ASTR 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Christiaan Huygens, 2004 Fh, Evaporation
Document Summary
Saturn"s rings were first observed by galileo, but we didn"t recognize them until the 1650s when christiaan huygens observed them through a better telescope. Shepherd moons hold the ring particles in place. They are less than 100 meters tall, but they have a diameter of about. Particles of rock and ice are less than a meter across and spaced at less than a meter. Jupiter, uranus and neptune"s rings have smaller, darker and fewer particles than saturn"s rings. Due to the large gravity of jovian planets, they pull in asteroids and comets, which end up crashing into the jovian moons. This kicks up dust and debris that go into orbit around the jovian planets. Saturn"s hypothesis is that 2 large moons collided within the past billion years, creating the rings. Jupiter"s tidal forces tore apart comet shoemaker-levy 9 in 1992 that produced a string of debris. The tunguska fireball was 40 meters across and fell in earth"s atmosphere over.
