In general:

- 8 major planets in solar system

- Dwarf planets are smaller than major planets and some have quite elliptical orbits.
- Planets have nearly circular orbits in the same direction in nearly the same plane.
- All planets orbit the sun at the same direction as the direction sun rotates
- Most large moons orbit their planets in this same direction, which is also the direction of the Suns rotation
- Swarms of asteroids and comets populate the solar system. Vast number of rocky asteroids and icy comets are found
throughout the solar system, but are concentrated in three distinct regions.
1. Asteroids are made of metal and rock, and most orbit in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter (between line of terrestrial
and jovian planets)
2. Comets are ice-rich, and many are found in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptunes orbit
3. Even more comets orbit the sun in the distant, spherical region called the Oort cloud, and only a rare few ever plunge into the
inner solar system
- Plutos orbit is not parallel to all the others orbit
Q/Why cant we see Venus/Mercury at midnight on meridian
At midnight, were facing directly opposite to the sun
Comparative planetology
- Comparing planets to Earth in order to place into context and learn from them
- Stay focused on processes common to multiple worlds instead of individual facts specific to a particular world.
- Comparing the planets reveals patterns among them
- Those patterns provide insights that help us understand our own planet.
- Reveal similarities and differences among planets
Sun
-

Makes up 99.99% of entire solar systems mass

Made mostly of H and He gas
Sunspots: dark spots on surface only because hey are slightly cooler than their surroundings
Converts 4 million tones of mass into energy each second
Gravity: governs the orbital patterns of solar system
Heat: influence the surface temperature of others
Solar wind (charged particles flowing outward fro the sun): shape planetary magnetic fields and influence their atmosphere

Mercury
- Smallest of the main planets
- Metal and rock
- Large iron core
- Desolated, cratered, steep cliffs
- No moon, no rain, no wind, no life.
- No atmosphere: every light goes through
- Day: 425c night time: -170c: this is due to the lack of atmosphere to preserve the temperature.
- One mercury day = 60 earth days
Venus
-

Nearly identical to earth

Surface hidden by very thick atmosphere full of CO2, causing extreme greenhouse effect
Hellish conditions due to an extreme greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse Effect: trapping heat effectively, so the temperature is consistently hot during both day and night
Can get hotter than mercury in both night and day
Temperature consistent because its atmosphere traps the temperature
No moon
The only one rotating on its axis in the opposite ways: going clockwise while all other are counter clockwise

Earth
-

An oasis of life
First inner planet with a moon (not the biggest moon in the solar system)
Has the largest moon considering the small size of Earth

Mars
-

Almost earth like

Like dessert on earth

Volcanoes, canyons, polar caps made of frozen CO2 and H2O (dry ice)
Water flowed in mars seasonally but not in big amounts
Dried up river banks, this means that mars used to have a lot of water on surface, but thin atmosphere caused it to dry up
Two moons

Jupiter:
- Largest planet
- 63 moons: Io (volcanoes everywhere) Europa (thin layer of ice covering it, we think it has ocean in there) Ganymede (largest
moon) Callisto (huge ice ball)
- Referred to as Galilean moons
- Mostly H and He
- No solid surface; all gas and atmosphere
- Has a ring (small)
Saturn
- Giant and gaseous like Jupiter
- No solid surface
- Has massive rings: not solid; made up of countless small chunks of ice and rock, pulled together by gravity, each orbiting like
a tiny moon
- Not dense so is less massive although it is the second largest planet
- Many moons including Titan (a moon that has an atmosphere)
- Sharperdine moon: a moon in the ring. Has enough gravity and make the ring go out of its way (a dark lane in the middle of
the ring)
Uranus
-

Much smaller than Jupiter and Saturn

Made of H and He gas and hydrogen compounds (H2O, NH3, CH4)
Extreme axis tilt (90degress), earth is 23.5
27 Moons and rings
Voyager 2: only one spacecraft flew past it

