Outer Planets and Their Moons

Flashcards covering key concepts related to the outer planets and their moons, focusing on Mimas, Enceladus, Titan, and their unique characteristics.

Outer planets

The planets located beyond the frost line in the solar system, which include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Regular moons

Moons that formed from the accretion disk when the planet formed and usually orbit in the planet's equatorial plane.

Irregular moons

Moons that were likely captured by their parent planet, often with non-equatorial orbits and irregular shapes.

Mimas

The smallest and innermost regular moon of Saturn, characterized by its Herschel crater.

Enceladus

The sixth largest moon of Saturn, known for its geysers and subsurface ocean beneath an icy crust.

Cryovolcanism

A form of volcanism that involves the eruption of volatile substances, like water and ammonia, instead of molten rock.

Titan

Saturn’s largest moon, notable for having a substantial atmosphere and surface features obscured by its haze.

Huygens probe

The spacecraft that landed on the surface of Titan, providing data on its surface and atmosphere.

Albedo

A measure of reflectivity; Enceladus has a high albedo, close to 1, indicating it reflects nearly all sunlight.

Tidal flexing

The deformation of a celestial body due to gravitational forces from a nearby object, hypothesized to provide heat for Enceladus.

Tiger stripes

Fissures on the surface of Enceladus that release plumes of water vapor and ice particles.

Hydrocarbon lakes

Lakes on Titan formed from liquid methane and ethane, resulting from atmospheric precipitation.

Subsurface ocean

A hypothesized ocean of liquid water and ammonia located beneath Titan's surface ice shell.

Specific gravity (SG)

The ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a reference substance; used to determine the composition of moons.

Accretion disk

A rotating disk of dense gas and dust surrounding a star, where planets and moons can form.

Eccentric orbit

An orbit that is not circular and is characterized by a varying distance from the body being orbited.

Cassini spacecraft

A NASA space mission that studied Saturn and its moons, including the detailed exploration of Titan and Enceladus.

Aerosol

Small particles or droplets suspended in the atmosphere; relevant to the fine ice dust around Enceladus.