9/10/2023 0 Comments Jupitors io moon energy sourceThis contrasts sharply with the Moon and Mercury, which have no atmospheres and are just small rocky bodies. In fact, it is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements, and has only a small core of rock and ice. (By contrast, the Earth has a density of 5.5 g/cm 3.) Obviously, Jupiter's composition must differ greatly from Earth's or from that of any other inner planet. Therefore, Jupiter's density is very low-1.3 g/cm 3, just slightly more than water. Its mass is about 318 times that of the Earth, but its volume is more than 1300 times the Earth's. It has a diameter of 143,800 km, more than ten times that of the Earth. Like the other giant planets, Jupiter is huge. The characteristics of Jupiter, which orbits the Sun at a distance five times that of Earth, exemplify many features of the outer planets (those that lie beyond the orbit of Mars). Therefore, the inner moons are refractory, silicate-rich, and ice-poor whereas the outer moons are ice-rich. The satellites of Jupiter appear to have condensed and then accreted in a thermal gradient centered on Jupiter. This moon did not expand during its late history and, because of its distance from Jupiter, it received little energy from tidal heating.ħ. Callisto, the outermost of the large satellites, is dominated by heavily cratered terrain. Ganymede, the largest Galilean satellite, has a varied surface dominated by heavily cratered terrain and large swathes of bright younger, intensely grooved terrain, apparently formed by foundering of old crust and flooding with volcanic flows of liquid water.Ħ. Tidal flexing of Europa has kept the interior warm.ĥ. Resurfacing by the outpouring of watery lavas and the flow of solid ice has shaped the surface features. No vestiges of the intense bombardment remain on Europa only a few small craters have been identified. Europa has a relatively smooth, but fractured, icy surface. Tidal flexing of this moon provides a continued input of energy to melt parts of the interior of this rocky planet.Ĥ. Io, the innermost Galilean satellite, has a very young surface and is presently volcanically active. The brightly colored atmosphere is banded and has large semipermanent storm systems.ģ. Jupiter consists principally of hydrogen and helium perhaps a core of silicates and ice is embedded deep within the planet. Part of the reason Jupiter became so much larger than the rocky inner planets is that it formed in a cool region of the ancient solar nebula where water ice was stable.Ģ. Jupiter, a giant gas-and ice-rich planet of the outer solar system, is the center of a system of at least 16 ice and rock satellites and a narrow ring of much smaller particles. A vast amount of data for Jupiter has been collected by several flyby spacecraft, including Pioneers 10 and 11 (19) and Voyagers 1 and 2 (1979), and from orbiting satellites Galileo (1995-2003) and Juno (2016-present). These large planets and their systems of moons and rings are especially intriguing. Besides being larger, they are composed predominantly of gas and have no solid surfaces at all. Jupiter and the rest of the giant planets (Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are fundamentally different from the rocky inner planets. The heat emitted from it may have been sufficient to drastically alter the composition of its satellites as they formed from the condensing solar nebula. As it is, Jupiter radiates more energy than it receives from the Sun. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system if it had been about 100 times more massive, Jupiter might have evolved into a star and our solar system would have had two suns many stellar systems in our galaxy contain two or even more stars. Orbiting the Sun beyond the asteroid belt, Jupiter with its set of at least sixteen orbiting satellites is the center of a small planetary system. The giant planet has a volume 1300 times greater than the Earth, but its near-surface layers are composed mostly of gases swirling in complex patterns. Jupiter and its moons form a planetary group of incredible beauty (Figure 9.1). Chapter 9: The Jupiter System 9.0 Introduction
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