AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Oort Cloud, Sample-Return Mission, Kuiper Belt

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

Document Summary

A solar system consists of a star orbited by planets, moons, and a lot of debris (comets, asteroids, dust) * solar system or the solar system means our solar system; solar system or star system can be any such system. Terrestrial planets = small, rocky, thin or no atmosphere, few moons, made of heavy elements. Temperature fluctuates between -170 and 425 degrees celsius (lead melts at 327 degrees celsius) Surface and atmosphere heavily modified by life. Many thousands or millions of rubble piles. Jovian planets = large, liquid + gas, small rocky core, many moons, made of light elements. Cassini spacecraft is there now, taking gorgeous pictures. Rings of saturn are made of tiny particles of mainly ice. You would be crushed by the tremendous gas pressure. Beyond neptune, there are many dwarf planets. New horizons has recently given us our first-ever close up view of a trans-neptunian object.