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Planetary Geology 101

Planetary Geology 101. The Solar System. Formation of the Solar System.

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Planetary Geology 101

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  1. Planetary Geology 101 The Solar System

  2. Formation of the Solar System • The stages of solar system formation start with a protostar embedded in a gas cloud, then to an early star with a circumstellar disk, to a star surrounded by small "planetesimals" that are starting to clump together to a solar system like ours today.

  3. Formation of the Solar System circumstellar disk protostar home planetesimals www.jwst.nasa.gov/birth.html Credit: Shu et al. 1987

  4. Structure(from the inside out) • Central star • Inner “terrestrial” planets • Asteroid belt • Outer “gas giant” planets • Outer “ice giant” planets • (Dwarf planets) • Trans-Neptunian objects (Kuiper belt, scattered disk, Oort Cloud) • Miscellaneous

  5. The Sun • “Yellow dwarf”, 1.4 million km in diameter • Fuses 620 million tonnes/sec of H • 8.3 light-minutes away

  6. TheSun

  7. Mercury • Innermost planet, 4,880 km in diameter • Very dense, with its own magnetic field • Enigmatically large iron core • Recent evidence for volcanism

  8. Mercury

  9. Venus • Regarded as Earth’s “Evil Twin” • Surface T: 460°C, P: 92 Bar • Subject to runaway greenhouse effect • Extensive resurfacing due to volcanism

  10. Venus

  11. Mars • Diameter: ~6800 km (= Earth’s core) • Same surface area of all Earth’s continents • Deserts, ice caps, canyons, giant volcanoes • Upper hemisphere may be giant impact basin

  12. Mars

  13. Asteroid Belt • Small bodies: asteroids/minor planets • >50% mass: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, Hygiea • Protoplanets that orbited too fast to acrete • Mainly loosely-bound piles of rubble

  14. Asteroid Belt

  15. Jupiter • Largest body after the Sun (D: ~143,000 km) • Primarily H, He, with putative rocky core • High-energy storms in its atmosphere • At least 63 moons

  16. Jupiter

  17. Saturn • Second-largest planet, diameter ~121,000 km • Prominent set of rings • 53 officially-named moons • Hosts largest moon in the system, Titan

  18. Saturn

  19. Uranus • Larger of the two “ice giants”, D ~51,000 km • Gas atmosphere + contains H20, NH3, CH4 • Axis of rotation inclined almost 90

  20. Neptune • Second “ice giant”, D ~49,000 km • Same composition as Uranus (H20, NH3, CH4) • Tenuous ring system, 13 known moons

  21. Dwarf Planets • Currently 5: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris • Most occur beyond Neptune (except Ceres) • Best known is Pluto (former planet)

  22. Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) • Composed of 3 regions: Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud

  23. Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) • Composed of 3 regions: Kuiper Belt, scattered disk, and Oort Cloud

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