CAS AS 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Water Cycle, Smog, Methane

• School: Boston University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: CAS AS 100
• Professor: Michael Mendillo

Document Summary

~jupiter and saturn have the most moons, each with more than 60 moons. ~we categorize jovian planet"s moons by their size and this is useful because size relates to geological activity (larger moons show evidence of past geological activity) ~these moons resemble terrestrial planets in that each is spherical with solid surface and own geology. Some posses atmosphere, hot interiors, and magnetic fields. ~2 largest moons are jupiter"s ganymede and saturn"s titan (larger than mercury) ~they differ from terrestrial moons in their composition (lots of ice in addition to metal and rock) ~most of the medium and large moons formed by accretion within the disks of gas surrounding planet which explains why they have circular orbits in same direction that planet rotates. ~they also always keep the same face toward the planet. This happens because of the tidal forces from the planet that leads the moons to have equal orbit and rotations.