AST 2002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Kirkwood Gap, Near-Earth Object, Kuiper Belt
Document Summary
It o(cid:396)(cid:271)its i(cid:374) the opposite di(cid:396)e(cid:272)tio(cid:374) of neptu(cid:374)e"s (cid:396)otatio(cid:374) i(cid:374) a highly i(cid:374)(cid:272)li(cid:374)ed o(cid:396)(cid:271)it. This implies that it was probably captured by neptune. It has a thin nitrogen atmosphere, sublimed form the surface. Concentric rings separated by the cassini division. From spacecraft flybys, we see thousands of individual rings. From within the rings, we would see man individual particles. A moon wandered too close to the planet that it broke into pieces and orbited as rings. Compared to saturn, the other ring systems: Why this is so, we are not sure. U(cid:396)a(cid:374)us"s (cid:396)i(cid:374)gs a(cid:396)e e(cid:272)(cid:272)e(cid:374)t(cid:396)i(cid:272) a(cid:374)d slightly tilted f(cid:396)o(cid:373) its e(cid:395)uato(cid:396)ial pla(cid:374)e. Asteroids that cross the orbits of inner planets. A(cid:271)out (cid:1005)5(cid:1004)(cid:1004) aste(cid:396)oids (cid:1005) k(cid:373) o(cid:396) la(cid:396)ge(cid:396) (cid:272)(cid:396)oss the ea(cid:396)th"s o(cid:396)(cid:271)it. We have discovered about 600 so far. Main asteroid belt in green: between mars and jupiter. Kuiper belt in magenta: objects outside the orbit of neptune to the beginning of the. Comet- an icy leftover planetesimal orbiting the sun.
