Astronomy 2232F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Great Dark Spot, Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams
12 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
8th planet from the sun: sister ice giant to uranus. 17x mass of earth discovered through mathematical predictions unexpected changes in orbits of uranus meaning there must have been another object distorting the gravity of the planet. History: urbain le verrier, john couch adams, johann galle, september 23, 1846. Named after roman mythology: god of the sea, brother of jupiter. Exploration: voyager 2 (1977) only spacecraft to visit neptune, 7 billion km journey, discovered 5 new satellites, four new rings, closest approach august 25, 1989. Atmosphere: composition similar to uranus less lazy, hydrogen, helium and methane, bands of varying brightness, bright white clouds of methane ice, wind speeds up to 2000 km/hr. Hurricane-like storms: move east at different velocities, great dark spot like jupiter, scooter, dark spot 2, spots are hurricane like systems. Ring system: very faint, dust sized particles (3-60%, radiation darkened methane ice.
