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CHAPTER 7 Comparative Planetology I: Our Solar System. Coming up …. 1. The important differences between the two broad categories of planets: terrestrial and Jovian. 2. The similarities and differences among the large planetary satellites , including Earth’s Moon.
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CHAPTER 7 Comparative Planetology I: Our Solar System
Coming up … 1. The important differences between the two broad categories of planets: terrestrial and Jovian 2. The similarities and differences among the large planetary satellites, including Earth’s Moon 3. The categories of the many small bodies that also orbit the Sun 4. How craters on a planet or satellite reveal the age of its surface and the nature of its interior 5. Why a planet’s magnetic field indicates a fluid interior in motion 6. How the diversity of the solar system is a result of its origin and evolution
Question Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet? Jupiter Mars Mercury Venus Earth Time for a good French burgundy
Largest Moons Galilean Moons Saturn Neptune Earth
Question The asteroid belt exists between the orbits of which planets? Earth – Mars Venus – Earth Mars - Jupiter Jupiter – Saturn beyond Pluto
Gaspra First asteroid to be imaged— by Galileo spacecraft(1991)
Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud • Kuiper Belt extends from about 30 to 60 AU • Oort cloud, a spherical distribution, extends to about 100,000 AU!
Which Eats the Most? …an elephant? …or a hummingbird?
Volume to Surface Area Ratio • Consider a ‘spherical’ elephant and hummingbird… 2R R • Heat (H) stored depends on volume (V) • Rate of Heat loss (H/τ) depends on surface area (A) • Time (τ) to lose heat depends on radius (R) If you double the radius of a sphere (or the linear dimension of any object) … the time it takes to lose its store of heat doubles!
Assume both planets originally heated to same temperature. Which one cools down the fastest?
Question Observers using the Hubble Space Telescope detect objects orbiting a solar-type star with the following characteristics: (i) density ( >3.5 g/cm3); (ii) diameter (7000 km or less); (iii) no H 2 in its atmosphere; (iv) polar diameters about the same length as equatorial diameters; (v) solid, crustal surfaces; (vi) slow rotational periods (greater than 20 hours); (vii) weak magnetic fields; (viii) few moons. How would these objects be classified? _______ Comet nuclei Asteroids Terrestrial planets Jovial planets Meteors