(8) Planets

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Planetary Physics

The New Solar System – Episode 1

For a short time in Sept. 2006 our Solar System com-prised 11 planets (the usual suspects plus Ceres – the largest asteroid belt object, Charon – the largest moon of Pluto, and the recently discovered 2003 UB313). A ballot at an IAU meeting changed everything:

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The „New Solar System“ knows only 8 Planets, 4 terrestrial planets and 4 gas planets (Source: IAU). Pluto is now only a Dwarf Planet, like Ceres, the largest body in the Asteroid Belt and 2003 UB313 (Eris), the largest body in the Kuiper Belt (thereby “dwarfing” Pluto). As of Jan 2016 there might, however, be a “true” “Planet Nine” – far in the outer solar system.

The New Solar System – Episode 2

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Pluto – Postscript

2006 was a very eventful year for Pluto. Two new moons had just been discovered, based on a Hubble Space Telescope image: Nix and Hydra (left: HST), but then Pluto lost its planetary status due to a decision of the IAU (International Astronomical Union). Meanwhile he is a „Dwarf Planet“, with a new name: 134340 Pluto. The IAU decision is, however, under dispute – and resistance is active (e.g. below: www.cafepress.com)

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The moons Kerberos and Styx (left: HST), have been discovered in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Eris

The cause for Plutos „degradation“ was the discovery of an even more massive (though slightly smaller) Kuiper belt object: 2003 UB313, meanwhile (aptly) baptized 136199 Eris , after the Greek goddess of discord (the one with the apple). Eris is orbited by a moon: Dysnomia (after Eris’ daughter, the demon of lawlessness (Picture: HST).

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Dwarf Planets

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The latest two full-frame, true color images of the binary system Pluto and Charon were collected separately by New Horizons during approach on July 13 and July 14, 2015. This composite (NASA) image shows the “true” relative reflectivity, size, separation, and orientations. Pluto and Charon show the phenomenon of mutual tidal locking – so don’t expect to see a Charon-rise, if you live on Pluto.

Pluto

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Although not being a “true” planet anymore Pluto is certainly an interesting object in our solar system. It/he orbits the sun in a 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune (for every two orbits that Pluto makes Neptune makes three), has likely cryovolcanoes (right) – and he has a heart (of ice) – the Tombaugh Regio, whose western part – Sputnik Planum – lacks any impact craters (credit: NASA).

Charon

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With a diameter of 1212 km (just over half that of Pluto) Charon is larger than the dwarf planet Ceres. While Pluto’s surface is mainly composed of nitrogen and methane ice, Charon’s surface is dominated by water ice (credit: NASA). The large dark area about 475 km in diameter near the north pole – informally named Mordor – could be an impact crater – or frozen gases captured (in the polar “cold trap”) from Pluto's escaping atmosphere (Pluto has a very thin nitrogen atmosphere with ~1 Pa surface pressure).

(8b) Gas Planets

Geophysics 193Introduction to Geophysics and

Planetary Physics

Jupiter

Mean radius: 69 911 km = 10.97 REMass: 1 899 ·1024 kg = 317.8 MEMean density: 1 326 kg/m3

Rotation period: 9.93 hOrbital period: 11.86 yearsSun distance: 5.2 AUMoons: 67 (status: 2016)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.htmlPictures: NASA

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Saturn

Mean radius: 58 232 km = 9.14 REMass: 568.5·1024 kg = 95.16 MEMean density: 687 kg/m3

Rotation period: 10.66 hOrbital period: 29.46 yearsSun distance: 9.6 AUMoons: 62 (status: 2016)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.htmlPicture: HST

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Uranus

Mean radius: 25 362 km = 3.98 REMass: 86.83·1024 kg = 14.54 MEMean density: 1 270 kg/m3

Rotation period: 17.24 hOrbital period: 84.0 yearsSun distance: 19.2 AUMoons: 27 (status: 2016)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/uranusfact.htmlPicture: L. Sromovsky, Keck Telescope

Uranus has an axial tilt of 97.8 ° – its rotation axis is almost parallel to the orbit plane.

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Neptune

Mean radius: 24 622 km = 3.86 REMass: 102.4·1024 kg = 17.15 MEMean density: 1 638 kg/m3

Rotation period: 16.11 hOrbital period: 164.8 yearsSun distance: 30.0 AUMoons: 14 (status: 2016)

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neptunefact.htmlPicture: NASA

Neptune’s largest moon Triton shows cryo-volcanism.

