THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
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70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458774.16
2019-2020: XXXIV
"I own the world's worst thesaurus. Not only is it
terrible, it's terrible!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, October 18, 2019
Quiz VII: The Asteroid Belt
[image: Asteroid_belt_animation_video_production_full.jpg]
Our quest quiz through outer space continues today! Last week we explored
the planet Mars. Now, we continue our trek through the Main Asteroid
Belt: one of the lesser known locales in our solar system. Tumbling,
turning and troublesome, the asteroids serve as frozen repositories of the
infant solar system: when the Sun, and the myriad objects surrounding it
slowly coalesced out of interstellar gases. Although asteroids lurk in
every cranny and crevice of the solar system, most of them loiter within
the Main Asteroid Belt, a region between the orbits of ___________ and
__________.
Throughout the school year, these quest quizzes will take us as far afield
as we can possibly venture: today, we hop along the asteroids.
*1. The main asteroid belt is contained between the orbits of which two
planets?*
a. Earth and Mars
b. Mars and Jupiter
c. Jupiter and Saturn
d. Uranus and Neptune
*2. ____________, the first object detected in the Main Asteroid Belt, was
discovered in ___________*
a. Vesta; 1807
b. Ceres, 1801
c. Pallas, 1802
d. Juno, 1804
*3. The Main Asteroid Belt is estimated to contain approximately
_________________ asteroids larger than 1 km in diameter*
a. 300,000
b. 430,000 - 550,000
c. 700,00 - 830,000
d. 1.1 - 1.9 million
*4. The entire mass of the asteroid belt is estimated to be about _______
that of our moon.*
a. 4%
b. 9%
c. 15%
d. 21%
*5. Which Main Belt asteroid is the brightest one in Earth's sky?*
a. Ceres
b. Vesta
c. Pallas
d. Herclulina
*6. The term "asteroid" actually means what?*
a. 'turning rock'
b. 'star-like'
c. 'sparkle'
d. none of the above
*7. When is International Asteroid Day?*
a. there is no such thing!
b. June 30
c. July 20
d. August 10
*8. In what year did Atari release its wildly popular "Asteroids!" video
game?*
a. 1977
b. 1978
c. 1979
d. 1981
*9. About how "thick" is the asteroid belt?*
a. 100 miles
b. 1,000,000 miles
c. 10,000,000 miles
d. 100,000.000 miles
*10. "Ceres" was named for the Roman goddess of ____________*
a. mountains
b. the harvest
c. child birth
d. dawn
ANSWERS
*1. a. Earth and Mars*
One will encounter asteroids at various locations within the solar system.
Many asteroids are even "Earth crossers," meaning that they intersect
Earth's orbit. Most of the asteroids, however, revolve around the Sun
within a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter dubbed "The Main
Asteroid Belt." The asteroids within this belt are distributed over an
area from 2.1 AU (2.1 times farther from the Sun than Earth) and 3.3 AU'
*2. b. Ceres, 1801*
Giuseppe Piazzi discovered Ceres on January 1, 1801, the very first day of
the 19th century. The largest and most massive body in the asteroid
belt, Ceres has now been classified as a dwarf planet.
*3. d. 1.1 - 1.9 million*
Conducting a comprehensive census of the Main Asteroid Belt would prove a
daunting task. Planetary scientists estimate that this belt contains
more than a million asteroids larger than 1 km. Moreover, millions of even
smaller asteroids are likely to be hidden within the belt.
*4. a. 4%*
When astronomers first determined the Main Asteroid Belt's existence, some
suggested that the asteroids were fragments of a planet that somehow
shattered into pieces. This theory was discounted when astronomers
realized how little material the belt actually contains.
*5. b. Vesta*
On occasion, Vesta becomes bright enough to be observable without a
telescope. However, even at these periods of maximum brightness, such as
its June 2018 opposition, Vesta is just above the naked eye visibility
threshold. Seeing Vesta at maximum requires both a perfectly dark sky and
precise knowledge of its location. While Vesta is not the biggest
asteroid, its surface is highly reflexive, hence its unusual brightness.
*6. b. 'star-like'*
We generally extend credit to astronomer William Herschel for coining the
name "asteroid." In fact, historians now extend credit to Charles Burney,
Jr, son of, well, Charles Burney, Sr, a poet with whom Herschel had been
collaborating over a poem about the Universe. Herschel had asked Burney
Sr to help him craft a word for the strange objects between Mars and
Jupiter. Rather flummoxed, Burney Sr wrote to his son, an expert on the
Greek language, for advice. The son wrote back with the word "asteroid."
*7. b. June 30*
On June 30, 1908, an explosion over Tunguska, Siberia, leveled more than
1000 square miles of forest. Researchers have ascribed this explosion to
either an asteroid or comet explosion. In commemoration of this event,
Stephen Hawking, Martin Rees, Richard Dawkins, and other prominent
scientists, artists and musicians designated June 30th as Asteroid Day: a
day devoted to asteroid education.
[image: Asteroid_Day_Logo_HQ.png]
*8. c. 1979*
For those people younger than 40 who might be utterly perplexed right now,
Atari was the preeminent video game company in the 1970s and part of the
1980's. The "Video Game Crash" in 1983 caused it to split and then lose
its coveted status in the video game universe.
*9. d. 100,000.000 miles*
The asteroid belt's "thickness" is about equal to Earth's mean distance
from the Sun, Even though billions of asteroids likely comprise the
asteroid belt, an immense amount of space separates all of them.
*10. b. the harvest*
Ceres was the Roman counterpart to Demeter, goddess of the harvest. The
name was suggested by Giuseppe Piazzi, Ceres' discoverer. At the time of
its discovery, Ceres was designated as a planet. Ceres was, like Mars, a
child of Jupiter's. For this reason, it was logical to have placed Ceres
between Mars and Jupiter: daughter and son before Dad.
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