Moon

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Moon
Solar System Tour
Earth-facing Side
Far Side
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Moon (Mare Imbrium Copernicus)
(From Apollo 17 - 1972)
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Moon (The Apollo Program)
Neil Armstrongs Footprint Apollo 11 - 1969
Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11 - 1969
Six Landings 1969 -72
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Moon (Taurus-Littrow Landing Site)
Harrison Schmidt Apollo 17 - December 1972
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Mercury
Mariner 10 (1974)
Messenger (launch 2004,orbit insertion 2011)
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Mercury(Caloris Basin)
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Mercury (Weird Terrain)
100 km
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Venus
Magellan Radar Mapper (1990 - 1994)
Pioneer UV image
Venus Express (ends 2009)
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Venusian Surface (Venera 13 - March 1982)
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Map of Surface
Red, yellow high elevations Green, blue
rolling hills, lowlands
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Venus (Crater Dickinson)
70 km
Impact crater
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Volcanoes on Flank of Maat Mons
Volcanic crater caldera
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Venus (Volcanic Pancakes)
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Mars
Polar ice cap
Lowlands (rolling plains)
Highlands (plateaus, mountains)
(Hubble Space Telescope
red color iron oxide in the dust
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Valles Marineris (from orbiter)
4000 km long, 120km across, 7 km deep
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Mars (Olympus Mons - Solar Systems Highest
Mountain)
Elevation 25 km
550 km
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Mars Evidence for past water flows
Mars
Earth
Sinuous channels
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Mars (Islands in a Channel)
25 km
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Mars (Summer at the South Pole)
400 km
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Mars Moon Phobos

• 28 x 20 km
• Orbital period 7 ½ hours (rises in west, sets
  in east)

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Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity)
Arrived - January 2004, still operating
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Spirit in the Columbia Hills
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Beads (or blueberries) indicate hematites,
which form in water
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Asteroids
(Ida from Galileo)
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Asteroid Orbits
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Eros Rotation from Near Earth Asteroid Rendevous
(NEAR)
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Jupiter
Galileo (1989)
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Jupiters Great Red Spot
Earth on same scale
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Rotation and Wind Patterns
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Aurorae
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Jupiter (Io Europa in their Orbits)
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Jupiters Galilean Satellites (Plus Amalthea)
Io
Europa
Amalthea
Ganymede
Callisto
(From Apollo 17 - 1972)
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Io - Voyager discovered active volcanoes!
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Io Lava Flow (Liquid Sulfur)
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Europa (Ice Fractures)
250 km
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Ganymede (Impact af a Comet Torn Asunder by
Jupiter)
200 km
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Callisto
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Saturn
(Arrived 2004)
(Voyager 2)
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Storms on Saturn
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Close-up of B ring
Rings and gaps due to orbital resonances with
moons (21, 41, 32, etc.)
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Saturns Mid-Sized Moons
Rhea wispy streaks release of water from
interior? Tethys, Dione maria due due flooding
from beneath? Iapetus leading face in orbit much
darker than trailing face
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Enceladus
Reflects almost 100 of the light it receives -
covered with tiny ice crystals
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- Plumes of water ejected from holes in the ice
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Titan (From Voyager 2)

• has an atmosphere thicker than Earths
• primarily nitrogen some methane and argon
• thick layer of smog hydrocarbons (methane,
  ethane, propane)
• Methane rains down on surface to form temporary
  lakes

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- radar images shows rough (pink) and smooth
(blue/green) areas lakes of methane (CH4)
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Uranus IR Images
(From Apollo 17
-
1972)
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Neptune The Great Dark Spot
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Neptunes Ring System
As with most other rings in solar system, they
consist of dirty chunks of ice
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Neptunes moon Triton
nitrogen frost
Polar cap of methane ice
Material (soot) ejected by geysers
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Pluto Charon
Pluto 2270 km in diameter, Charon 1300 km in
diameter
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Two New Satellites Discovered!

• both only 200 km or less in size

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Plutos atmosphere - mostly nitrogen
Artist rendition

• Nitrogen geysers like Triton, mixed with methane
• Only happens when Pluto is close to the Sun?

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Pluto New Horizons Mission

• arrival at Pluto / Charon in July 2015
• will continue on to Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)

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Comets
ion tail
dust tail
Sun
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Comet Halley (1986)


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Two comets in 1998
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Giotto Image of Halleys Nucleus
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- Meteor showers occur on the same day each year
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Fireball very bright meteor
- amateur video showing fireball in NY during
football game