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Moons of Mars
Gaspra
Deimos
Phobos
Moons of Mars - Phobos
Link to more pictures
Phobos orbits Mars three times
a day, and is so close to the
planet's surface that in some
locations on Mars it cannot
always be seen.
Phobos and Deimos appear to
be composed of C-type rock,
similar to blackish carbonaceous
chondrite asteroids.
Measurements of the day and
night sides of Phobos show such
extreme temperature variations
that the sunlit side of the moon
rivals a pleasant winter day in
Chicago, while only a few
kilometers away, on the dark side
of the moon, the climate is more
harsh than a night in Antarctica.
High temperatures for Phobos were measured at 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) and lows at
-170 degrees Fahrenheit (-112 degrees Celsius). This intense heat loss is likely a result of the fine dust on
Phobos' surface, which is unable to retain heat.
Phobos has no atmosphere.
Moons of Mars - Phobos
Its most prominent feature is the 6-mile crater
Stickney, its impact causing streak patterns
across the moon's surface.
Moons of Mars - Deimos
Deimos is the smaller of Mars' two
moons. Being only 15 by 12 by 11
km in size, Deimos whirls around
Mars every 30 hours.
Deimos is a small lumpy, heavily
cratered object. Its craters are
generally smaller than 2.5 km in
diameter, however, and it lacks
the grooves and ridges seen on
Phobos.
Deimos is a dark body that
appears to be composed of Ctype surface materials, similar to
that of asteroids found in the outer
asteroid belt.
Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has 63 known moons. It’s four
largest moons are called the Galilean
satellites who cast shadows on Jupiter. They
are named as:
Io
Europa
Ganymede
Callisto
Three of the moons influence each
other in an interesting way. Io is in a
tug-of-war with Ganymede and
Europa, and Europa's orbital period
(time to go around Jupiter once) is
twice Io's period, and Ganymede's
period is twice that of Europa. In
other words, every time Ganymede
goes around Jupiter once, Europa
makes two orbits and Io makes four
orbits. The moons all keep the same
face towards Jupiter as they orbit,
meaning that each moon turns once
on its axis for every orbit around
Jupiter.
For more info visit Nasa site:
Moons of Jupiter
Io
Europa
Ganymede
Callisto
Moons of Jupiter - Io
Io is the third largest of Jupiter's moons, and the fifth one
in distance from the planet.
Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
Io's surface is covered by sulfur in different colorful
forms. As Io travels in its slightly elliptical orbit, Jupiter's
immense gravity causes "tides" in the solid surface that
rise 100 m (300 feet) high on Io, generating enough heat
for volcanic activity and to drive off any water. Io's
volcanoes are driven by hot silicate magma.
It looks like a giant pizza covered with melted cheese and
splotches of tomato and ripe olives, Io is the most
volcanically active body in the solar system.
Io’s
elliptical
Orbit
means
continual
changes in
the tidal
force from
Jupiter
View from Hubble
Volcanic eruption
Moons of Jupiter - Europa
Europa's surface is mostly water ice, and there is evidence that it may be covering an ocean of water or
slushy ice beneath.
Europa is thought to have twice as much water as does Earth. Europa is smaller than Earth's moon. It is
unique in the solar system, being thought to have a global ocean of water in contact with a rocky
seafloor.
It is extremely smooth and crisscrossed by fractures
Europa has an extremely thin oxygen atmosphere -- far too thin to breathe
Moons of Jupiter Ganymede
Ganymede is the largest satellite in our solar system.
Ganymede has 3main layers.
1. A sphere of metallic iron at the center (the core, which generates
a magnetic field),
2. Spherical shell of rock (mantle) surrounding the core.
3. Spherical shell of mostly ice surrounding the rock shell and the
core.
The ice shell on the outside is very thick. Astronomers using the
Hubble Space Telescope found evidence of thin oxygen atmosphere
on Ganymede in 1996. The atmosphere is far too thin to support life as
we know it.
Ganymede's surface is a mixture of two types of terrain. Forty percent
of the surface of Ganymede is covered by highly cratered dark
regions, and the remaining sixty percent is covered by a light grooved
terrain, which forms intricate patterns across Ganymede. The term
"sulcus," meaning a groove or burrow, is often used to describe the
grooved features.
Ganymede was discovered by Galileo Galilei
https://About Ganymede
Moons of Jupiter - Callisto
Callisto is the third largest satellite in the solar system and
is almost the size of Mercury.
Its interior is probably similar to Ganymede except the inner
rocky core is smaller, and this core is surrounded by a large
icy mantle. Callisto's surface is the darkest of the Galileans,
but it is twice as bright as our own Moon.
Callisto's surface is extremely heavily cratered and
ancient -- a visible record of events from the early history of
the solar system. However, the very few small craters on
Callisto indicate a small degree of current surface activity.
Callisto is the most heavily cratered object in the solar
system. It is thought to be a long dead world, with hardly any
geologic activity on its surface. In fact, Callisto is the only
body greater than 1000 km in diameter in the solar system
that has shown no signs of undergoing any extensive
resurfacing since impacts have molded its surface. With a
surface age of about 4 billion years, Callisto has the oldest
landscape in the solar system.
Moons of Saturn
53 moons have been discovered orbiting Saturn, the
sixth planet in our solar system.
We will learn about the following 5 moons:
1. Mimas
2. Enceladus
3. Hyperion
4. Iapetus
5. Titan
Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system
Moons of Saturn - Mimas
Less than 400 km in diameter, crater-covered Mimas is
the smallest and innermost of Saturn's major moons. Its
most distinguishing feature is a giant impact crater -named Herschel after the moon's discoverer -- which
stretches a third of the way across the face of the moon,
making it look like the Death Star from "Star Wars."
