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
52
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
What’sthethemeofeachcontinentbasedontheroomsoftheclubhouse?ChooseSIXanswersfromtheboxandwritethecorrectle
Completethesentencesbelow.WriteONEWORDONLYforeachanswer.Thestudentcangettherelevantdatabasefromthe______Off
Whatproblemsdothespeakersidentifyforthisproject?ChooseSEVENanswersfromtheboxandwritetheletters,A-H,nexttoq
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSAND/ORANUMBERforeachanswerENVIRONMENTALCHANGEDISCUSSIONInSouthe
Whatisthemainopinionofeachofthefollowingpeople?ChooseFIVEanswersfromtheboxandwritethecorrectletter,A-G,ne
ChooseTWOletters,A-E.WhichTWObenefitsofthisactivitytothestudentsarementionedbytheprofessor?ATheybecomemore
ChooseTHREEletters,A-F.WhichTHREEthingsarethestudentsrequiredtosubmittotheirprofessor?AawrittensummaryBnote
TheTawnyOwlMost【L31】________owlspeciesinUKStronglynocturnalHabitatMainlylivesin【L32】________,butcanalsobeseeni
ChimpanzeebehavioursSpeciesWecanfindPanorPanTroglodytesinWestandCentralAfrica.TheBonoboorPanPaniscusare
ChimpanzeebehavioursSpeciesWecanfindPanorPanTroglodytesinWestandCentralAfrica.TheBonoboorPanPaniscusare
随机试题
美国的教育努力培养“民主”社会中确能适应生活需要的理想公民;而英国着重培养品行,以养成绅士风范。这说明
患者,女性,62岁。高血压26余年,糖尿病12年,今晨突发左胸痛伴呼吸困难急诊入院。查体:患者颜面苍白,大汗淋漓,呼吸急促。血压:100/60mmHg,心界左下扩大,胸骨左缘第3肋间可闻及舒张期杂音,向心尖传导。此时,该患者经超声检查可能发现
治疗面神经膝状神经节近端病变宜选用以上哪项治疗面神经远端或肌肉萎缩、纤维化宜选用以上哪项
证据保全
“谁污染谁治理”原则属于环境影响评价中的()政策。
某分部工程划分为3个施工过程、4个施工段,组织加快的成倍节拍流水施工,流水节拍分别为6天、4天、4天,则专业工作队数为()个。
按照《预算法》实施管理,国防费预、决算由()审批,由国家和军队的审计机构实施严格的审计和监督。
在一般情况下,买卖合同中关于标的物的风险承担,除当事人另有约定的外,下列说法正确的有()。
行政诉讼过程中.被告不得自行向原告收集证据。()
Youwillhearfivedifferentpeopletalkingaboutproblemsandresponsestotheminthecompanieswheretheywork.Foreach
最新回复
(
0
)