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Jupiter and its Moons

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... mythology, Zeus saw gathering flowers and immediately fell in love with. ... of the white bull in the stars which is now known as the constellation Taurus. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Jupiter and its Moons


1
Jupiter and its Moons
2
Jupiter
  • 5th planet from the Sun
  • largest one in the solar system
  • if Jupiter were hollow, more than one thousand
    Earths could fit inside
  • contains more matter than all of the other
    planets combined
  • mass of 1.9 x 1027 kg
  • 28 known satellites, 4 of which (Callisto,
    Europa, Ganymede and Io) were observed by Galileo
    in 1610 (60 Smaller Objects)
  • there is a ring system, but it is very faint
  • Jupiter radiates more energy into space than it
    receives from the Sun. Its core is 20,000 K.

3
Mythology associated
  • Jupiter (Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the
    ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman
    state. Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn).
  • Europa is named after the beautiful Phoenician
    princess who, according to Greek mythology, Zeus
    saw gathering flowers and immediately fell in
    love with. Zeus transformed himself into a white
    bull and carried Europa away to the island of
    Crete. He then revealed his true identity and
    Europa became the first queen of Crete. Zeus
    later re-created the shape of the white bull in
    the stars which is now known as the constellation
    Taurus.

4
Jupiter
  • composed of 90 hydrogen and 10 helium, with
    small amounts of CH4, NH3, H2O vapor and other
    compounds
  • At great depths within Jupiter, the pressure is
    so great that the hydrogen atoms are broken up,
    freeing the electrons so that the resulting atoms
    consist of bare protons. This produces a state in
    which the hydrogen becomes metallic
  • dynamic weather systems illustrated by colorful
    latitudinal bands, atmospheric clouds and storms
  • The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a
    counter-clockwise direction. At the outer edge,
    material appears to rotate in four to six days
    near the center, motions are small and nearly
    random in direction

5
(No Transcript)
6
Internal Structure of Jupiter
  • The outer layer is primarily composed of
    molecular hydrogen
  • At greater depths the hydrogen starts resembling
    a liquid
  • At 10,000 kilometers below Jupiter's cloud top
    liquid hydrogen reaches a pressure of 1,000,000
    bar with a temperature of 6,000 K.
  • At this state hydrogen changes into a phase of
    liquid metallic hydrogen. In this state, the
    hydrogen atoms break down yielding ionized
    protons and electrons similar to the Sun's
    interior.
  • Below this is a layer dominated by ice where
    "ice" denotes a soupy liquid mixture of water,
    methane, and ammonia under high temperatures and
    pressures
  • Finally at the center is a rocky or rocky-ice
    core of up to 10 Earth masses

7
The Galilean Moons
8
Ganymede
  • largest moon of Jupiter and is the largest in our
    solar system with a diameter of 5,262 km (3,280
    miles)
  • composed of a rocky core with a water/ice mantle
    and a crust of rock and ice
  • no known atmosphere, but presence of ozone means
    a thin tenuous oxygen atmosphere from charged
    particles disrupting surface ice

9
Callisto
  • 2nd largest moon of Jupiter, 3rd largest in the
    solar system, same size as Mercury
  • orbits just beyond Jupiter's main radiation belt
  • Callisto is the most heavily cratered satellite
    in the solar system
  • Its crust is very ancient and dates back 4x109
    years
  • Callisto has the lowest density (1.86 gm/cm3) of
    the Galilean
  • appears to be composed of a crust 200 km thick
  • Beneath the crust is a possible salty ocean 10
    km thick
  • Beneath the ocean, is an unusual interior
    composed of compressed rock and ice with the
    percentage of rock increasing as depth increases
  • Callisto, like Ganymede, has no known atmosphere

10
Callisto animation
  • http//www.solarviews.com/raw/jup/vcallis1.mpg

11
Europa
  • crust composed of water and ice
  • surface is among the brightest and smoothest in
    the solar system
  • Lines and cracks wrap the exterior as if a child
    had scribbled around it.
  • Europa may be internally active, and its crust
    may have, or had in the past, liquid water which
    can harbor life

12
Io
  • most volcanic body known, with lava flows, lava
    lakes, and giant calderas covering its sulfurous
    landscape
  • billowing volcanic geysers spewing sulfurous
    plumes 500 km high
  • Its mountains are much taller than those on Earth
    reaching heights of 16 km (52,000 feet)
  • Io appears to be a rocky silicate rich body that
    has a dense Fe/FeS core that extends halfway to
    the surface with a partially melted silicate-rich
    mantle, and a thin rocky crust.

13
Internal Structure of Io
14
Very Exotic
  • Io orbits very close to Jupiter's cloud tops,
    placing it within an intense radiation belt that
    bathes the satellite with energetic electrons,
    protons, and heavier ions
  • As the Jovian magnetosphere rotates, it sweeps
    past Io and strips away 1,000 kg (1 ton)/sec of
    volcanic gases
  • This produces a neutral cloud of atoms orbiting
    with Io as well as a huge, doughnut shaped torus
    of ions that glow in the ultraviolet.
  • Io acts as an electrical generator as it moves
    through Jupiter's magnetic field, developing
    400,000 volts across its diameter and generating
    an electric current of 3x106 amperes that flows
    along the magnetic field to the planet's
    ionosphere
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