PHY2390 Astronomy

Fall 2017
Liang Chen

14
The Outer Solar
System

14–1
 Chapter 14

The Goals of This Chapter

• In this chapter, we will find answers to four
important questions:
– What are the properties of the Jovian planets?
– What is the evidence that some moons in the outer
solar system have been geologically active?
– How are planetary rings formed and maintained?
– What do Pluto and the other Kuiper belt objects tell
us about the formation of the solar system?

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 14.1 Exploring the Outer Planets

Physical Characteristics
• Jovian worlds have hydrogen-rich atmospheres
filled with clouds.
• Near their centres, the Jovian planets have cores
of dense material (rock and metal). They have no
solid surface.
• Jovian planets have numerous moons, some of
which are geologically active. Most are captured
asteroids.
• All Jovian planets have rings.

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 14.1 Exploring the Outer Planets

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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter
• About 5 AU from the Sun.
• Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter is oblate. One Jupiter
day is about 10 hours.
• Most of Jupiter’s interior is liquid metallic hydrogen,
which in conjunction with rapid rotation drives the
strong magnetic field.
• Jupiter emits about twice as much energy as it
absorbs from the Sun—this is due to heat left over
from the formation of the planet, Not fusion.

1 .3 times
e r i s only ater.
Ju p i t an w
e r th
d en s
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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter’s Atmosphere
Four important ideas (1–2):
1. The pattern of coloured cloud bands circling
the planet, like stripes on a child’s ball, is called belt-
zone circulation (similar to the high- and low-
pressure areas in Earth’s atmosphere). Cyclones
were discovered at the South Pole.
2. The positions of the cloud layers are at certain
temperatures within the atmosphere where
ammonia (NH3), ammonium hydrosulphide (NH4SH),
and water (H2O) can condense.
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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter’s Magnetosphere
Four important ideas (3–4):
3. Jupiter’s extensive magnetosphere is responsible
for aurorae around the magnetic poles. Interactions
between Jupiter’s magnetic field and the solar wind
generate electric currents that flow around the
planet’s magnetic poles.
4. Jupiter’s rings, discovered in 1979 by the Voyager I
space probe, are relatively close to the planet.

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 14.2 Jupiter

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 14.2 Jupiter

https:/
/www.
youtub
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watch?
v=Xwn
8fQSW
7-8
11min

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 14.2 Jupiter

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WUEAbSkb_eQ
11min

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 14.2 Jupiter
Saturn

Zero altitude is where pressure is 1 Earth atm = 101 325 Pa.

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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter’s magnetosphere: 4.5min

Plasma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITPizr7Pqgg
Current Sheet

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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter’s Rings
• Jupiter’s rings are very dark and reddish,
indicating that they consist of rocky material.
• The forward scattering of visible light indicates
that the rings are mostly made of extremely small
grains.
• The rings orbit inside the Roche limit, where tidal
forces are strong. Not named after French word
for rock! Édouard Roche, in 1848. the
m e i nside et
Roche limit 4min: m o o n ca w o u ld g
If a IT, i t
E L IM t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeuJF ROCH ipped apar
DsQzA8 r
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 14.2 Jupiter

https://ww
w.youtube.c
om/watch?v
=bIpmc-
ENhwM
2.5min

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 14.2 Jupiter

Jupiter’s Family of Moons

mo on s
s 4 large
p i te r ha t least
Ju and a r moons.
sm alle
6 3

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 14.2 Jupiter

Io

• Mostly rock and metal.

• The most volcanically active
body in the solar system.
• Io’s volcanism appears to be driven by tidal
heating.
• Jupiter’s gravitational field flexes Io with tides
® the friction heats the interior ® heat
flowing outward causes the volcanism.

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 14.2 Jupiter
Io’s surface volcanic features
Visual & infrared combined

11min:
https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=HaFaf7vbgpE
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 14.2 Jupiter

Europa
Mostly rock, with a liquid ocean 200 km
underneath the icy crust.
The surface is young and active.

