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Giant planets vs. Earth-like planets Life beyond the habitable zone (HZ) Beyond the HZ - Europa.

Lecture 11: Beyond Mars - the World of Solar System Planets & their Moons: Europa, Titan, Enceladus. Giant planets vs. Earth-like planets Life beyond the habitable zone (HZ) Beyond the HZ - Europa. Beyond the HZ - Enceladus. Beyond the HZ - Titan. The Giant Planets. The Giant Planets.

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Giant planets vs. Earth-like planets Life beyond the habitable zone (HZ) Beyond the HZ - Europa.

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  1. Lecture 11: Beyond Mars - the World of Solar System Planets & their Moons: Europa, Titan, Enceladus Giant planets vs. Earth-like planets Life beyond the habitable zone (HZ) Beyond the HZ - Europa. Beyond the HZ - Enceladus. Beyond the HZ - Titan.

  2. The Giant Planets

  3. The Giant Planets

  4. The Giant Planets

  5. Beyond the HZ: Radiant heating from a parent star is not the only way to provide an energy source: Planetary interiors: radioactive & core heat Deep Biosphere Lab (Sweden): hyperthermophiles at depths of ~ 6 km (80 C). (2) Tidal heating

  6. Beyond the HZ: Europa

  7. Beyond the HZ: Europa What is on Europa’s surface ? Blue: pure water; Red: ice covered with dust veneer (Galileo orbiter)

  8. Beyond the HZ: Europa ‘Icebergs’ on Europa: Many pieces are a few kilometers in size; 70km x 30km area (Galileo orbiter)

  9. Beyond the HZ: Europa (Galileo orbiter)

  10. Beyond the HZ: Europa The inferred interior with two possible upper layers: Warm ‘slush’ Liquid ocean

  11. Beyond the HZ: Europa There are a couple of developed NASA proposals to explore Europa’s ocean; this artist conception is from one of them called ‘ICEPICK’

  12. Beyond the HZ: Europa Measuring the ocean’s depth and the thickness of the ice crust. The Europa orbiter will make sensitive gravimetric measurements by recording very slight changes in its orbit. (NASA project) (J. Lunine 2005)

  13. Beyond the HZ: Enceladus Picture of Enceladus in front of Saturn and its rings (Cassini mission, March 2006):

  14. Beyond the HZ: Enceladus

  15. Beyond the HZ: Enceladus

  16. Beyond the HZ: Enceladus

  17. Beyond the HZ: Enceladus

  18. Beyond the HZ: Titan

  19. Liquid CH4 & Water ice Liquid H2O & Silicate rock :Titan:::Earth Titan properties • 50% silicates, 50% ices; probably differentiated • Atmosphere is >90% N2 and 2-5% CH4 • Ts= 94K, Ps= 1.5 bar Near triple point Similar mechanical strength

  20. Methane rainfall? • Evidence of atmospheric convection • Transient clouds near summer pole • Short cloud lifetimes (hours)  CH4 rainfall? Roe et al. [2002]

  21. ~5 km ESA/NASA/U. Arizona Images from Huygens Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer

  22. Dendritic networks are valleys NASA/JPL/U. Arizona

  23. Titan landscape • Image taken by the Huygens probe at its landing site ~10 cm Tomasko et al., 2006

  24. Rain on Titan: • Dendritic valleys near Huygens landing site were probably eroded mechanically by CH4 runoff • Earth-like precipitation rates are required to mobilize sediment of the size observed at landing site

  25. Lakes and channels on Titan!

  26. Main points to take home: • The Solar System planets: orbits and relative sizes • The Habitable Zone generalized: other sources of heating - internal & tidal • Europa: water ocean under solid ice crust - tidal heating; • Enceladus: geysers - water from hydrothermal circulation under ice crust - tidal heating; • Titan: thick atmosphere of N2 and CH4 - evidence for CH4 rain and lakes - complex organic chemistry

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