Neptune
- 13 moons: triton (backward rotation)
- Rings
Pluto:
-

5 moons
Icy and comet like

Dwarf Planets:
- Pluto
- Eris
- Much smaller than major planets
- Icy, comet-like composition
- Plutos largest moon, Charon: synchronous rotation
Q/What process created the elements from which the terrestrial planets were made?
- Nuclear fusion in stars (rocks and water)
- The big bang: most hydrogen and helium (these are gas planets)
Q/Jupiters chemical composition is closet to that of the sun
- Hydrogen and helium
- Earth: rocks
- Venus: rocks with heavy atmosphere
Dont need to know exact density of planets
Q/Seasons on Uranus are one fourth of Uranuss year, or about 20 earth years long
- Since its 90 degrees so entire north hemisphere is in one season

Patterns in the Solar System

- The rotation axes of planets are perpendicular to their orbital plane: non of the planets orbit the sun like that. (Still have
inclinations)
- No planets orbital inclination is more than 20 degrees from the ecliptic: how the planets go around the plane
- Planets are not always circular
- Planets dont always rotate and revolve in the same direction because of Venus
Motion of Large Bodies
- All large bodies in the solar system orbit in the same direction and in nearly the same plane (most also rotate in that direction)
- Except for Venue, which rotates counterclockwise
Swarms of Smaller Bodies
- Asteroid belt
- Kuiper belt
- Many rocky asteroids and icy comets populate the solar system
Pluto & Eris
- Eris has non centric orbit
- Pluto is smaller than a moon
Notable exceptions
- Uranus has a odd tilt: all major moons also share the same side-way rotation
- Earth is such a small planet to have such a large moon
- Triton (Neptune): rotates backwards
- Titan (Saturn): thick atmosphere
- Venus rotates anti-clockwise
Transit of Venus
- Apparent position of Venus on Sun during transit depends on distances in solar system and your position on Earth
- Measuring distance to Venus:
1. Measure apparent position of Venus on Sun from two locations on Earth
2. Use Trigonometry to determine Venus distance from the distance between the two locations on Earth
Flybys
Orbiters
-

A flyby mission flies by a planet just once take pictures

Take advantage to the gravity an inner planets can swing you out so dont need additional fuel
Popular because you can use gravitational force of planet to move pole further out into the solar system
Much cheaper than other missions
Saturn is the last planet we use for gravity
When they take you out with gravity, it also changes the trajectory of the thing
Another way is go around few times in the inner planets and swing out to pass Jupiter than to Saturn dont need to
calculate change the route
Very limited amount of time to take pictures
EX/ Voyager 2: flybys of all four jovian planets
Go into orbit around another world
The orbiter will be assigned to one planet so have longer time to gather pictures of surfaces
Data not detailed
Message sends from nasal headquarters and send to her and she receives (4 to 20 mins)
Has different filter of hydrogen, oxygen, reflected sunlight, and composite

Probes/Landers
- Land on surface so can explore in detail instead of just pictures
- High risk missions
- Careful calculations
- Data are very detailed
- Process:
1. Friction slows spacecraft as it enters atmosphere
2. Parachute slows spacecraft
3. Rockets slows spacecraft to halt (stop); tether (rope) lowers rover to surface

4.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Tether released, the rocket heads off to crash a safe distance away.
Curiosity Rover:
Landed a bit more than a year ago
Size of an SUV
Very expensive
Still in Mars right now

Sample Return Missions

- Not very common
- Launch in probe to gather samples and come back to earth with data
- Apollo mission to moon
- Very expensive
- 2006: star dust mission. Flew into a tail of a comet and collected material and brought back to earth
Combination Spacecraft
- Cassini/Huygens mission contained a orbiter (Cassini) and a lander (Huygens)
- The mission was to have Cassini go to rings of Saturn and take pictures and go around Saturn and dropped off Huygens on
Titan
What properties of our solar system must a formation theory explain?
1. Patterns of motion of the large bodies
- Orbit in same direction and plane
2. Existence of 2 types of planets
- Terrestrial and Jovian
3. Existence of smaller bodies
- Asteroids and comets
4. Notable exceptions to usual patterns
- Rotation of Venus, earths moon, Uranuss tilt, moons with unusual orbits/patterns
Formation of the Solar System
1. Big Bang (elements form)
- The universe as a whole is a product of the Big Bang, which only produced hydrogen and helium
2.
-

Galactic Recycling (stars formmore elements forming)

