Planetary Geology Quest 1

Mercury

0.39 AU

Venus

0.72 AU

Earth

1 AU

Mars

1.52 AU

Jupiter

5.20 AU

Saturn

9.54 AU

Uranus

19.19

Neptune

30.07

Pluto

Dwarf Planets

the formal definition of a planet

A planet is a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has a round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit

Nicholas Copernicus

1473 - 1543

 The Center of the earth is not the center is not the center of the universe

Tycho Brahe

1546 - 1601

o Observed a supernova, and periodic comets, proof that the stars and planets are not fixed and constant, meticulously determined position and motion of planets

Galileo Galilei

1564 - 1642

o Systemically used telescope and recorded his observations, satellites orbiting Jupiter, phases of Venus, Saturn Rings, Craters and mountains on the moon, sunspots

Johannes Kepler

1571 - 1630 Tycho Brahe students, deduced 3 laws of planetary motion

Daniel Kirkwood

1866 ~ noticed depleted gaps in the asteroid belt

Kepler’s laws

1st: orbits are ellipses not circles

• 2nd: equal areas in equal time

• 3rd: semi-major axis cubed equals period squared for all planets orbiting the sun)

Newtonian gravity

N2: F=ma = F(gravity) = G(universal gravitional constant) M(mass of sun) m(mass of planet)) / r(distance between sun and planet)^2, Mass of earth = 5.9E24

Reflectance

measure the amount of light reflected from a surface across different wavelengths

absoption spectra

measure the amount of light absorbed by a material, usually by detecting the light transmitted

multi - spectra

3-50 "wider" band

hyper - spectral

hundreds of narrow band

Temporal

how often is the same location imaged

spatial

how much "ground" is being imaged and can be resolved, spatial resolution determines what can be

resolved in an image or data file

Spectral

number and width of bands

radiometric

8 vs 16 bit (# of tones/colors); 256 (2^8), 65,536(2^16)

Stars

Sunspots, Sun outer layer consist of chromosphere, transition region, and the corona,

Sunspots

temporary, dark, cooler region on the sun surface that develop where magnetic fields are really strong, blocking heat from reaching the surfaces

Supernova

generate elements heavier than iron, then scattered to the cosmos

Radioactivity

Neutron disintegrate into positron and electron

proto-planetary disc

dense clumps in a collapsing molecular cloud form a disc (a disk of gas and dust around a young star), Protostar

o Central Region 

o Soot Line

o Snow/Frost Line

Central Region

only metals and minerals condense into planets

Snow/frost line

The boundary in a protoplanetary disk beyond which the temperature is cold enough for gases like water vapor to condense into solid ice grains forming small planets like Earth, creating Solar System

Disk instability Model

Clumps of gas collapse in circumstantial

Core Accretion Model

Planet agglomerates from dust and attract gas envelop

Refractory

chemical precipitates arranged by distance from the protosun

Asteroids

rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system

Comets

cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun, The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the Sun for millions of miles

o Tails ~ Ion & Dust

o Nucleus & Coma ~ Solid body of comet, gas and dust

o Trails ~ Large solid debris left behind on orbital path

Meteors

When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere, or that of another planet, at high speed and burn up, they’re called meteors

Meteorites

space rocks that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, Most meteoroids are pieces of other, larger bodies that have been broken or blasted off like comet, asteroids, moon

Asteroid Belts

a ring-shaped region of space located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, populated by asteroids

Trojan Asteroids

celestial bodies that share a planet's orbit and are located at stable gravitational points, called Lagrange points, ahead of and behind the planet

Near-Earth Asteroids

Amors

 Orbit outside 1 AU

 Mars Crossing

o Appolos

 Semi-major axis > 1 AU

 Earth & Mars Crossing

o Atens

 Semi-major axis < 1 AU

 Venus and earth crossing

Heliosphere

the cavern carved out of the interstellar gas by the solar wind

The Oort cloud

contains billions of comet nuclei in a spherical distribution that extends out up to 50,000 AU from the Sun

Celestial Line/equator

The celestial equator is an imaginary line on the celestial sphere that lies directly over Earth's equator

Ecliptic line

represents the plane in which the planets orbit, seen from our position within the plane itself

ecliptic line vs celestial line

The ecliptic line is based on earth's motion around the sun while the celestial line is based on earth rotational axis, there is a 23.5 degree difference which is the earth axial tilt

alpha process

carbon, oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, argon, and calcium, which are produced in stars and supernovae through nuclear fusion reactions that build upon the alpha particle

Triple alpha process

The triple-alpha process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions where three helium nuclei (alpha particles) fuse to create a carbon-12 nucleus. This process begins with two alpha particles combining to form an unstable beryllium-8 nucleus, which then captures a third alpha particle before it can decay. The creation of carbon through this process requires specific stellar conditions, including high temperatures and densities, and the existence of a resonant energy state in carbon-12 known as the Hoyle state. 

CNO Process

a process of nuclear fusion in stars where hydrogen is converted into helium using carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen as catalysts, which are regenerated at the end of the cycle. This cycle produces energy and is the dominant source of energy in stars more massive than the Sun

Iron Peak

a group of chemical elements from Scandium (Sc) to Germanium (Ge) that are characterized by having high binding energy per nucleon, making them the most stable nuclei formed during stellar nucleosynthesis

Gamma Rays

1E-12 meters

o water equivalent hydrogen abundance

o Spatial Resolution

X-rays

1E-10 meters

Ultraviolet Rays

1E-8, Venus Blue

Visible Light

4E-7 ~ 7E-7

o Albedo ~ reflecting power of a surface

o Morphology ~ Dunes on Earth and Mars

Infrared Rays

1E-6

o Measures a material’s resistance to change in temperature, Meridiani Planum

Micro-wave

1E-3

o Morphology and Stratigraphy, Polar ice caps on Mars, Dunes and Lakes on Titan

Radio

1E1

o Morphology and Stratigraphy, Polar ice caps on Mars, Dunes and Lakes on Titan