ASTRON 103 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Kuiper Belt, Plutoid, Gas Giant
15 Sep 2016
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Our home planet (body in orbit around a star) Size of earth & its features are useful reference points: refer to other planets in terms of their radius relative to earth"s. Earth"s radius: 6371 km (3,909 miles: refer to other planet"s masses in terms of earth"s. Earth"s mass: 5. 87x10 22 (6 billion trillion tons: use size of earth to definite the meter. Geological processes on earth provide a measure for interpreting processes that shape other planets: volcano spewing lava extremely hot core mountains, moving of continents, etc. hypotheses about processes that create similar features on other planets. Internal heat of planets comes from: heat left over from their formation, decay of radioactive elements in their interior. Ability to retain this heat depends mostly on planet"s size. 1. 2 - the moon: moon is earth"s satellite (body orbiting a planet, orbits earth nearly 400,000 km ( million miles) away. Symbolic significance of moon: marks present limit of direct human exploration of space.
