1 / 58

Astronomy 04 The Solar System

Astronomy 04 The Solar System. Chapter 11: "The Giant Planets". Test 3 on Chapters 10, 11 & 12 will be Thu 11/30. Review will be next Tue 11/28. A Comparison of Mercury Venus & Mars. Mercury Venus Mars Small Earth-sized Small No atmosphere Thick CO2 atmosphere Thin CO2 atmosphere

jorgej
Download Presentation

Astronomy 04 The Solar System

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Astronomy 04The Solar System Chapter 11: "The Giant Planets" Test 3 on Chapters 10, 11 & 12 will be Thu 11/30. Review will be next Tue 11/28.

  2. A Comparison of Mercury Venus & Mars MercuryVenus Mars Small Earth-sized Small No atmosphere Thick CO2 atmosphere Thin CO2 atmosphere No Clouds Sulfuric Acid Clouds Water Ice Clouds Hot and Cold Hottest Planet (900F) Cold Slow Rotation Slow Reverse Rotation 24-Hour Day No Mag Field Weak Mag Field Weak Mag Field Craters Large craters only Craters Few Smooth Plains Lowland lava plains Lowland lava plains Caloris Basin Dormant Volcanoes Extinct Volcanoes Geo Dead Continental Areas Continental Areas Geo Alive VallisMarineris Canyon Dry Riverbeds Two Small Moons Geo Dead

  3. Jupiter is : • The largest of the planets in our Solar System. • Its radius is 11.3 Earth radii. • Its mass is 317 Earth masses. • It is composed mostly of hydrogen (90%) and helium (9%) and traces of everything else. • Jupiter's mean density is 1.3 gm/cc, close to that of water.

  4. History of Exploration by Unmanned Spacecraft Pioneers 10 & 11 - Launched in 1972-73. • Explored asteroid belt. • Flew past and photographed Jupiter and (Pioneer 11) Saturn. • Probed Jupiter’s intense radiation belts.

  5. Voyager 1 & 2 - Launched in 1977 • Photographed Jupiter, Saturn and (Voyager 2) Uranus and Neptune. • Made possible by rare, once in 175-year, alignment of planets.

  6. Galileo Spacecraft: • Released probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere. • Impact Jupiter after successful orbital mission. • Photographed Jupiter and its Satellites.

  7. Cassini Spacecraft: • The Cassini Spacecraft has been in orbit about Saturn for the past two years.

  8. Basic Characteristics: 1) Large size but low density Jupiter: 318X mass of Earth Density 1.3 g/cm3. Saturn: 95X mass of Earth Density 0.7 g/cm3. Uranus & Neptune 15X mass of Earth Density 1.6 g/cm3.

  9. Basic Characteristics: 2) Composition & Chemistry Hydrogen (H) Helium (He) Methane (CH4) Sulfur Ammonia (NH3) Acetylene (C2H2) Ethane (C2H6)

  10. Jupiter Basic Characteristics: 3) Equatorial cloud belts: Jupiter & Saturn: • Clouds of ammonia and sulfur compounds. Uranus: • No visible clouds. Neptune: • Clouds of methane crystals.

  11. Basic Characteristics: 4) Fast rotation Jupiter in 9 hours 56 minutes Saturn in 10 hours 40 minutes. • Rapid rotation causes distention at the equator so that equatorial diameter is greater then polar diameter.

  12. Chapter 24: “Jupiter & Saturn” Jupiter Ju[iter Jupiter Jupiter

  13. Jupiter Saturn

  14. Uranus Neptune

  15. The equatorial belts are bands of clouds moving with velocities up to 400 miles/hr. Wind direction alternates from one band to another. The light colored zones are regions of upward moving convective currents. The darker belts are made of downward sinking material. The two are therefore always found next to each other. The boundaries between the bands display complex turbulence and vortex phenomenon.

  16. Wind velocities in the atmospheres of the Gas Giant plants increase from Jupiter to Neptune. Winds in the atmosphere of Neptune were recorded at over 1300 mph.

  17. Jupiter has a giant, strong magnetic field and trapped radiation belts. Jupiter is a strong emitter of synchrotron radiation (radio waves) caused by electrons accelerating along the planet’s magnetic lines of force. Jupiter radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun. This heat is generated from slow contraction.

  18. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is almost 20,000 miles long. It is a massive high pressure system which rotates in 6 days. Without surface friction to slow their speed, storms last for hundreds of years or longer.

  19. Moons of Jupiter • 61+ Moons and a Faint Ring • Galilean Satellites: Ganymede & Callisto – Larger than Mercury Io & Europa are about the size of our Moon • Many of other Moons may be captured Asteroids

  20. Callisto is the outermost of Galilean moons at a distance of 1.2 million miles. • It is in synchronous revolution around Jupiter every 17 days. • The moon has a heavily cratered surface that has seen little change over the last 4.4 billion years. CALLISTO

  21. Callisto froze solid before the process of differentiation occurred. It is a geologically dead world. CALLISTO

  22. Closeup of Callisto

  23. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. • Parts of its surface are very old like Callisto but others are relatively young, perhaps a billion years old. • Ganymede may have a rocky, metallic core. • Tidal forces may occasionally heat the interior and cause water to erupt and resurface portions of the moon. GANYMEDE

  24. Closeup of Ganymede

  25. Europa is predominantly a rocky world with an ice-covered surface that is crisscrossed with cracks and low ridges. • Few craters are evident. • The ice appears to be the frozen surface of a great water ocean that has broken up and refrozen many times. EUROPA

  26. Tidal forces may generate enough heat to keep water in the liquid state not too far beneath the surface layer of ice. EUROPA

  27. Closeup of Europa

  28. Io is a close twin our Moon with about the same size and density. • Io has active volcanoes on its surface. Volcanoes emit hot rocky lava, sulfur and sulfur dioxide. • The sulfur and sulfur dioxide recondense in the cold and snow down upon Io’s surface. IO

  29. Io is constantly resurfacing itself. IO

  30. Closeup of Io

  31. Today we will see the Sky Skan Full Dome Presentation … “Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens” Reminders: Extra Credit Deadline is this Fri 6/22 Your final exam is Wed 6/27 at 7:00 a.m.

  32. Cloud belts of Saturn as viewed by Cassini spacecraft

  33. Photograph of “dragon storm” in Saturn’s atmosphere (Cassini spacecraft)

  34. All four giant planets have rings. • Saturn’s Rings are ice particles spread out into several vast flat rings. • Uranus and Neptune’s rings are composed of dark particles confined to a few narrow rings. • Jupiter’s ring is composed of dust particles. Io

  35. Saturn’s Rings as viewed by the Cassini spacecraft

  36. The Sun seen through Saturn’s rings as photographed by Cassini spacecraft.

  37. Electrically charged clouds of dust particles floating above Saturn rings (Cassini spacecraft)

  38. Moons of Saturn • 31+ Moons and Massive Ring System • Titan is most significant satellite and the only moon with a significant atmosphere • Ring material size of ping-pong, tennis and basketballs.

  39. Saturn’s Titan is about the size of Jupiter’s Ganymede and is about half ice and half rock. • It is the only moon to have a substantial atmosphere. • The atmospheric surface pressure is 1.6 times that of Earth. Io

  40. Titan’s atmosphere is composed mostly of methane. Nitrogen and hydrocarbon compounds are also present. • Methane clouds composed of shroud the surface. The surface is probably covered with methane ice and perhaps methane oceans. Io

  41. False color image of Titan by Cassini revealing surface features

  42. Surface of Titan in color as viewed by the Huygens probe

More Related