Stars and Solar System
According to ESRT p. 4, this is the color of our Sun.”
What is yellow?
This is the type of energy (short-wave or long-wave) that the Sun sends to Earth.
What is short-wave
These are the two types of seismic body waves that travel through Earth’s interior.
What are P-waves and S-waves?
These are the three types of tectonic plate boundaries.
What are convergent, divergent, and transform?
ESRT p. 2: This is Earth’s equatorial diameter in kilometers.
What is 12,756 km?
Using ESRT p. 2, this planet takes 243 Earth days to rotate once — longer than its own year.
What is Venus?
In the lab data, CO₂ rose from 317 ppm to 414 ppm between 1960 and 2020. This describes the type of relationship between CO₂ and temperature when both increase together.
What is a direct relationship
Of P-waves and S-waves, this one CAN travel through both solids and liquids.
What are P-waves?
Using ESRT p. 12, this is the tectonic plate that New York City sits on.
What is the North American Plate?
ESRT p. 11: This is the thickness range of Earth’s continental crust.
What is 30–50 km?
According to the Life Cycles of Stars (ESRT p. 5), this is the final stage for a low-mass star like our Sun.
What is a black dwarf?
In the greenhouse effect, Earth’s surface absorbs sunlight and then radiates energy back upward in THIS form, which greenhouse gases absorb and trap.
What is long-wave (infrared) radiation / heat?
Using ESRT p. 11, this is the density range of Earth’s mantle, in g/cm³.
What is 3.4–5.6 g/cm³?
Using ESRT p. 12, the Nazca Plate is diving beneath the South American Plate at the Peru-Chile Trench. This is the type of plate boundary AND the name for what the Nazca Plate is doing.
What is a convergent boundary / subduction?
ESRT p. 4: Name any star that is COOLER than the Sun but BRIGHTER. (Hint: look above and to the right of the Sun on the diagram.)
What is Aldebaran / Arcturus / Betelgeuse / Antares / Pollux? (Accept any giant or supergiant cooler than ~6,000 K.)
On the HR Diagram (ESRT p. 4), this red supergiant has a surface temperature of only ~3,000 K but a luminosity over 100,000 times the Sun’s — because of its enormous size.
What is Betelgeuse?
These are the correct 4 steps of the annotation protocol, IN ORDER: read the title, read the axes, circle the trend, and write one sentence. The total number of steps.
What is 4? (Teams must recite all 4 steps in order for full credit.)
S-waves stop completely when they hit this layer at 2,900 km depth — which told scientists it must be liquid. ESRT p. 11 labels it with this two-word name.
What is the fluid (outer) core?
Using ESRT p. 12, Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian Plates are pulling apart. This is the type of boundary AND the name of the feature created when magma rises to fill the gap.
What is a divergent boundary at a mid-ocean ridge?
ESRT p. 12: These TWO plates are separating at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the SOUTH Atlantic Ocean. Name both.
What are the South American Plate and the African Plate?
Using ESRT pp. 4 AND 5: Rigel is a blue-white supergiant. Sirius B is a white dwarf. According to the Life Cycles model, THIS is the next stage Rigel will go through that Sirius B already skipped past.
What is a supernova?
In 1960, CO₂ was 317 ppm and temperature change was +0.05°F. In 2020, CO₂ was 414 ppm and temperature change was +1.76°F. Name BOTH data points AND the two key words that explain the mechanism: greenhouse gases _____ and _____ outgoing heat.
What is “absorb” and “trap”? (Team must also correctly state both data point pairs.)
Using ESRT p. 11: Moving from Earth’s surface to the center, the density increases from about 2.7 g/cm³ to 13.1 g/cm³. Name ALL FOUR major layers in order from the surface inward AND give the density range for each.
What are: Crust (2.7–3.0 g/cm³), Mantle (3.4–5.6 g/cm³), Outer Core (9.9–12.2 g/cm³), Inner Core (12.8–13.1 g/cm³)?
Using ESRT pp. 11 AND 12: The Hawaiian Islands are in the MIDDLE of the Pacific Plate, far from any boundary. Look at the cross-section on p. 11 — this is the name of the feature that explains how volcanoes can form in the interior of a plate, away from any boundary.
What is a hot spot?
Using ESRT p. 11 AND p. 2: Earth’s inner core is solid and has a density of 12.8–13.1 g/cm³. The ESRT p. 2 nucleosynthesis diagram shows that iron (Fe) forms in the final stage of a massive star. THIS is the element that makes up most of Earth’s core — and it was forged inside a dying star.
What is iron (Fe)?