Stars are born in clouds of gas and dust made of molecular hydrogen gas
Stars produce heavier elements from lighter ones
Stars return material to space when they die
The steps happen in cycles
Galactic recycling built the elements from which planets formed
Elements that formed planets were made in stars and then recycled through space
More stars formed
Heavier elements were produced later by massive stars, and released into space when the stars died
The heavier elements then mixed with other gas that formed new generations of stars

3.
-

Nebular Theory (no planets only stars)

Galactic recycling formed solar nebula, a giant gas cloud
The solar nebula (a giant gas cloud) came from products of billions of years of galactic recycling that occurred before the sun
and planets were born.
The solar nebula began as a large, roughly spherical cloud of very cold and low-density gas
At first was very spread out, so gravity couldnt have pulled it together and start the collapse
The collapse was triggered by a catastrophic event: supernova (explosion of a nearby star)
Once the collapse started, gravity enabled it to continue
The mass of the cloud remained the same as it shrank, so the strength of gravity increased as the diameter of the cloud
decreased
The solar nebula collapsed under its own gravity
Little parts of giant nebular broke off and became smaller pieces
This cloud gave birth to the sun at its center and the planets in a spinning disk that formed around the young sun

Motion of Solar Nebula after the collapse:

- Heating:
o Temperature increase as it collapsed

Such heating represents energy conservation in action

As the cloud shrank, gravitational potential energy was converted to kinetic energy of individual gas particles falling
inward
o These particles crashed into one another, converting kinetic to thermal energy
o The sun formed in the center, where temperatures and densities were highest
Spinning:
o The solar nebula rotated faster as the radius decreased
o Increase in rotation represents conservation of angular momentum
o The rapid rotation ensured not all materials in solar nebula collapsed into the center
o The greater the angular momentum of a rotating cloud, the more spread out it will be
Flattening:
o Collision between particles in the cloud caused it to flatten into a disk
o Cloud become disk and disk becomes flat because of collision
o Collision between gas particles also reduce up and down motions
o Spinning cloud flattens as it shrinks
o Ended up with thin and quickly rotating disk around the cloud
o
o

The Nebular Theory Support

- A large amount of evidence now supports this idea
- Used to be nebular hypothesis but now a theory
- We see stars forming all the time in other interstellar gas clouds, lending support to the nebular theory.
- All stars was once formed out of one giant nebula
Close Encounter Hypothesis
- A rival idea proposed that the planets formed from debris torn of the sun by a close encounter with another star.
- A star ripped out pieces of the sun and became planets
o Then why do they orbit the sun so neat in a plane?
- That hypothesis could not explain observed motions and types of planets
What caused the orderly patterns of motion in our solar system? Why does all plants orbit the sun in the same direction
- Conservation of angular momentum!!!
- Planets all orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane because they formed in the flat disk
- The direction in which the disk was spinning became the direction of the Suns rotation and the orbits of the planets.
- The fact that collisions in the disk tended to make orbits more circular explains why the planets in our solar system have
nearly circular orbits.
Disks around Other Stars
- Observations of disk around other stars support the nebular hypothesis
- Younger stars have thinner disks
Planets from out of disk
- Electric magnetic forces: attract each other
- Started with something very small and become big planets all b/c of electric magnetic forces, then, gravity takes over
- Baby planets leave footprints: disk is brighter than any plants
Conservation of energy
- Inside the frost line (closer to sun):
o Too hot for hydrogen compounds to form ices
o Rocks and metals condense and hydrogen compounds stay gaseous
- Outside the frost line (farther from sun):
o Cold enough for ices to form
o Hydrogen compounds, rocks, and metal condense
- Within the solar nebula, 98% of the material is hydrogen and helium gas that doesnt condense anywhere
- Have dust and gas
- Ice is a sticking material
- If no ice, not sticky, so they still grow but dont go very large
- Gas in outer planets: too hot to form hydrogen compounds
Formation of Terrestrial Planets
- Tiny solid particles (product of condensation around the frost line) stick to form planetesimals

Gravity draws planetesimals together to form planets

Small particles sticking together because of electro magnetic forces
Once they are big enough, they have gravity and go bigger and bigger
This process is called accretion
Many smaller objects collected into just a few large ones
Only rock and metals condensed inside the frost line
Rock, metals, and ices condensed outside the frost line
Larger planetesimals outside the frost line drew H and He gases
Early in accretion, there are many large planetesimals in orbit
As time passes, larger planetesimals accrete to smaller ones
Ultimately, only the largest planetesimals avid shattering and grow into full size planets.

