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Chapter 8

Jovian planets- gas giants Jupiter

5.2 Au from sun 318 M earth 1.33 g/cm^3 Composed mostly of H and He Failed star No solid surface We send a droid down and it got 200Km down and that is only .3% of

Jupiter Jupiter consists of

Outer layer of 10% is gas, we think of this as its atmosphere Liquid hydrogen, next 10% exceeds temp of 2000K and pressure

500,000 that on the face of earth Most of Jupiter is this layer of metallic hydrogen. Magnetic field

generated here Core: layer of hydrogen compounds, rock and metal, contains

ten times the mass of earth but only the same size as earthbecause of the high density pressures

Magnetosphere- shields it from harsh solar winds. It deflectsthem some 3 million km away

3 layers of cloud- lowest are water clouds-white, higher areammonium hydrosulfide- orange, highest are ammonia clouds-yellow

Saturn 9.54 Au from sun 95 M earth .71 g/cm^3 Mostly H, He

Uranus 19.2 Au 14 M earth 1.24 g/cm^3 H compounds, rock, H and He

Neptune 30.1 Au from sun 17 M earth 1.67 g/cm^3 H compounds, rock, H and He

Uranus and Neptune are not nearly as dense as Jupiter so it is possible tohave underwater oceans.

All but Uranus generate a great deal of internal heat Jovian planets have several different types of clouds which is why we see

different colors

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On earth all we have are water clouds so they are all the same color Coriolis effect- the rotation of the Earth which divers the path of missiles

or rockets as well as winds, but Jupiter spins faster so its bigger Great Red Spot- huge storm on Jupiter- more than twice the width of earth

Jupiter's Moons - Io Europa Ganymede Callisto Galileo discovered them and they are all large enough to be dwarf

planets if they orbited the sun Io is the most volcanically active moon, because of tidal heating,

same concept that keeps our oceans moving must heat Jupiter'smoon

Io's orbit is elliptical because of the orbital resonance it shares withEuropa and Ganymede

Europa- covered in complete ice and we believe deep ocean beneath It may contain twice as much liquid water as all of our oceans

combined Ganymede- also has water surface, largest moon in solar system Castillo- also may have ocean, but interesting because it doesn't

have tidal heating so its completely unknown, furthest moon fromJupiter

Saturn's moon Titan Thick atmosphere Second largest in solar system Thick atmosphere leads to methane rain Icy composition Titan has extremely similar surface conditions, just vastly different

composition, rivers, dirt, air and rock, just methane, ice, smog andammonia

Neptune's moon Triton Orbits the planet backward and at a high elevation to the equator Seems as if it was captured and used to orbit the sun

Jovian moon compared to a terrestrial planet p 250, not too important Ring characteristics- ring particles orbit Saturn separately