ASTR 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Orbital Period, Astronomical Object, Solar Wind
13 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
The orbits of all the planets go in the same direction around the sun. They"re also rolling around on the same plane. They had to start off in a disk on a flat plane, because now they"re orbiting on a flat plane. Review - planets of the outer solar system. All dominantly hydrogen with a small rocky core. Rings around saturn, very faint ones around uranus and neptune. Comparison on the differences between terrestrial and giant planets. Planets who cannot dominate the orbit that they"re in; they are not massive enough to have their own consistent atmosphere. Many are much smaller than the moon. Estimated that there are 50-200 more dwarf planets to be found. Five known: ceres, pluto, eris, haumea, and makemake. Dwarf planets have a lot of low-density ice. Rocky core and icy/rocky surface with possibly a lot of ice as a mantel. Bright spots on surface are very reflective - perhaps indicator of recent resurfacing.