Formation of Jovian Planets

- Since ice could form small particles outside the frost line and makes them stickier, it enables to make planetesimals even
bigger
- Icy planetesimals draw in surrounding H an He gases and accumulates them while the disk forms large moons by
condensation and accretion, and captures small moons.
- Moons of Jovian planets form in miniature disks
- Thin atmosphere
- Look at outer planets, we think they formed as a miniature version of how our solar system form (a disk around the sun and
Jupiter forming in the disk and got big enough to have disk surround it)
- A disk form, it make sense they have moons have its own disk
- Jupiter: miniature version of solar system
- Only rock and metals condensed inside the frost line
- Rock, metals, and ices condensed outside the frost line
- Larger planetesimals outside the frost line drew H and He gases
- Solar system formation: collapse (cloud and disk around sun), condensation (liquid/solid formed from gas; disk condense and
ice form), accretion
Solar Rotation
- In nebular theory, young sun rotated much faster than now
- Friction between solar magnetic field and solar nebular probably slowed the rotation over time
- The sun slowed down because the charge particles in the nebula exert a drag on the magnetic field (nebula is slower and
magnetic field faster)
- Stars similar to sun also slows down
Asteroids and Comets
- Leftovers from the accretion process
- Rocky asteroids inside frost line
- Icy comets outside frost line
- Depending on where you are in the solar system, frost line=rocky
Heavy Bombardment
- Leftover planetesimals bombarded other objects in the late stages of solar system formation.
- Started smacking into things
- Craters of mercury, moon, and mars came from this
- No weather that will wash away the craters
- Very important because how do you get water on earth, which is in frost line where its hot and close to sun?
- Connects to origin of water on earth
Origin of Earth Water
- Water may have come to Earth by way of icy planetesimals that came from outside the frost line or at least not anywhere near
Kuiper belt
- Atmosphere helps us conserve water
- Mars not enough atmosphere to conserve
How do we exceptions to the rules
1. Captures moons
- Unusual moons of some planets may be captured planetesimals
- Mars with odd-looking moons that is not circular, then how did mars end up with two moons?
- They could have been captured

2.
-

Existence of our Moon

Something really big smacked into it (Giant Impact)
Something as large as mars smacked right into Earth and destroyed earth down to core and parts of the earth went into space
and gravity made that piece orbit around the earth then become disk and then becomes moon
Giant impacts might also explain the different rotation axes of some planets
Only a hypothesis
Earth wasnt big enough like Jupiter to form disk around itself

3.
-

Odd Rotation
Something smacked into it.
Nebular theory: many things floating around and smacked into each other, which changed direction and axis angle

Was Our Solar System Destined to Be?

- Formation of planets in the solar nebular seems inevitable
- But details of individual planets could have been different
Age of Solar System
- Radio decaying
- Some isotopes decay into other nuclei.
- Potassium change into Argon
- Comparing the proportions of those isotopes with their decay products tells us the age of rocks
- Half life is the amount of time isotope reach 50% of originally
- A half life is the time for half the nuclei a substance to decay
- Current amount/original amount=(0.5)^(t/time)
o t= time since rock formed
- Radiometric dating tells us that oldest moon rocks are 4.4 billion years old.
- Oldest meteorites are 4.55 billion years old
- Planets probably formed 4.5 billion years ago
Are all Jovian planets all alike?
- Distances, masses, and sizes varies
Jovian Planets Compositions
- Jupiter and Saturn are mostly H and He gas (Jupiter can almost be a star)
- Uranus and Neptune: mostly hydrogen compounds: H2O, CH4 (methane), ammonia (ammonia) and some H, He, and rock.
Density Difference
- Uranus and Neptune are denser than Saturn because they have less H and He
- But that doesnt explain Jupiter: Although Jupiter has a lot of H and Hw gas, it is supposedly going to have less density, but it
actually had high density because the gas is compressed on the outer layer
Sizes of Jovian Planets
- Adding mass to a jovian planet compresses the underlying gas layers.
- Greater compression is why Jupiter is not much larger than Saturn even though it is three times more massive.
- Jovian planets with even more mass can be smaller than Jupiter.
Rotation and Shape
- Conservation of angular momentum: Jovian planets are not spherical because they rotate very fast (they are more flat)
- Outside: visible clouds
- Inside: hydrogen gas
- Deeper: liquid hydrogen
- Deeper: hydrogen in form of metal
- Center: core of rocks, metals, and hydrogen compounds
Interior
-

