AST101H1 Lecture : Chapter 11

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Stefan Mochnacki

Document Summary

remember: we need to know angular size and distance to calculate an objects true size. jupiter and saturn are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. (small percentage of their mass in the form of hydrogen compounds, and even less in the form of rock and metal. uranus and neptune much smaller in size and are made up of hydrogen compounds like: water, methane and ammonia, with small amounts of rock and metal. jovian planets formed in the outer solar system so it was cold enough for hydrogen compounds to condense into ices, thus increasing in size because of the abundance of these compounds. Once they were big enough, their gravity brought in the gases. at greater distances, it took longer for hydrogen compounds to condense into ice planetismals. Thus, jupiter was the first one to become large enough to start drawing in gases followed by saturn, uranus, and neptune.