首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
According to the professor, why are the atmospheric circulation patterns on Titan simpler than those found on Earth?
According to the professor, why are the atmospheric circulation patterns on Titan simpler than those found on Earth?
admin
2018-08-16
39
问题
According to the professor, why are the atmospheric circulation patterns on Titan simpler than those found on Earth?
Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class. The professor has been discussing the planet Saturn.
Professor: As you know, we’ve been exploring the flat disk of rocky material that forms the rings which orbit the planet, but there are also over 16 moons orbiting Saturn, each one unique in its own right. Let’s start today by discussing one that’s particularly unusual: Titan. Does anyone remember what make Titan so unusual? Lauren?
Student 1: Well, it’s Saturn’s largest moon and it’s even larger than the planet Mercury.
Professor: Correct. Anyone else? Robert?
Student 2: It’s the only other world we know of, aside from Earth, that has something like a hydrologic cycle.
Professor: Ok, good and what does that mean exactly, hydrologic cycle?
Student 2: It’s a cycle where, where water is moved between liquid and gaseous states, so there’s evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
Professor: Correct. Of course on Titan, it’s not water that’s involved in the cycle. It’s actually methane and ethane. I know we’re used to thinking of methane as a gas, but on Titan methane can take the form of a liquid and can be found in lakes and puddles. That’s because methane becomes a liquid at about minus 108 degrees Celsius. On Titan, that’s nothing. Titan is so cold, it can reach temperatures as low as minus 183 degrees Celsius. Now, for the past few years we’ve been observing Titan and its atmosphere from a spacecraft called Cassini that’s in orbit around Saturn. And one thing we’ve noticed about Titan’s surface is that it only has lakes at the poles. The equator on the other hand is unusually dry and covered with sand dunes, but there’s also what appear to be dried-up channels and rivers pointing to the possibility of rainfall at some point in the past, which may well be the case because recently we think we’ve seen evidence of rainfall near Titan’s equator. Of course, we can’t actually see it raining from Cassini because it would be obscured by the clouds, but we did see images of a large dark spot near Titan’s equator just after the clouds that passed over that area.
Student 1: Oh, I get it. It’s like when it rains on Earth and the wet sidewalk turns dark.
Professor: Exactly. Also, the dark spot started fading very fast, like when evaporating. Now, this evidence of rain is very significant. Why? Well, it’s the first example of extraterrestrial rain we’ve ever observed, and what may be even more significant is the timing of this rain. See, there’s a model of Titan’s precipitation that predicts that equatorial rain would only occur during spring or autumn, and it was spring on Titan when Cassini took these images. This model is based on something we call the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone or ITCZ. Can anyone tell me what that is?
Student 1: Yeah, isn’t the ITCZ the area of a planet where like the surface winds from the northern and southern hemispheres meet or converge? It’s an area of precipitation.
Professor: That’s exactly right. Now, on Earth this zone stays within the tropics because the weather systems on both the north and the south sides of the equator block the ITCZ in and don’t allow it to move much. That’s why there’s rainfall on our equator year round, but on Titan, we think the ITCZ migrates almost from pole to pole every half year, so it basically never remains over the equator for a long time. That may be why we hadn’t seen scenes of equatorial precipitation until now when Titan’s ITCZ was passing over its equator at the same time Cassini was in the neighborhood.
Student 2: So what we have to address is what explains Titan’s ITCZ migration?
Professor: Well, most likely because of Titan’s slow rotation period. See, we think that slow rotations cause simpler atmospheric circulation patterns, and simpler circulation patterns mean that there aren’t large weather systems surrounding the ITCZ that would keep it from shifting, from moving from one pole to the other. Not like on Earth and Titan takes nearly 16 Earth days to rotate just once. At any rate, Titan, with its quasi-hydrologic cycle, is definitely a world that we should be doing research on. You see, even though it’s too cold to sustain life, Titan, with its methane clouds, its methane and ethane lakes, Titan may give us some clues as to what our planet was like before the development of life, so this make it imperative that we study Titan to better understand how Earth may have started out.
选项
A、Titan is a moon rather than a planet
B、Titan’s hydrologic cycle involves methane rather than water
C、Titan’s ITCZ keeps these patterns from becoming moveable
D、Titan rotate more slowly than Earth does
答案
D
解析
细节题。线索词“cause”,在探讨ITCZ移动原因的部分,教授提到:we think that slow rotations cause simpler atmospheric circulation patterns,因此大气循环模式简单的原因是自转缓慢,因此D选项为正确答案。泰坦是卫星、甲烷参与水循环这两个细节虽是符合原文的,但不能回答大气循环模式简单的原因,因此A选项和B选项不正确。根据讲座内容,是缓慢自传促成大气循环模式简单,而大气循环模式简单又促成了ITCZ移动,因此不存在ITCZ反过来阻止大气模式的移动,因此C选项不正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/NNfO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completetheformbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.HOUSESERVICEINFORMATIONExampleAnswerNameBarbaraHill
Whatproblemsdothespeakersidentifyforthisproject?ChooseSEVENanswersfromtheboxandwritetheletters,A-H,nexttoq
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.Thelecturewasorganisedby
Whatisthemainopinionofeachofthefollowingpeople?ChooseFIVEanswersfromtheboxandwritethecorrectletter,A-G,ne
Choosethecorrectletter,A,BorC.ReflectiveJournalAssignmentWhatistheman’sattitudeafterthediscussion?
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWObenefitsofthisactivitytothestudentsarementionedbytheprofessor?ATheybecomemore
Whatadvantagedoesthespeakermentionforeachofthefollowingphysicalactivities?ChooseSIXanswersfromtheboxandwrite
Accordingtothespeakers,whatfunctionhastapaplayedinthefollowingcountries?Writethecorrectletter,A,B,CorD,ne
ChimpanzeebehavioursSpeciesWecanfindPanorPanTroglodytesinWestandCentralAfrica.TheBonoboorPanPaniscusare
WhatdoesthemanimplyabouttheplayHamlet?
随机试题
下列诗句中,没有涉及节日的是()。
女性,30岁,劳力性呼吸困难2年。查体:二尖瓣面容,心尖部可触及舒张期震颤,心浊音界呈梨形,第一心音亢进,肺动脉瓣区第二心音亢进分裂,杂音听不清。关于谊杂音不正确的是
建设工程的()决定了工程项目建成后不能像一般工业产品那样依靠终检来判断产品的质量,或将产品拆卸、解体来检查其内在质量,或对不合格零部件进行更换。
互斥投资方案的选优决策中,一般适宜采用()作为决策依据。
新课程提出“教学活动的拟订应突出主体、尊重个性”,请简述在教学中应该如何实施这一理念。
从规则到例子的学习实质上是一种()。
2014年新华中学初三(3)班期末考试成绩表注:语、数、英满分150分,90分为合格线;政、理、化满分100分,60分为合格线;体育满分60分。“六总”为除体育外六门课总成绩,“七总”为七门课总成绩,班名次按“七总”计算。如将“七总”成绩前20名的
下列选项中,属于侵权责任抗辩事由构成要件的是()
算法复杂度主要包括时间复杂度和【】复杂度。
在下列设备中,不能作为微机输出设备的是
最新回复
(
0
)