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Transcript
nd aF . Ra dke Science & Nature Photo : by Li To Jupiter … and Beyond! by Conrad J. Storad If you’ve been reading this column over past issues you might be a bit tired. But your sense of adventure should be fully engaged. Our imaginary journey through the inner portion of our solar system has been intense, but interesting. Your spacecraft is holding up well after years of travel. So are you and the members of your crew. To date, your team has logged visits to Mercury and Venus. After a quick stop in Earth’s orbit to resupply, you successfully made the long journey to explore the wilds of Mars. This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on April 21, 2014 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Notice the Great Red Spot. Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) An unmanned supply ship from Earth reached you while in orbit around Mars. The ship is refueled and restocked with food and gear. Now it’s time to put some serious miles between the ship, the Red Planet and Earth, the small blue planet we call home. Gear up. Your ship is heading through the asteroid belt and on to giant Jupiter! Traveling through the asteroid belt will be intense. But you have good maps, thanks to previous robotic exploration missions. The belt is a region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. There are millions of asteroids there. Some scientists think that the asteroid belt could be the bits and pieces of a planet that broke apart a very long time ago. Others think the massive cloud of rocks and icy dust could be very old material that was never able to form into a planet. You will see asteroids of all shapes and sizes. The smallest are less than a mile across. Others are quite large. The biggest asteroid is called Ceres. It is about one-quarter the size of our moon. Astronomers call it a dwarf planet, much like Pluto. 20 StoryMonstersInk.com | OCTOBER 2015 | Story Monsters Ink Approximate size comparison of Earth superimposed on this Dec 29, 2000 image. Photo courtesy of NASA. During the late 1990s, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft flew through the asteroid belt, twice. The first time through, it sent back to Earth the first ever spacecraft images of an asteroid. The second time through, Galileo discovered an asteroid named Ida. Ida had a small moon of its own that scientists named Dactyl. That was exciting stuff. Science & Nature In September 2003, the Galileo spacecraft ended its 14-year mission by plunging into the dense atmosphere of Jupiter. Moving at more than 100,000 miles per hour, it was crushed, disintegrated and lost forever. But that little spacecraft taught us much about Jupiter. Never fear, your spaceship will not have the same fate. When you get to Jupiter, you will find it to be a massive planet. It is the largest of the gas giant planets, which include Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. All by itself, Jupiter contains about two-thirds of the planetary mass of the entire solar system. A fish bowl the size of Jupiter could hold 1,300 Earths. But the giant Jupiter is only 318 times heavier than Earth. Why? Because Earth is four times denser than this massive ball of gas. Scientists say that Jupiter contains about the same concentration of hydrogen as the sun itself. It also contains a concentration of materials similar to what was found in the solar system when the planets first formed more than 4.6 billion years ago. The atmosphere of Jupiter contains mostly hydrogen. There is also some helium and trace amounts of water, ammonia and other gases. It is very cold there, about 180 degrees below zero. More than 300 years ago, astronomers on Earth got the first good look at the Great Red Spot. The spot is one of Jupiter’s best known features. The spot is really just a gigantic storm. It’s the biggest hurricane in the solar system. And it goes on and on and on. The storm is so big, it would swallow up two Earths. Wind speeds within the storm can reach hundreds of miles per hour. Below Jupiter’s atmosphere is an outer mantle made of liquid hydrogen and helium. Below that is an inner mantle made of liquid metallic hydrogen. The substance does not exist on Earth. No member of your team will be landing on the surface of Jupiter. There really is no land on which to land. Jupiter’s rocky core is much larger than Earth itself. But it is also extremely hot. The temperature is more than 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit! It will be best to observe mighty Jupiter from your spaceship while safely in orbit above. Beyond Jupiter and its many moons await the gas giants, the outer planets of our solar system. Beyond them orbits the dwarf planet Pluto, and hundreds or even thousands more similar chunks of ice and rock. Beyond them all awaits the vast void of interstellar space. Moons, moons and more moons! The planets are not the only places to explore in our solar system. There are moons galore. Of course, Earth has one amazing moon. Jupiter has 50 moons. Scientists are checking out 17 more. Saturn has 53 official moons, with nine more possibilities. Astronomers currently list 146 known moons orbiting the planets. There are 27 more objects awaiting official confirmation as a moon. The total does not include moons in orbit around dwarf planets or asteroids. Solar system travel kit: Would you like to know how much you would weigh on Jupiter or on other planets in our solar system? Pack the nifty calculator from the website below in your travel kit. It will be a handy tool to help you prepare for your visits to all the new worlds. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, you will weigh 354 pounds on Jupiter or 10 pounds on Pluto. Resources to learn more about the Solar System: WEBSITES: • Chain Reaction – Solar System, Arizona State University http://chainreaction.asu.edu/solarsystem/ • Moon Stuff for Kids http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/learn • NASA for Kids – Kid Friendly Solar System https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/ • Fun views of the Solar System http://solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm • Nifty weight calculator http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/ Conrad J. Storad The award-winning author and editor of more than 50 science and nature books for children and young adults, Conrad J. Storad expertly draws young readers into his imaginative and entertaining “classroom” to help them better understand and appreciate the natural world. StoryMonstersInk.com | OCTOBER 2015 | Story Monsters Ink 21