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The Solar System

Discover the Solar System’s components, properties, & energy transport, while examining planets, moons, asteroids, & comets. Overview of study topics & project guidelines included.

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The Solar System

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  1. The Solar System An Inventory

  2. What is the Solar System? • Answer: The system of objects in the solar neighborhood (near the Sun) • The sun • Has a luminosity 4 x 108 as large as the second brightest object in the solar system (Jupiter) • Contains over 99.8% of the mass in the solar system • So the solar system can be thought of as the Sun and some debris • In the first part of this class, we will concentrate on the debris

  3. Giant Planets • Large • Mass • Radius • Low density • Primarily gaseous • No solid surface • Strong magnetic fields • Many moons • Many rings • Two subclasses: • Gas Giants (H & He) • Ice Giants (H20, NH3, CH4)

  4. Terrestrial Planets • Close to the sun • Small • Mass • Radius • High density • Primarily rocky • Solid surface • Weak magnetic field • Few moons • No rings

  5. Satellites • Do not orbit the sun, instead orbit objects which orbit the sun • Come in many sizes and orientations • Large ones can have geology and surfaces similar to planets • Most orbits are prograde and eccentric

  6. Ring Systems

  7. Primitive bodies • Asteroids • Radii <~ 500 km • Located primarily between Mars and Jupiter • Comets • Do not look like comets most of the time • Originate in • Kuiper Belt (35-100 AU) • Oort Cloud (104 AU) • Pluto (KBO?)

  8. Planetary Properties • The following properties can be determined by direct observation • Orbit (Kepler’s laws) • Mass, and distribution (Kepler’s laws - satellites) • Size (distance, occultation, photometry) • Rotation rate and direction (features, lightcurve) • Shape (imaging, occultation, radar, lightcurve) • Temperature (in situ, blackbody spectrum) • Magnetic field (in situ, aurorae) • Surface composition (spectral reflectance) • Surface structure (imaging) • Atmospheric structure and composition (spectra)

  9. Planetary Properties 2 • Some properties can’t be observed directly, but can be inferred • Bulk composition • From density • Internal structure • Core diameter from gravity measurements • Surface features, magnetic field • Tables of planetary properties can be found in your book.

  10. Energy Transport Conduction Convection Radiation Sources Solar Gravitational Radioactive Decay Tidal and Ohmic Surfaces Rocks and minerals Igneous Metamorphic Sedimentary Features Tectonics Volcanism Atmospheric (Aeolian) Impact Craters Summary of Semester Surface features (except impacts) are driven by energy, the more energy available, the more features there are.

  11. Final Project • On some aspect of planetary science • Must include some physical calculations • Steps: • Choose a review article from one of my books or Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Science (1/14) • Summarize the article (1/18), carefully pick an aspect of the paper that interests you – this is your project topic • Order possible interesting articles (you’ll need 4-6) for paper through interlibrary loan (ASAP) • Discuss possible topics with me (1/24) • Write an annotated bibliography of some of the papers you’ve chosen (1/31) • Prepare a presentation about your topic (including the calculations) • Write a paper about your topic (draft 2/14 and final 2/25)

  12. Something cool – Iapetus

  13. Homework, due Friday • Read Chapter 1 • Do homework #1 (on web) • Look over www.nineplanets.org to help pick topic

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