AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mariner 10, Solar System, Gas Giant

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Bryan Gaensler

Document Summary

There are trillions of solar systems out there: Takes a month for the sun to spin. Each planet has a choice of spin. A solar system consists of star orbited by planets, moons and lots of debris (comets, asteroids, dust) The solar system is ours, a solar system or star system can be any such system. The inner solar system: mercury, venus, earth and mars. The outer solar system: jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, and mars. There is one star in each solar system: Terrestrial planets small, rocky, thin or no atmosphere, few or no moons and made of heavy elements. Jovian planets jupiter like ; large, liquid+gas, small rocky core, many moons, made of light elements. Rocky exterior with a huge iron core. Temperature fluctuates between -170 c and 425 c (lead melts at 327 c) Only two probes have ever been sent to mercury: mariner 10 (1974-1975, messenger (2011-2015) Thick 2 atmosphere, lots of possibly active volcanoes.