Astronomy 1021 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Galilean Moons

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 1021
• Professor: Sarah Gallagher

Document Summary

Jupiter and saturn: gas giants, mostly h and he, uranus and neptune. Ice giants a: mostly hydrogen compounds, water, methane, ammonia, some h, he and rock. Uranus and neptune are denser than saturn because less of their mass is h and he. As pressure increases inside of jupiter hydrogen goes from gas to liquid to. Metallic : at high pressures/large depths, hydrogen acts like a metal because its electrons move freely. Jovian planets have no solid surfaces, their layers are different for different planets. Different colours on jupiter are from different compounds: ammonium hydrosulfide clouds reflect red/brown, ammonia reflects white. Different compounds condense at different depths in the atmosphere: deferent cloud layer correspond to different freezing point. Other jovian planets have cloud layers similar to jupiter: saturn: similar structure but same temperatures correspond to larger vertical depths, uranus and neptune: much colder, so mainly methane is observable layer. Uranus and neptune look blue because of methane.