Gina Min Intro to Astronomy Ch 9-11 Professor Minnich Ch 9: #13 24 25 13.

Liquid water is not stable on the surface of Mars today because the air pressure is too weak to keep liquid water on the surface (it would almost immediately evaporate) and also it's freezing on the surface, so the water would not remain in liquid form even if it didn't evaporate. There is evidence of run off features, erosion and lake beds that we think were caused by water. They could have been some other liquid, but we think it was water. There is some water ice in the polar ice caps, but not much. It is possible that it becomes water vapor when the seasons change. However the only possible place where water might be liquid would be in underground lakes and rivers. It's also possible that there are frozen lakes and rivers under the surface. 24. New, high-resolution orbital photographs of Mars show many crater bottoms filled with pools of liquid: This would be surprising. Under the current conditions of Marss atmosphere, pools of liquid water should rapidly freeze and/or evaporate. 25. Drilling into the surface, a robotic spacecraft discovers liquid water beneath the slopes of a Martian volcano: This would be exciting, but not surprising. Geothermal heat from Martian volcanoes may well be enough to melt water under the Mars surface. Ch 10: #17 18 26 28 29 17. The planet experiences all four seasons that the Earth does, but since the year is longer on the planet, the axial tilt is different, and Mars has a more eccentric orbit than Earth, the seasons are not the same length as each other or the same in each hemisphere. Because, like Earth, its axis is tilted away from the Sun Mars has seasons. 18. In the Goldilocks scenario, Mars primarily loses its atmosphere as the planet becomes geologically dead and there are no more mechanisms for putting CO2 back in the atmosphere (recall rain washes the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere). In a more sophisticated model, the geological death of the planet diminishes the magnetic field, and the weakening of the magnetosphere allows the full brunt of the solar wind to strip the atmosphere from the planet. Another factor is the lack of stratosphere which allows UV radiation to pound the atmosphere breaking up the gas molecules into their constituent atoms. 26. In the distant past, when Mars had a thicker atmosphere, it also had a stratosphere: Mars atmosphere must once have been much thicker with a much stronger greenhouse effect, so change must have occurred due to loss of atmospheric gas. 28. Mars would still have seasons even if its orbit around the Sun were perfectly circular rather than elliptical: False because Mars only has seasons because of its eccentric orbit and also becausde its axis is tilted away from the Sun. 29. Mars once may have never been warmer than it is today, but it could never have been warmer than Earth because it is farther from the Sun than Earth: False because Mars is cold and dry with an atmospheric pressure so low that liquid water is unstable. Ch 11: #2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 37 2. Jupiter is actually more dense than its nearby neighbor Saturn. This is due to the fact that, Jupiters overall mass generates a larger gravitational well than Saturn and as such attracts more solid mass than its smaller neighbor.

3. a. Small core of rock and metal b. Covered by a lot of metallic hydrogen c. Covered by hydrogen gas d. Its like this because of pressure and heat e. all four jovian planets are quite similar in com-position and mass. Thus, the jovian planet interiors differ mainly in the hydrogen/ helium layers that surround their cores. Figure 11.5 contrasts the four jovian interiors. 4. a. Thought to be because it is contracting and it is well insulated b. Radioactive decay 5. thermosphere = very low density gas with very high temperatures - stratosphere = absorbs ultraviolet photons - troposphere = temperature rises with depth - three primary layers = wather, ammonium hyfrosulfide and ammonia. - Saturn has the same set of 3 cloud layers as Jupiter but the lower overall temperatures causes these layers to lie deeper in Saturns atmosphere. Saturns cloud layers are also separated by greater vertical distances than Jupiters. 6. a. Different clouds show different colors b. They lie deeper in its atmosphere c. They have outer atmospheres made of methane which absorbs red light and reflects blue 7. The great red spot is a giant storm more than twice as wide as the entire planet Earth. It is somewhat like a hurricane on Earth except that its winds circulate around a high-[ressure region rather than a low-pressure region. Jupiter does not have weather patterns because it has no appreciable axis tilt. Saturns internal heat keeps seasons temperatures about the same even with its axis tilt. Neptune has an axis tilt like Saturn and its internal heat keeps seasonal temperatures very similar. 8. The massive amount of electrically conducting fluid that Jupiter has explains its strong magnetic field. Jupiters magnetosphere begins deflecting solar wind 3 million km away from itself. It traps a large amount of charged particles that creates tiny atmosphere on Jupiters moons. Saturns magnetic field is weaker than Jupiters because it has a thinner layer of metallic hydrogen. Uranus and Neptune have no metallic hydrogen so their relatively weak magnetospheres are generated by their cores oceans" of hydrogen compounds, rock and metal. 9. Small moons = less than 300 km in diameter. Medium moons = between 300 abd 1500 km and large moons = more than 1500 km. Most of the medium and large moons formed by accretion within the disks of gas that surrounded the individual jovian planets during their formation. The small moons are much more numerous than the large and medium0szied moons. Many of the small moons are probably captured asteroids or comets. 10. Io - innermost of the 4 Galilean moons, 4th largest moon in the Solar System at 3642 km in diameter, over 400 active volcanoes, more than 100 mountains, some of which are larger than Mt. Everest, mostly made of silicate rock surrounding a molten iron or iron sulfide core. Europa - 2nd closest to Jupiter of the 4 Galilean moons and the smallest at 3121.6 km in diameter (slightly smaller than Earth's Moon), one of the smoothest objects in the Solar System with a layer of water surrounding the mantle of the moon, thought to be 100 km thick. This leads to a possibility of extraterrestrial life. Few craters because the surface is tectonically active and strong. Primarily made of silicate rock and likely has an iron core. Tenuous atmosphere primarily composed of oxygen. Ganymede - Largest natural satellite in the Solar System at 5262.4 km in diameter, only satellite in the Solar System known to posses a magnetosphere likely created by convection within the liquid iron core. Composed primarily of silicate rock and water ice. High number of craters, but many are gone or barely visible due to its icy crust forming over them. Thin oxygen atmosphere and some atomic hydrogen. Callisto - 2nd largest of the four at 4820.6 km in diameter, 3rd largest moon in the Solar

System. Equal measures of rock and ice. Least dense of the Galilean moons. One of the most heavily cratered satellites in the solar systems, one major feature is a basin around 3000 km wide called Valhalla. Extremely thin atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and probably molecular oxygen. Considered the most suitable place for a human base for future exploration of the system of Jupiter.