The statement that best explains the state of the water cycle on the newly discovered planet where evaporation is "not working" is the final statement, "Water is frozen underground instead of flowing on the surface."
The simplest explanation of the water cycle is one that contains 3 stages:
- Evaporation
- Condensation
- Precipitation
in that order. To answer the question, we will focus on Evaporation. Evaporation when referring to water is when water is heated to the point that it boils, this causes the water to transition from a liquid state into a gas, and escape into the atmosphere as water vapor.
The first statement claims that perhaps water is gathered in lakes or oceans or frozen in snow and ice. If water is gathered in lakes or oceans and these are exposed to high enough surface heat, evaporation will take place. Also, if water is frozen or in snow, the rate of evaporation will be much lower, but may still take place if individual molecules contain enough heat. This statement offers some reasons why we may not observe evaporation but is not the best one available to describe this planet's water cycle.
Statements 2 and 3 are incorrect because they both describe processes for which evaporation is needed for them to be possible. In order for water vapor to be trapped in the atmosphere and clouds, the water itself must first evaporate, this water would then condense into clouds, and once heavy enough would fall onto the planet as rain. Since we observe no evaporation, these are not correct.
"Water is frozen underground instead of flowing on the surface." best explains the state of the water cycle on this planet because of the available answers, this one provides the most likely scenario for which astronomers would not be able to observe evaporation, given that it would happen on a small scale due to the very low temperatures and would take place underground, this would seem as though evaporation is not working. This is the correct answer.
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