Astronomy 2021A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Escape Velocity, The Moons, Radioactive Decay

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 2021A/B
• Professor: Alyssa Gilbert

Document Summary

9. 1 the moons of the outer solar system. What are the general characterisics of the jovian moons: discovering the moons. Galileo discovered the 4 large moons of jupiter io, europa, ganymede, Huygens discovered titan (saturn: size and orbits of the moons. Wide range of sizes small and large. Moderate and large size moons orbit their planets in the same way that planets orbit the sun move in same direcion as their planet"s spin. Excepion: triton (neptune) suggests it was captured, orbits backward relaive to its planet"s rotaion: part of kuiper belt. Small jovian moons difer in appearance and properies of their orbits. Have irregular shape (peanuts) because less gravity to force rigid material together. Orbits are highly ellipical or inclined to the equator of host planet"s spin. Probably captured asteroids and comets: composiion of the moons. Made of mixture of ice and rock, low density (highly icy) Galilean moons show a decrease in density with distance from jupiter.