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Saturn (1)

The „Lord of the Rings“. With an equator diameter of ~120 000 km he is the second largest planet in our solar system. Besides a small rocky core, the main constituents are Hydrogen and Helium, yielding a density of just 0.7 g/cm3 – less than water. The short rotation period (10½ hours) leads to an oblateness of ~1/10 and to impressive wind speeds of up to 1 500 km/h (Source, also for the next slides: Cassini-Spacecraft, NASA/ESA).

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Saturn (2)

Saturn‘s most striking features are its rings, which show an impressive radial extent – but only a surprisingly small thickness of 10 – 100 m (right, eith the moon Dione immediately above). Galileo Galilei was the first to observe them (in 1610), but Christiaan Huygens discovered their nature as a disk surrounding Saturn. The rings A and B are separated by the Cassini Division (left, discovered by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1675).

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Saturn (3)

The moon Dione just above the ring plane (note the ring‘s shadows on Saturn‘s cloud cover). The rings are predominantly composed of water ice (particles and boulders from ~1 cm to ~10 m diameter).

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Saturn (4)

The material depletion in the Cassini Division is caused by the gravitation of the “Death Star Moon” Mimas (left: above the rings, right: in detail). The central peak of Herschel Crater is 7 km high.

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Saturn (5)

The total mass of the rings amazingly small (similar to the mass of Mimas - 400 km diameter). The rings are probably remnants of a destroyed moon.

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Saturn (6)

The seven main rings have been named in chronological order (of discovery) – with increasing distance from Saturn they are therefore termed: D, C, B, A, F, G and E (above). The small walnut-shaped moon Pan (35 km x 25 km, left) acts as a “shepherd moon” – right inside the Enke-Gap, close to the outer edge of the A-ring.

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Saturn (7)

Enceladus, with a diameter of ~ 500 km, is characterized by a surface of pure water ice (and snow) yielding a huge albedo of 99 % – and as a consequence a surface temperature of just about –200 °C. Large areas with no craters at all are geologically young – the moon is obviously geologically active.

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Saturn (8)

Striking features on Enceladus are the „Tiger stripes“ near the South Pole.

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Saturn (9)

As a big surprise the temperatures at the South Pole turned out to be higher than at the Equator (upper left). The „tiger stripes“ are warmer than the surrounding (above, IR data). Here are also source regions of water vapor eruptions (cryo-volcanism) (left) – delivering material (in form of ice crystals) for the E-Ring – and snowfall on the surface.

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Saturn (10)

The moon Iapetus (with a diameter of 1400 km) has a (real) Equatorial Bulge, which is about 13 km high and 20 km wide. Its cause is currently entirely unclear. Iapetus has – literally – two different sides The leading one is one of the darkest surfaces in our solar system – with an albedo of 3-5 %, while the other hemisphere (below) shows an albedo of 60 %. There is obviously some work left for young planetary scientists.

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Saturn (11)

The moon Hyperion is (for a moon of its size) amazingly un-spherical (painstakingly not following lecture rules). With dimension 360 × 280 × 225 km it is the largest (clearly) non-spherical body in our solar system, Even more – Hyperion’s rotation is chaotic, its rotation axis changes – in an unpredictable manner.Hyperion seems to be the remnant of a formerly larger body, which suffered a huge impact.Is surface shows a impressive crater – about 10 km deep, with a diameter of 120 km .

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Saturn (12)

With a diameter of 5150 km the moon Titan is larger than the planet Mercury, it comprises more than 96 % of the mass in orbit around Saturn. Titan has a surprisingly dense atmosphere with (similar to Earth) nitrogen as main constituent (94 %) and a surface pressure of about 1.5 bar. Titan is entirely covered by organic dust. The surface temperature of about –180°C allows for methane rain.

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Saturn (13)

In January 2005 the space-probe Huygens successfully landed on Titan (as first European lander on a planet or moon). Middle: the first look through the cloud cover, right: the surrounding of the landing place. Radar-images of Cassini (left) confirmed the existence of Methane lakes (with diameters from von 3 to 70 km).

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Saturn (14)

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Einführung Geophysik

The End

Introduction to Geophysics and Planetary Physics