ASTR 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12-14: Water Cycle, Solid Nitrogen, Oort Cloud
Document Summary
Direct (regular) orbits: revolve in west-to-east direction and in the plane of the planet"s equator (1/3 of the moons in the outer solar system) Irregular orbits: revolve in retrograde (east-to-west) direction or have highly eccentric orbits or high inclination from the planet"s equatorial plane. Galilean moons (1610) - callisto, ganymede, europa and io. Europa and io about the size of the moon. Callisto and ganymede about the size of mercury. Majority of moons are in retrograde orbits of 20+ million km from jupiter. 62 known moons and a large set of rings. Titan (largest moon) is almost the size of ganymede. Only moon with a substantial atmosphere and lakes/seas of liquid hydrocarbons. Six other regular moons (400 - 1600 km diameters) Enceladus has active geysers of water being expelled into space. Primarily composed of water ice the size of ping-pong balls, tennis balls and basketballs. Ring and moon system is tilted at 98 degrees.
