CAS AS 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11.1: Smog, Equatorial Bulge, Metallic Hydrogen
4 Apr 2016
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~we need to know angular size and distance to calculate an objects true size. ~because we found out the orbital periods of the moons, the orbital distances allowed us to calculate the masses of the jovian planets which proved how much lower their densiies were than terrestrial planets. Jupiter and saturn are almost made enirely of hydrogen and helium. Some people call jupiter a failed star because it has a star-like composiion but lacks the nuclear fusion to make it shine. This is cause of its size, its much smaller than the sun. So its gravity is too weak to compress its interior to the extreme temps and densiies needed for nuclear fusion. Uranus and neptune are made primarily of hydrogen compounds like methane, water, and ammonia. All 4 jovian planets were thought to have grown from ice-rich planetesimals of about the same mass but they captured dif amounts of hydrogen and helium gas from the surrounding solar nebula.
