Astrobiology Exam

Why isn't there a numerical answer for the Drake equation?

• It is based on probability and unmeasurable things like how many planets are habitable; we don't know that information.
• Too many variables to calculate
• It always come up to a negative number
• You can't have a numerical answer when you use letters.

Left over heat from planet formation is called

• Desert heat
• Volcanic heat
• Compression heat
• Expansion heat

An extremely dry area with little water and few plants is called

• Tundra
• Oceanic
• Desert
• Equatorial

A light year is measured as

• the distance light travels in one year
• how long it takes light to travel for one year
• the distance light travels over 6 months
• how long it takes light to travel between the sun and the earth

The ability of the physical environment to support life is called

• Homeostasis
• Survivability
• Habitability
• Equatorial

How old is the universe?

• 5 billion
• 13.8 million
• 14.8 million
• 13.8 billion

The apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. In other words, where is everybody ?

• man vs woman
• To be or not to be
• Utopia
• Fermi Paradox

Saturn's largest moon; so cold frozen water behaves like rock; methane is liquid instead of gas found in great lakes; these lakes intrigue astrobiologists as possible homes of extremophiles

• Titan
• Io
• Moon
• Titania

This satellite will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest

• Rector Satellite
• Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
• Rocker Pitre Satelllite
• Hummel Satellite

When a celestial body passes directly between a larger body and the observer. As viewed from a particular vantage point, the transiting body appears to move across the face of the larger body, covering a small portion of it.

• Exchange
• Rollover
• Transit
• Forwardness