1 / 57

MOONS (= SATELLITES) of the Gas Giant Planets

MOONS (= SATELLITES) of the Gas Giant Planets. JUPITER: Numerous satellites... Discovered by Galileo, 1610: Io (a.k.a. “J I”) Europa (J II) Ganymede (J III) Callisto (J IV) For almost 300 years, they were the

gomer
Download Presentation

MOONS (= SATELLITES) of the Gas Giant Planets

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. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  2. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 MOONS (= SATELLITES) of the Gas Giant Planets

  3. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 JUPITER: Numerous satellites... Discovered by Galileo, 1610: Io (a.k.a. “J I”) Europa (J II) Ganymede (J III) Callisto (J IV) For almost 300 years, they were the only known Jovian satellites (“Jovian” means belonging to Jupiter).

  4. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  5. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Jupiter and the orbits of Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

  6. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 (Digression) Ole Roemer, Jupiter’s moons, and the speed of light, 1675

  7. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Earth – Jupiter distance

  8. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

  9. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Likely interior of Ganymede (theoretical?) ice-covered surface

  10. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 JUPITER: At least 57 known satellites In 1892, E. Barnard discovered Amalthea (J V) -- a small captured asteroid inside the orbit of Io.

  11. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Orbit of Amalthea (J V)

  12. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Amalthea: about 200 km across ( same size as a large asteroid )

  13. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 ... Then came Himalia (J VI, 1904), Elara (J VII, 1905), Pasipha (J VIII, 1908), and others -- 14 by 1979. Probably all captured asteroids, relatively small. Then the first spacecraft reached Jupiter and began to find lots more.

  14. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 (Jupiter’s moons, continued) A random selection: Erinome (J XXV), Thyone (J XXIX), Hegemone (J XXXIX), Karpo (J XLIV), etc. etc. The names don’t really matter.

  15. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Orbits of some of the “other” moons of Jupiter (some are retrograde)

  16. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Saturnhasamobofsatellitestoo.

  17. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  18. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 TITAN (the big one); plus IAPETUS, RHEA, DIONE, TETHYS, etc.

  19. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Dione and Tethys -- icy surfaces

  20. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Mimas -- about 400 km across

  21. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 TITAN IS DIFFERENT.

  22. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 TITAN IS DIFFERENT.

  23. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 1943 spectrum of Titan: Methane. It has an atmosphere!

  24. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 But Titan has low gravity. How can it hold an atmosphere??

  25. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 But Titan has low gravity. How can it hold an atmosphere?? Answer: It’s cold: 94° K = -290° F.

  26. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 “Saturn as seen from Titan” (1944 painting) blue sky!

  27. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Spacecraft view of TITAN. -- Methane and ethane clouds --

  28. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (N2)

  29. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Titan’s interior ( ? )

  30. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Titan’s atmosphere and surface

  31. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  32. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Re. Saturn and Titan, look up the Cassini and Huygens space probes (2005)

  33. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  34. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Next planet out:Uranus. Soon after discovering Uranus, William Herschel found that it had several moons ...

  35. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Oberon Titania Umbriel Ariel Miranda

  36. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 (Uranus’ satellites) Oberon Titania Umbriel Ariel Miranda ... Later discovered by spacecraft: Ophelia Rosalind Portia Juliet Rosalind Bianca Cordelia Caliban Puck Prospero -- and others. At least 27 so far.

  37. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  38. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Next planet: Neptune. Big moon Triton was discovered soon after Neptune was ... (1846)

  39. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Next planet: Neptune. Big moon Triton was discovered soon after Neptune was ... (1846) Triton moves backward – in a “retrograde orbit.” This isn’t easy to explain, for such a large moon.

  40. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Spacecraft image of Triton

  41. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Neptune also has the usual horde of smaller satellites: Nereid, Galatea, Naiad, Proteus, and others. Half of them were discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft when it passed that planet in 1989.

  42. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Planetary RINGS

  43. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  44. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Narrow rings of Uranus -- discovered in late 1970’s --

  45. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Neptune too

  46. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 And even Jupiter!

  47. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 In general, planetary rings were probably formed when small moons or possibly comets approached too close to the gas giant planets, were broken up by tidal forces.

  48. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 In general, planetary rings were probably formed when small moons or possibly comets approached too close to the gas giant planets, were broken up by tidal forces. Saturn is an unusually dramatic example.

  49. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007

  50. Ast 1001, 17 Oct 2007 Satellite names worth remembering

More Related