Astronomy 2232F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Axial Tilt, Roman Mythology, Caelus

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 2232F/G
• Professor: Gordon Osinski

Document Summary

Ice giant: axis of rotation is tilted almost parallel to orbital plane horizontal not vertical like other planets, may be result of collision with another body. Greek mythology god of the sky: father of cronus (saturn, first ruler of the gods, roman counterpart: caelus only planet named after greek, not roman mythology. Voyager 2 (1977: only spacecraft to visit uranus, only 5 hours of close study, discovered 10 new satellites, two new rings, closest approach january 24, 1986. Atmosphere: featureless blue-green ball, hydrogen (74%) and helium (26%) with trace amounts of ch4, nh3, h2o, coldest planetary atmosphere in the solar system (min. Suspected structure: recent observations, bright features, great dark spot, faint latitudinal bands and storms, wind speeds ~700 km/hr. 2 sets of rings (13 total: comprised of large boulder to house sized particles, many dust bands. 9 rings: 1986u2r, 6, 5, 4, alpha, beta, eta, gamma, delta. 4 rings: lambda, epsilon, nu, mu very faint but brighter coloured.