No solid service
Layers under high pressure and temperature
Cores made of hydrogen compounds, metals, and rocks
Core: about the size of earth, 10 times more massive
Why are layers so different?

o High pressure inside Jupiter causes phase of hydrogen to change with depth.
o Hydrogen acts like a metal at great depths because its electrons move freely.
The atmosphere of Jupiter has few heavy elements due to gravitational settling toward the planets center. Jupiter is mostly
atmosphere. Heavier elements will just sink to the center.
Jovian planets have retained most of their atmosphere because they are cold and massive. Because they are massive, they
have gravity so can pull on lighter elements. Since atmosphere are cold, particles dont move.

Comparing Jovian interiors

- Models suggest cores of Jovian planets have similar compositions.
- Lower pressures inside Uranus and Neptune mean no metallic hydrogen
- Jupiter radiates twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun
- Energy probably comes from slow contraction of interior (releasing potential energy)
- Interior /core is contracting
- Energy probably comes from differentiation (helium rain)
- Saturn also radiates twice as much energy as it receives from the sun
- Neptune emits nearly twice as much energy as it receives, but the source of that energy remains mysterious.
Weather on Jovian planets
- Hydrogen compounds in Jupiter form clouds.
- Different cloud layers correspond to freezing points of different hydrogen compounds.
- Other Jovian planets have cloud layers similar to Jupiters.
- Nh3 H2o NH4SH: in Jupiters atmosphere
- Troposphere
- Stratosphere
Why is there no oxygen in Jupiter Atmosphere?
- Clouds have different colors because have different compounds
- Ammonium reflects red/brown
- Ammonia (highest & coldest layer): reflects white
Saturns Color
- Layers are all similar, but deeper in and farther from the Sun (more subdued)
Methane on Uranus and Neptune
- Methane gas of Neptune and Uranus absorbs red light but transmit blue light
- Blue light reflects of methane clouds, making those planets blue.
Q/Why is Neptune blue and Jupiter red?
- Methane in Neptunes atmosphere absorbs red light and scatters blue light
Q/ A planet discovered made of h and he with same mass as Jupiter but same size as Neptune
- Cant happen because with the size of Neptune it must be very very compressed.
Weather on Jovian Planets:
- All have substantial strong winds and storms: Jupiters great red spot that is twice as big as width of Earth, lasted at least 300
years already
- Clouds have different directions
- Saturns wind are significantly faster than Jupiter
- Saturn as spots on surface but goes away in a few years
- Neptune: the great spot: gone in 6 years.
- Dont know why the red spot is so long compared to others
Magnetospheres (Must have metal of some form)
- High energy particles entering earth
- Jupiter has the largest in solar system because Jupiters strong magnetic field gives it an enormous magnetosphere
- JUNO: studying Jupiter launched by NASA
- Saturn has smaller magnetospheres.
- All Jovian planets have substantial magnetospheres
Jupiter doesnt have a large metal core like earth, so how can it have magnetic field?
- It has metallic hydrogen inside, which circulates the planet

The shape of Jupiters magnetic field is flattened because of the solar wind and the planets rotation (since Jupiter spins very fast)
Rocky core of Jupiter is larger than Earth
What kinds of moons orbit the Jovian planets?
- Jupiter
- Io
- Europa
- Ganymede
- Calisto
Moons
-

Small: no geological activity

Medium: Geological activity in the past
Large: ongoing geological activity
Large and medium:
o Enough gravity to pull themselves and be spherical
o Have substantial amounts of ice
o Formed around the gases planets / formed in orbit around jovian planets
o Circular orbits in same direction as planet rotation
Saturn: Titan
Uranus
Neptune: Triton
The level of geological activity depends on moons size