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 14.2 Jupiter

Ganymede and Callisto

• Both moons have low densities ® ½ rock, ½ ice
• Differentiated, metallic cores, old surface.
• Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar
system. 5268 km, just a bit bigger than Titan
(5152 km). Earth Moon is 3474 km, Earth 12742
km.
Ganymede: Callisto:
15.5min 16.25min
https://www. https://www.yo
youtube.com utube.com/wat
/watch?v=63 ch?v=UV1nnxH
0tA8NxpKs P2Lw
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 14.2 Jupiter

Exploration

• Pioneer 10 and 11 (early 1970s)

• Voyager 1 and 2 (late 1970s)
• Galileo (1990s) – orbited Jupiter
• Juno (2016– ) – polar orbiter

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 A History of Jupiter
• Its present composition resembles the
composition of the solar nebula.
• Must have grown rapidly.
• The large family of moons may be mostly
captured asteroids.
• The four Galilean moons are large and seem to
have formed like a mini-solar system in a disk of
gas and dust around the forming planet.
Jupiter timeline: 2.5min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65u45yeU1g

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 14.3 Saturn

Saturn
• Saturn’s density is 0.69 g/cm3 (less dense than
water), meaning that it would float on a large
enough ocean.
• Rich in hydrogen and helium.
• Saturn has less liquid metallic hydrogen than
Jupiter, and consequently a weaker magnetic
field.
• Saturn also radiates more energy than it receives
from the Sun.

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 14.3 Saturn

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 14.3 Saturn

Saturn’s Rings
Three points about Saturn’s rings (1):
• The rings are made up of billions of ice particles,
each in its own orbit around the planet.
• The ring particles can’t be as old as Saturn.
• The rings must be replenished now and then by
impacts with Saturn’s moons or other processes.
• The same is true of the rings around the other
Jovian planets.

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 14.3 Saturn

Saturn’s Rings
Three points about Saturn’s rings (2):
• The gravitational effects of small moons can
confine some rings in narrow strands or keep the
edges of rings sharp.
• Moons can also produce waves in the rings that
are visible as tightly wound ringlets.

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 14.3 Saturn

Saturn’s Rings
Three points about Saturn’s rings (3):
• The ring particles are confined in a thin layer in
Saturn’s equatorial plane, spread among small
moons, and confined by gravitational interactions
with larger moons.
• The rings of Saturn, and the rings of the other
Jovian worlds, are created by and controlled by
the planet’s moons.
• Without the moons, there would be no rings,
moons are shepherd for the rings.
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 14.3 Saturn

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 14.3 Saturn

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 14.3 Saturn

9 min
Cassini
found
https://w
ww.yout
ube.com
/watch?v
=8D6UW
HZ_HYs

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 14.3 Saturn

There are many gaps in the Saturn’s ring, the biggest one is called Cassini Division which is caused by the
moon Mimas in a 2:1 resonance (i.e. particles in the division go around twice while Mimas goes once)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbah0GUtmo 3min
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 14.3 Saturn

Saturn’s Family of Moons

• Saturn has more than 60 moons.
• Most moons are small, composed of mixtures
of ice and rock, heavily cratered, and have no
atmosphere.
• Many are probably captured objects.
• The largest of Saturn’s moons is Titan.

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 14.3 Saturn

Titan
• Its dense atmosphere is composed of mostly
nitrogen and traces of methane and argon.
• Methane exists as liquid, gas, and solid.
• Methane is replenished through methane
volcanoes.
• There are methane lakes (e.g., Ontario Lacus).
rge r than
a n , l i q u id i s a bit la cury.
On Tit alls as rain. Titan anet Mer
e th a ne f the pl
m

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 14.3 Saturn

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 14.3 Saturn

Enceladus
• Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, geologically active
due to tidal heating.
• Geyser-like jets venting from cryovolcanoes
around the south pole.
• The material ejected consists of water vapour
and other volatiles, including sodium chloride
crystals ® some of this material falls back on the
surface and some of it feeds Saturn’s E-ring.

