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Plan for this week

Plan for this week. The jovian planets 5 major moons Comets, asteroids, and Earth impacts. The jovian planets. The jovian planets. All very large All rotate very fast All made mostly of gaseous material. Jupiter. Jupiter. The Great Red Spot. Jupiter. Saturn. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune.

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Plan for this week

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  1. Plan for this week • The jovian planets • 5 major moons • Comets, asteroids, and Earth impacts

  2. The jovian planets

  3. The jovian planets • All very large • All rotate very fast • All made mostly of gaseous material

  4. Jupiter

  5. Jupiter

  6. The Great Red Spot

  7. Jupiter

  8. Saturn

  9. Saturn

  10. Uranus

  11. Neptune

  12. Neptune

  13. Data for the jovian planets

  14. Jovian interiors • At the center, a dense core of rock, metal, and hydrogen compounds • Around the core is gaseous molecules • Jupiter and Saturn • Mostly hydrogen • Includes states of matter not found on Earth • Uranus and Neptune • Water, methane, hydrogen

  15. The jovian moons • Some of the jovian moons are far more interesting than the planets themselves • There are more than 90 total • They come in all sizes

  16. Small jovian moons

  17. Medium sized jovian moons

  18. Largejovianmoons

  19. The jovian moons • The largest moons in the solar system are: • Ganymede (Jupiter) • Titan (Saturn) • Callisto (Jupiter) • Io (Jupiter) • ‘The Moon’ (Earth) • Europa (Jupiter) • Triton (Neptune)

  20. The Galileanmoons

  21. The Galilean moons • The four largest moons of Jupiter • Discovered by Galileo in the early 1600s • Very important historically • Proved that everything does not go around the Earth • Got Galileo in a lot of trouble!

  22. The Galilean moons • Io • The closest one to Jupiter • Size: • Larger than Pluto • Smaller than Mercury • Experiences very strong tidal forces

  23. Tidal forces Io (Other moons) Jupiter

  24. The Galilean moons • Io is the most geologically active place in the solar system! • Volcanoes continuously erupting • Not a single impact crater on its surface

  25. Io

  26. The Galilean moons • Europa • The next moon out from Jupiter • Size: • Larger than Pluto • Smaller than the Moon or Mercury • Also experiences tidal forces • Surface is entirely covered with ice • May have a water ocean under the ice • A possible place for life?

  27. Europa

  28. Europa

  29. The Galilean moons • Ganymede • The largest moon in the solar system • Larger than Pluto and Mercury! • (That’s all you need to know about it…)

  30. Ganymede

  31. The Galilean moons • Callisto • The fourth one (just for completeness)

  32. Callisto

  33. Saturn’s moons • Titan • Size: • The 2nd largest moon in the solar system • Larger than both Pluto and Mercury • The only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere • Mostly nitrogen (like Earth!) • Atmospheric pressure = 1.5 x Earth’s • Wouldn’t need a space suit! (cold though…)

  34. Titan

  35. Pluto • The most distant planet - if it’s a planet! • Distance: 30 - 50 AU (40 average) • Orbit = 248 years • Rotation = 6.4 Earth-days • Has one moon: Charon • About half the size of Pluto

  36. Pluto & Charon

  37. Pluto & Charon

  38. Planetary rings • All jovian planets have ring systems • All are made of small pieces of debris • Probably unformed moons, or moons that were broken apart by the planet’s gravity

  39. Saturn’s rings • Small chunks of ice (mostly) • Incredibly thin • A single sheet of paper 3 football fields across! • Made of many ‘ringlets’

  40. Asteroids • Chunks of rock and metal • Mostly in the asteroid belt - but not all of ‘em! • Earth crossing asteroids • Have orbits that bring them near Earth’s orbit

  41. Comets • Chunks of ice, rock, & metal (‘dirty snowballs’) • Today in two locations: • The Kuiper belt • Beyond Neptune’s orbit • ~ 30 - 100 AU out • In the disk of the solar system • The Oort cloud • A sphere way, way beyond Neptune • ~ 50,000 AU out

  42. A cometnucleus

  43. Comets • If a comet ‘falls’ towards the Sun: • It begins to sublimate (solid --> gas) • Develops a tail • This tail always points away from the Sun

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