AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Tidal Acceleration, Tidal Heating, Orbital Speed

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Michael Reid

Document Summary

Jupiter and saturn are made mostly of hydrogen and helium, while uranus and neptune are primarily made of hydrogen compounds such as water (h2o), methane (ch4), and ammonia (nh3). There is no obvious trend in the densities of the jovian planets. For example, jupiter is the nearest and most massive of the four planets, but it is the second-lowest in density. The lack of a clear trend tells us that we need to look deeper at the nature of these planets in order to understand their densities. Recall that planets are made from four major categories of ingredients, shown in the table below. In general, the densities of the ingredients in the table increase from top to bottom; metals are the most dense, and hydrogen and helium gas are the least dense. Consider how this trend in the densities of the different materials would be expected to affect the densities of the jovian planets.