The Outer Solar System.ppt

The Outer Solar System The “Gas Giants” Jupiter – King of the Planets Hydrostatic Equilibrium – Pressure balance Giant Interiors Atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn Colorful Clouds Red Spot Movie Banded Structure of Clouds Jupiter’s Magnetosphere – Bigger than the Sun Making Magnetic Fields Auroral Zones Saturn The Cassini Mission to Saturn Uranus The Interior of Uranus (and Neptune) A Very Tilted Pole Neptune Clouds and Storms on Neptune Pluto Pluto and Charon What Pluto probably looks like These auroral pictures are taken in UV light. * The outer planets have no solid surface, and are much bigger. The primary gases are hydrogen and helium (like the Sun), although Uranus and Neptune have substantial (15 Earth mass) rock/ice cores. Mass = 0.001 solar (300 earths), Radius = 11.2 Earths, density = 1.3 x water Distance: 5.2AU; Orbital Period: 11.8 years; Rotation period: 9.9 hours. “Hydrostatic equilibrium” governs the structure of all gaseous bodies (planets or stars). The inside has higher temperature and density because of the weight of the overlying material. Jupiter and Saturn have similar structures. Both are still collapsing slowly, and the gravitational energy released makes them “shine” more heat out than they get from the Sun. It is carried out by convection. Helium is also slowly settling faster than hydrogen. The Great Red Spot is a cyclone the size of the Earth that has lasted at least 300 years. Magnetic field arises when there is a conducting, convecting medium in a rapidly rotating body. This makes a “dynamo”; the same mechanism in the Sun, the Earth and other contexts. The high energy particles come down the field lines and hit the atmosphere near the poles, causing the gases to glow. Just like on the Earth, this makes an “aurora” in a ring-like zone. Mass = 95 Earths, Radius = 9.4 Earths, density = 0.7 x water (floats) Distance: 9.5 AU; Orbital Period: 29.4 years; Rotation period: 10.6 hours. Although it is impossible to think of Saturn without its ri