kuiper belt         e. the comet zone

6. A meteor shower results when

        a. the earth passes through the asteroid belt              b. the earth passes through the Kuiper belt

        c. the earth passes through the remnants of a comet              d. the sun erupts              e. two asteroids collide

7. Comets are comprised mainly of

        a. ice              b. rocks              c. gas              d. hydrogen             e. materials like earth's crust

8. If all the asteroids in the asteroid belt were assembled into a planet, it would be

        a. 1 Earth mass.         b. less than 1/1,000 of Earth's mass          c. 10 Earth masses              d. 50% of Earth's mass