Herschel
Herschel is 130 km across, with outer walls about 5 km
high and a central peak 6 km high. The impact that
blasted this crater out of Mimas probably came close to
breaking the moon apart.
Its low density suggests that it consists almost entirely of water ice, which is the only substance ever
detected on Mimas. Mimas is closer to Saturn and has more eccentric (elongated) orbit which means that
Mimas has tidal heating. Mimas Rotation = 23 hours while it orbits Saturn exactly twice as often as the
more distant moon
Moons of Saturn - Enceladus
Enceladus is only 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter,
but despite its petite size, it's one of the most scientifically
compelling bodies in our solar system. It is quite similar in
size to Mimas, but has a smoother, brighter surface.
Enceladus reflects almost 100 percent of the sunlight
that strikes it.
Several gases, including water vapor, carbon dioxide,
methane, perhaps a little ammonia and either carbon
monoxide or nitrogen gas make up the gaseous
envelope of the plume.
Enceladus displays at least five different types of terrain. Parts of Enceladus shows craters no larger than
35 km in diameter. Other areas show regions with no craters, indicating major resurfacing events in the
geologically recent past. There are fissures, plains, corrugated terrain, geysers that indicate that the
interior of the moon may be liquid today, even though it should have frozen eons ago. It is possible
Enceladus is heated by a tidal mechanism similar to Jupiter's moon Io
Hundred geysers
shooting ice
particles miles
into space from
cracks in the
south pole of
Enceladus
Moons of Saturn - Hyperion
Hyperion is the largest known irregular (non-spherical) body in the
solar system. Hyperion's average diameter is 270 km (168 miles), but
since Hyperion is rather potato-shaped, its shape can be described in
terms of its diameter along its three axes.
Considering its odd shape, Hyperion is probably a remnant of a larger
moon that was destroyed by a major impact.
Hyperion shows extensive cratering because of its distance from Saturn
as a result experienced very little tidal warming that might blur or erase
earlier features. However, the Hyperion craters are particularly deep. The
result is a curiously punched-in look, somewhat like the surface of a
sponge or a wasp nest.
Many of the crater walls on Hyperion are bright, which suggests an abundance of water ice. Hyperion shows
a dull reddish color with a low reflectivity which could be due to frozen carbon dioxide complexed with
frozen water and other molecules, such as hydrocarbons. Another contributor might be methane from
Titan's atmosphere being stripped of its hydrogen by solar radiation and the resulting carbon dust making
its way to Hyperion. A third possibility is that dark material from Phoebe may be coloring both Hyperion and
Iapetus.
A stronger effect on Hyperion's rotation is that it is in resonance with Saturn's largest moon, Titan, the two
objects speed up and slow down as they pass each other in a complex set of variations. Because Hyperion
is much smaller than Titan, its rotation and orbit are affected vastly more than the larger moon, and Titan
apparently keeps the Hyperion orbit eccentric rather than growing more circular over time.
Rotation = 13 days Revolution = 21 days
Hyperion Orbit
Moons of Saturn - Iapetus
Iapetus has been called the yin and yang of the Saturn moons
because its leading hemisphere has a reflectivity as dark as coal, with
a slight reddish tinge and its trailing hemisphere is much brighter.
Iapetus has a very slow rotation, longer than 79 days. Such a slow
rotation means that the daily temperature cycle is very long, so long
that the dark material can absorb heat from the sun and warm up.
This heating will cause any volatile, or icy, species within the dark
material to sublime out, and retreat to colder regions on Iapetus.
The great distance from Saturn's tidal forces has unaffected any
melting episodes that could have caused some smoothing or
"resurfacing" as on some of the moons closer to Saturn. Iapetus is in
resonance with Saturn's largest moon, Titan. That means that the two
objects speed up and slow down as they pass each other in a
complex set of variations.
Moons of Saturn - Iapetus
The second most notable feature of Iapetus is its "equatorial ridge," a chain of 10-km (6-mile) high
mountains girdling the moon's equator. On the anti-Saturnian side of Iapetus, the ridge appears to break
up and distinct, partially bright mountains are observed.
Moons of Saturn - Titan
Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system,
5,150 km (3,200 miles) across It is surrounded by a thick,
golden haze, and only certain kinds of telescopes and
cameras can see through the haze to the surface.
Titan is of great interest to scientists because it has
flowing liquids on its surface and a dense, complex
atmosphere. Titan has been called the most earthlike
world in the solar system because it has lakes, seas and
flowing rivers on its surface, although the liquid is
methane (CH4) and ethane (C2H6) instead of water.
Titan's atmosphere is approximately 95% nitrogen with traces of methane. While the Earth's
atmosphere extends about 60 km (37 miles) into space, Titan's extends nearly 600 km (ten times that of the
Earth's atmosphere) into space.
One day on Titan (the time it takes for Titan to rotate or spin once) takes about 16 Earth days. The length of
Titan's day is the same as the amount of time it takes Titan to orbit Saturn.
Rotation = 16 earth days
Revolution = 16 earth days
https://Click for more info
Moons of Neptune - Triton
Triton is the largest of Neptune's 13 moons. It is
unusual because it is the only large moon in our solar
system that orbits in the opposite direction of its
planet's rotation -- a retrograde orbit.
Like our own moon, Triton is locked in synchronous
rotation with Neptune -- one side faces the planet at all
times. But because of its unusual orbital inclination
both polar regions take turns facing the Sun.
Triton's thin atmosphere is composed mainly of
nitrogen with small amounts of methane. This
atmosphere most likely originates from Triton's
volcanic activity, which is driven by seasonal heating
by the Sun. Triton, Io and Venus are the only bodies in
the solar system besides Earth that are known to be
volcanically active at the present time.