1 / 15

Exploring Venus: Earth's Mysterious Twin in the Solar System

Discover the similarities and differences between Earth and Venus, including their orbits, sizes, and masses. Learn about radio astronomy's role in unveiling Venus's hidden secrets beneath its thick clouds, such as its surface temperature of 730K. Dive into the physics of spectrum formation and Kirchoff's Laws to understand the science behind electromagnetic waves and how they shape our understanding of distant planets.

plawton
Download Presentation

Exploring Venus: Earth's Mysterious Twin in 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. Venus…Earth’s twin

  2. Reminder: where is Venus in the solar system right now Did anybody see it in the night sky the last two night?

  3. Venus in ultraviolet light What is under The clouds?

  4. The planet Venus: the Earth’s twin (in a limited sense)

  5. A comparison of Earth and Venus • Semimajor axis of orbit: 0.7233 (V) 1.000 (E) • Orbital eccentricity: 0.007 (V), 0.017 (E) • Diameter: 12104 km (V) 12756 (E) ! • Mass: 0.815 Earth masses (V) 1.00 Earth masses (E) !! • As spheres, Venus and Earth are very similar demo

  6. Seeing through the clouds of Venus with Radio Astronomy!

  7. The Goldstone (California) tracking station and planetary radar

  8. So what does radio astronomy or radar astronomy do for you?

  9. First result: light is a wave (electromagnetic wave) Wave characterized by wavelength, amplitude DEMO

  10. Amazing fact of nature: wide range of wavelengths of electromagnetic waves EM radiation includes gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, Light, infrared, microwave, radio

  11. Concept from physics crucial for astronomy: the spectrum of light DEMO

  12. The Physics of Spectrum Formation, Kirchoff’s Laws and Wien’s Law • Hot opaque solid or liquid produces a continuous spectrum • Hot, tenuous gas observed against dark background produces emission line spectrum • Cold, tenuous gas observed against bright background produces absorption spectrum • See Figure 16.6

  13. Kirchoff’s Laws of Radiation

  14. Kirchoff’s First Law + Wien’s Law • Hot, opaque objects produce continuous spectrum • The hotter the object, the bluer it is • Wien’s Law wmax = 2.9E-03/T • The hotter an object, the brighter it is

  15. Radio astronomy and application of Kirchoff’s Laws and Wien’s Law allow us to measure the surface temperature of Venus (done first in the late 1950s) • Surface temperature is 730K • That corresponds to 855 degrees Fahrenheit • What is responsible for this sort of temperature? • The answer also lies in Kirchoff’s Laws

More Related