Jupiter and its Moons

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Jupiter and its Moons
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Jupiter

• 5th planet from the Sun
• largest one in the solar system
• if Jupiter were hollow, more than one thousand
  Earths could fit inside
• contains more matter than all of the other
  planets combined
• mass of 1.9 x 1027 kg
• 28 known satellites, 4 of which (Callisto,
  Europa, Ganymede and Io) were observed by Galileo
  in 1610 (60 Smaller Objects)
• there is a ring system, but it is very faint
• Jupiter radiates more energy into space than it
  receives from the Sun. Its core is 20,000 K.

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Mythology associated

• Jupiter (Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the
  ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman
  state. Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn).
• Europa is named after the beautiful Phoenician
  princess who, according to Greek mythology, Zeus
  saw gathering flowers and immediately fell in
  love with. Zeus transformed himself into a white
  bull and carried Europa away to the island of
  Crete. He then revealed his true identity and
  Europa became the first queen of Crete. Zeus
  later re-created the shape of the white bull in
  the stars which is now known as the constellation
  Taurus.

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Jupiter

• composed of 90 hydrogen and 10 helium, with
  small amounts of CH4, NH3, H2O vapor and other
  compounds
• At great depths within Jupiter, the pressure is
  so great that the hydrogen atoms are broken up,
  freeing the electrons so that the resulting atoms
  consist of bare protons. This produces a state in
  which the hydrogen becomes metallic
• dynamic weather systems illustrated by colorful
  latitudinal bands, atmospheric clouds and storms
• The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a
  counter-clockwise direction. At the outer edge,
  material appears to rotate in four to six days
  near the center, motions are small and nearly
  random in direction

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Internal Structure of Jupiter

• The outer layer is primarily composed of
  molecular hydrogen
• At greater depths the hydrogen starts resembling
  a liquid
• At 10,000 kilometers below Jupiter's cloud top
  liquid hydrogen reaches a pressure of 1,000,000
  bar with a temperature of 6,000 K.
• At this state hydrogen changes into a phase of
  liquid metallic hydrogen. In this state, the
  hydrogen atoms break down yielding ionized
  protons and electrons similar to the Sun's
  interior.
• Below this is a layer dominated by ice where
  "ice" denotes a soupy liquid mixture of water,
  methane, and ammonia under high temperatures and
  pressures
• Finally at the center is a rocky or rocky-ice
  core of up to 10 Earth masses

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The Galilean Moons
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Ganymede

• largest moon of Jupiter and is the largest in our
  solar system with a diameter of 5,262 km (3,280
  miles)
• composed of a rocky core with a water/ice mantle
  and a crust of rock and ice
• no known atmosphere, but presence of ozone means
  a thin tenuous oxygen atmosphere from charged
  particles disrupting surface ice

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Callisto

• 2nd largest moon of Jupiter, 3rd largest in the
  solar system, same size as Mercury
• orbits just beyond Jupiter's main radiation belt
• Callisto is the most heavily cratered satellite
  in the solar system
• Its crust is very ancient and dates back 4x109
  years
• Callisto has the lowest density (1.86 gm/cm3) of
  the Galilean
• appears to be composed of a crust 200 km thick
• Beneath the crust is a possible salty ocean 10
  km thick
• Beneath the ocean, is an unusual interior
  composed of compressed rock and ice with the
  percentage of rock increasing as depth increases
• Callisto, like Ganymede, has no known atmosphere

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Callisto animation

• http//www.solarviews.com/raw/jup/vcallis1.mpg

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Europa

• crust composed of water and ice
• surface is among the brightest and smoothest in
  the solar system
• Lines and cracks wrap the exterior as if a child
  had scribbled around it.
• Europa may be internally active, and its crust
  may have, or had in the past, liquid water which
  can harbor life

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Io

• most volcanic body known, with lava flows, lava
  lakes, and giant calderas covering its sulfurous
  landscape
• billowing volcanic geysers spewing sulfurous
  plumes 500 km high
• Its mountains are much taller than those on Earth
  reaching heights of 16 km (52,000 feet)
• Io appears to be a rocky silicate rich body that
  has a dense Fe/FeS core that extends halfway to
  the surface with a partially melted silicate-rich
  mantle, and a thin rocky crust.

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Internal Structure of Io
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Very Exotic

• Io orbits very close to Jupiter's cloud tops,
  placing it within an intense radiation belt that
  bathes the satellite with energetic electrons,
  protons, and heavier ions
• As the Jovian magnetosphere rotates, it sweeps
  past Io and strips away 1,000 kg (1 ton)/sec of
  volcanic gases
• This produces a neutral cloud of atoms orbiting
  with Io as well as a huge, doughnut shaped torus
  of ions that glow in the ultraviolet.
• Io acts as an electrical generator as it moves
  through Jupiter's magnetic field, developing
  400,000 volts across its diameter and generating
  an electric current of 3x106 amperes that flows
  along the magnetic field to the planet's
  ionosphere