Small Moons
- These are far more numerous than the medium and large moons
- Not round because dont have gravity to make themselves round (potato shapes)
- Orbits are not highly ordered; more out of the plain because they are captured asteroids or comets
Q/ A Jovian planet in another star system has a moon as big as Mars this makes sense. We know of no reason why larger satellites
could not exist in an outer system.
Composition of Jovian moons different from the Jovian planets
- Some materials but not enough so moon is able to
- Moon formation more similar to terrestrial planets
Io: Volcanically active
- Surface: smooth but have dark spots and is actually lava
- Volcanic eruptions continue to change Ios surface
- Also have volcanic gas and volcanic flow
- Used infrared telescope to spot volcano locations
Tidal Heating:
- Io orbits Jupiter (the most massive), so Jupiter is pulling on Io very very strongly, squishing and stretching the moon.
- The liquid molten rock is under pressure and so want to move to the surface, which is why it has so many volcanoes
- Io is the closest to Jupiter.
- The rocky material on Io is being molten by the gravity of Jupiter
- Tidal heating drives geological activity, leasing to Ios volcanoes and ice geology on other moons
Some point in Mars, atmosphere was thick enough to have ocean, but magnetosphere of mars is not strong so solar particle shift away
and ocean evaporate. Mars had water because atmospheres have to have been bigger at some point.
Io (melt)
- Closest large moon to Jupiter
- Volcanic eruptions constantly
- Tallest volcano on Io is significantly bigger than Mt Everest
- How does this happen?
o Tidal heating is causing eruption on Io
o As Io goes around Jupiter, it pulls on Io and stretches it out
o When Io is closest to Jupiter, it is most stretched out (cant visibly see)

Europa
-

o Io is like terrestrial planets

o Liquid will want to push to make more space for itself
Why is its orbit so elliptical
4 Io 2 Europa 1 Ganymede
Orbital Resonance:
o Every 7 days, these three moons line up
o When they line up, they cause a tug
o The tugs ass up over time, making all three orbits elliptical
Composed of ice
Surface very smooth and have cracks
Tidal stresses cracks Europas surface ice
Europas interior also warmed by tidal heating, which melted ice under the surface, so the moon has a lot of water
Most possible source of life
Towards the center, should have hot spots due to pull of Jupiter
Twice as much as water on Earth
Moon has a lot of cracks; some cracks looks displaced (same crack but not lined up) ice sheets?
Water takes up more volume so it pushes up and spilling over the surface, so have the cracks
Metallic core in Europa
Potential to form very hot material and heat the ocean, which also explain very cracked area that looks like melted and iced
and melted
All deduced from observations
Weird cracks need some kind of heat source

Tidal stress/tidal effect/tidal heating/ Tidal resonance??

Ganymede
- Largest moon in solar system
- Clear evidence of geological activities on new parts
- Some parts look very new some very old (based on the number of craters)
- Icy surface and craters
- Craters means less geological activity
- Some cracks
- Might be because there are thin water underneath the surface
Callisto
-

Giant snowball
No geological activity
Things are continuously smacking into it
No tidal heating Jupiter is not pulling on it
No orbital resonances
BUT it has magnetic field!!! Very odd to find for moons.
o Must have a metal core
o Or liquid core: less likely because less tidal heating
o High salt ocean can produce magnetic field

Q/ how does Jupiter heat Io? Tidal resonance

Q/ Why is Io (same size as moon) more volcanically active than our moon? Io has a different internal heat source heat source
created because of tidal heating from Jupiter
Titan
-

Goes around Saturn

Has very substantial atmosphere (almost like Earth)
o The ONLY moon to have a thick atmosphere
Composition of atmosphere: argon, nitrogen, methane, and ethane etc. dont sustain life.
Cant see surface
Huygens: 90 seconds on the surface
o Has liquid methane (not liquid water) can make into fuel
o Found rocks made of ice

o
o

Surface very rocky

First time to send something to land of surface beyond orbits of Mars

Medium Moons of Saturn

- Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus
- Almost all of them show evidence of past volcanism and/or tectonics
- All show evidence of geological activity but not alot
- Enceladus:
o Ice fountains suggest it may have a subsurface ocean
o Looks like Europa
o Things streaming out (water vapor)
o Recently confirmed it being water
o Size of Colorado
Miranda
- Moon of Uranus
- Ice ball
- Have markings on surface
- Canyon and deeper than grand canyon
Triton
-

