the outer planets chapter 23, section 3. jupiter: giant among planets jupiter has a mass that is 2...
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The Outer Planets
Chapter 23, Section 3
Jupiter: Giant Among Planets Jupiter has a mass that is 2 ½ times greater than the mass
of all other planets and moons combined If Jupiter had been about 10 times larger, it would have
become a star One rotation around its axis take 10 Earth hours The most striking feature of Jupiter is its Great Red Spot, it is
a cyclonic storm in the upper atmosphere Jupiter’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere also contains small
amounts of methane, ammonia, water, and sulfur compounds
Due to immense pressures within the atmosphere, Jupiter is thought to be a gigantic ocean of liquid hydrogen
Jupiter also has a faint system of rings surrounding the planet, not discovered until Voyager 1 flew past in 1979
Jupiter’s Atmosphere
Jupiter’s Moons Jupiter’s satellite system, consisting of 28 moons
discovered so far, looks like a mini solar system The four largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede,
and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo Io is one of three known volcanically active
bodies in our solar system (Neptune’s moon Triton is another)
The largest of the moons is Ganymede Europa is covered with ice and shows many
linear features Callisto is heavily cratered and greatly
resembles Earth’s moon
Jupiter and its Moons
Saturn: The Elegant Planet The most prominent feature of Saturn is its system of
rings Saturn’s atmosphere is very active, with wind speeds
up to 1500 kilometers per hour Large “cyclonic” storms occur in the atmosphere The main rings of Saturn (A and B) are very dense
and contain many “moonlets” that often collide with each other
Saturn’s faintest ring (E) is composed of very fine particles that are spread apart
Saturn’s satellite system consists of 31 moons (Titan is the largest and has an atmosphere that obscures its surface from view)
Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, was found to emit liquid geysers
Saturn and its Moons
Saturn’s Rings
Uranus: The Sideways Planet Instead of being generally perpendicular to
the plane of its orbit, Uranus’s axis of rotation lies nearly parallel with the plane of its orbit
Uranus has a set of at least nine distinct rings
Uranus has five large moons, and many smaller ones, that are very varied in their geology: deep canyons, linear scars, large-smooth areas on otherwise cratered surfaces
Uranus
Neptune: The Windy Planet Winds exceeding 1000 kilometers per hour
encircle Neptune, making it one of the windiest places in the solar system
It has an Earth-size storm called the Great Dark Spot
There are white, cirrus-like clouds that occupy a layer about 50 kilometers above the main cloud deck, thought to be frozen methane
Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, exhibits retrograde motion, indicating that it formed separately from Neptune and was gravitationally captured
Neptune
Pluto: Planet X Pluto lies on the fringe of the solar system, almost 40
times farther from the sun than Earth Because of its great distance, and slow orbital
period, it takes Pluto 248 Earth-years to orbit the sun Pluto’s orbit is highly eccentric, causing it to
occasionally travel inside the orbit of Neptune, where it resided from 1979 through February 1999
In 1978, the moon Charon was found to be orbiting Pluto
The average temperature on Pluto is estimated at -210ºC
In 2006, Pluto’s status as a planet was revoked, it is now considered a dwarf planet along with many other Kuiper belt objects
Assignment
Read Chapter 23, Section 3 (pg. 654-659) Do Section 23.3 Assessment #1-7 (pg. 659)