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 14.3 Saturn

Timeline of Enceladus: 2.5min

https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=Wdfcf7CNBQ4
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 Saturn’s Moon 25 mins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL__UbPsPDg
Saturn’s moon as seen by Cassini 2.5min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWLz2hj1fc8

Titan 13.5min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiD-NMq0pRE

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 14.3 Saturn

Exploration

• Pioneer 11 (1980s)
• Voyager 1 and 2 (1980s)
• Cassini (2004–2017)

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Uranus
• Coldest atmospheric temperature in the solar system at
48K.
• Not likely to contain any liquid metallic hydrogen.
• The atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, but
traces of methane absorb red light and make the
atmosphere look blue.
• Uranus is radiating about the same amount of energy
that it receives from the Sun.
• The magnetic field is highly inclined to Uranus’s axis of
rotation.

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

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at abo tates back i t s o rbit.
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ap p e a

Uranus 8:38
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=VS4JVE7Gb_8

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Ice Giant Moon Systems

• Uranus has 27 moons.
• The five major moons
have old, dark, cratered
surfaces.
• The surface of Miranda,
the innermost moon, is
marked by grooves
called ovoids.

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Neptune
• Similar in composition to Uranus.
• Atmospheric circulation on Neptune is much
more dramatic than on Uranus (the Great
Dark Spot).
• Neptune has a highly inclined magnetic field that
must be linked to circulation in the interior.

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Neptune’s axis is inclined almost 29 degrees to its orbit, rotation period is 16.11hrs, orbital
period is 163.72yrs, and each season about 40yrs.

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Neptune’s Moons
• Neptune has 14 moons.
• Two largest moons: Nereid and Triton.
• Nereid follows a large, elliptical orbit.
• Triton orbits Neptune backward.
• Triton had an active past—few craters, long faults,
and large basins.

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Rings
• Narrow and well-defined
• Dark and faint
• Uranus – water ice
bodies mixed with
methane and a little dust
• Neptune – largely dust
and a little ice
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N
Stn7zZKXfE 3.5min

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 14.4 Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants

Exploration

• Voyager 2
• Uranus (1986)
• Neptune (1989)

• Voyagers 1 and 2 now entered

interstellar space

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

What Defines a Planet?

• One of the criteria for planet status developed by
the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is that
an object must be large enough to dominate and
gravitationally clear its orbital region of most or
all other objects.
• Eris and Pluto, the largest objects found so far in the
Kuiper belt, and Ceres, the largest object in the
asteroid belt, do not meet that standard.

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Pluto

• Small, icy world, with a

highly inclined orbit.
• Has a large, heart-shaped
plain (1600 km) surrounded
by cratered terrain.

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Pluto’s Atmosphere

• Has a thin atmosphere

composed of nitrogen
and carbon monoxide,
with small amounts of
methane.

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Pluto’s Moons

• Pluto has five moons.

P4: Kerberos. P5: Styx
• Largest moon is
Charon.
• Pluto and Charon are
tidally locked.

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Ceres
• Dwarf planet located in
the asteroid belt.
• About 1000 km in
diameter, low density.
• NASA’s Dawn spacecraft
began orbiting Ceres
to examine its shape and
elemental composition
in 2015.

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Other Dwarf Planets

• The remaining three dwarf planets recognized by
the IAU are Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.
• Eris – discovered in 2005, highly eccentric orbit
• Haumea – ellipsoidal shape
• Makemake – spherical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGiEkHZZrIs 9min

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

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 14.5 Dwarf Planets

Arrokoth (“Sky”)

• MU69 is the farthest

Kuiper belt object ever
photographed.
• Photographed by New
Horizons in 2019.

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 Chapter 14

Summary
• Exploring the Outer Planets
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus and Neptune: Ice Giants
• Dwarf Planets

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 Kuiper Belt 14.5 min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
D0B_4QVEIvU
The End

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