Neptunes moon
Similar to Pluto, but larger
Rotates backwards
Rotates backwards
Past geologic activity
Lava field basins
Moon in outer solar system
o so icy and when meltedliquid

Why are small icy moons more geologically active than rocky planets?
- Rock melts at high temp and Ice melts at lower temp Ice are easily melted
- Presence of tidal heating: tidal heating can melt internal ice, driving activity
- Icy moons usually around gas giant planet that causes extra source (tidal heating) and melt
- Ice melts and deforms at lower temperatures, enabling tidal heating to drive activity
- Only large rocky planets have enough hear for activity
- And composition
Saturns Rings
- They are made up of numerous, tiny individual icy particles
- Orbit around Saturns equator
- Very wide, but very thin in terms of thickness
- Cassini division: dark gap within the ring
- Should have many Cassini because there are many rings making up one ring.
- The giant ring is made up of many individual rings separated by narrow gaps
- Rings are not solid; no solid plane.
- Particles clump together because of gravity, but small random velocities cause collisions that break them up
Gap Moons
- Some small moon create gaps within rings
- Shepherd moons: a pair of small moons can force particles into a narrow ring
- Resonance gaps: orbital resonance with a large moon can also produce gap. Depending on how big the moon is, it could also
affect dusts around it.
Q/ Saturns many moons affect its rings through orbital resonance
Q/ Saturns rings are continuously supplied with new particles by impacts with small moons
Jovian Ring Systems
- All four jovian planets have ring systems
- Other has smaller, darker ring particles, less numerous particles than Saturns.
- Not as wide and colorful

Jupiter and Uranus rings not visible visible under infrared

Saturn and Neptune rings visible

Ring Formation
- Jovian planets all have rings because they possess many small moons close in
- Part of the disk broke off and condensed into jovian planet and a smaller disk around jovian planet, and part of it formed
moons
- So many small moons and particles around it, so it kept colliding each other, and got much finer particles, and have
gravitational force so attracted to planet so formed rings
- Impacts on these moons are random
- Saturns incredible rings may be an accident of our time
- This process is all due to chances, so cant really explain why Saturn has particularly large rings
Exam Review (80%)
- Patterns in the solar system
- Terrestrial and Jovian planets
- Hoe Earth compared to other planets in the solar system
- Rotating sun: sun slow doen, it has magnetic field, proto disk, and produce friction
- Nebular theory:
o What is it
o What properties does it explain and not explain
o What are the exceptions: large moon of earth, rotation of Uranus and Venus all because the great impact
- Frost line: the line beyond which ice can exist in the solar system
o Between inner terrestrial planet and jovian planets
o Ice is sticking so rocks were able to stick with each other
o Thats why jovian are larger than terrestrial
- Galactic recycling
o Different supernova went off
- How do we measure age of solar system
o Memorize Equation:
o T=t-half* [log (current amount/original amount)/log (1/2)]
o 16 because have 15 decaying so 1/16
- Similarities and difference between jovian planets
o All gaseous
o All giant
o J and S: hydrogen and helium
o N and U: hydrogen and helium and hydrogen compounds
- Io (j): volcanic
o All because of Tidal heating
o Stretched and compressed (every two days): rotate and orbit with the ame
o Hot enough to melt rock and so pressure and want to go to surface
o Elliptical: resonances
o Every week, all moons of Jupiter line up and pull on each other in the same direction
- Europa (j): large ocean
- Titan (s): thick atmosphere
- Why are moons around Jovian planets are geologically active.
Suppose the materials that formed Jupiter came together without any rotation so that no jovian nebula formed and the planet
today wasnt spinning. How else would the Jovian system be different?
- No rotation no disks
- No disks that formed around the planet
- So there will be no moons and no rings
- No spinning, no weather, so no belts
- Completely spherical
- No magnetic fields: need liquid metal or metallic that is moving. If no rotation, nothing is moving, so no magnetic fields
Suppose the Jovian planets atmosphere were composed only of hydrogen and helium, with no hydrogen compounds at all. How
would the atmosphere be different in term of clouds, color, and weather?
- The sky will only be grey
- No clouds or participation

Elements condense at different temperatures

Farther down is warmer, up is colder
Solar wind: high-energy particles form the sun. When they come to planet magnetic field, they attract and form