ASTR 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 36: Great Red Spot, Centripetal Force, Earth Mass

• School: University of Victoria
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: ASTR 101
• Professor: Travis Martin

Document Summary

Rotational flattening: centripetal force of equator causes bulging. If entire planet were gaseous, it would be flatter (due to rotational speed). The thing preventing this is a solid core. Two possibilities for jupiter: core accretion (mass of jupiter"s rocky core be 20. Earth mass), gravitational instability (suggests it be about 5 e. m. ) Rotation rate of the core is same as the polar atm. On th sun it forms granulation, here it forms bands. Convection cell going on but fast rotation causing smearing of bands. Great red spot is roughly the size of earth. Belt and zone on each side of the great red spot - add them up and they don"t cancel out. Grs may be linked to something further down beneath the atm of jupiter. It doesn"t have a liquid core like we do that produces our magnetic field. Looked at what temp and pressure would be going on at core.