Solar System Questions

Be able to answer the following questions:

1. Why are only smaller terrestrial planets near the Sun?

2. Jupiter and Saturn have over 60 moons/satellites each. Why do you think these gas giants have so many?

3. Why do we know that water & the atmosphere were not present during the first few days of Earth's formation?

4. How is there water on Earth now?

5. Why did life form in the ocean and not on land? What did the ocean provide for early life? Why did it take so long for creatures to emerge from the ocean?

Earth's Moon

1. Why do we think the Moon has a special origin?

2. Why are there so many craters on the Moon? Have the number of craters changed significantly over the last million years?

3. Why don't we have a Total solar eclipse each time the moon orbits the Earth? This may help

Mass Extinction

1. Approximately how many mass extinction events occurred in Earth's history?

2. What is "encephelization level"?

3. How has the growth of human intelligence changed over the last 200 million years?

4. What are the qualifications of a mass extinction?

5. What kinds of events cause mass extinction?