Ground control to major Tom...
Apr. 4th, 2003 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreHaven't done one of these kind of science/informative posts in a while.
Today I will talk about... The Moons Of Jupiter
Well, the main 4 anyway, Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto.
Ganymede - Is the largest of the moons, it's larger than Mercury and Pluto which are full on planets. It has some neat craters, like a line of them thought to be caused by a comet breaking up before hitting.
Io - The most volcanic body in the solar system. It's surface looks like a pizza, all sulfur mist and lava. Some astronomer once spotted a massive eruption on the moon (300km or something like that into space). This was the first proof that another body in the solar system was volcanic. It's the still evolving moon, the fire of the group.
Europa - This is the ice of the group. This planet excites me. It is covered in a crust of ice with what seem to be huge cracks in it, implying that underneath there may be liquid water. We've discovered relatively recently that not all organisms require the sun to survive. Some live around the mineral rich black smokers in the depths of the ocean, taking their base nutrients from within the earth. What if Europa has similar black smokers? Could there be life under all the ice?? There are plans to send a probe to Europa to find out. It will certainly be interesting to find exactly what is there. Like digging for fossils on Mars could be a very groovy endeavour as well.
Callisto - Callisto is the old moon. It's one of the most cratered bodies in the solar system, having been hit by perhaps millions of asteroids and meteorites and comets. Jupiter is so huge that it's gravity pulls most asteroids towards it so they never get near the earth. Which is why Earth is relatively safe from impact and has been able to evolve as it has. Three cheers for Jupiter!!
Another tidbit - Venus has the longest day in the solar system, a whopping 244 earth days. All that time facing one side to the sun would explain it's ridiculous surface temperatures and extreme greenhouse effect. Mercury has a day that is 58 earth days long. This is short enough for Mercury to have the honour of being one of the hottest and one of the coldest bodies in the solar system. On one side you're right next to the sun, anything there would be vapourised, and on the dark side it gets as low as -200C. Jupiter has the shortest day at almost 10 earth hours. Such a massive planet made essentially of gasses and plastic material moving so fast, no wonder the gravity is enourmous, and the storms. Did you know that Jupiter's red spot is as wide as three earth's?? Well, now you do.
Today I will talk about... The Moons Of Jupiter
Well, the main 4 anyway, Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto.
Ganymede - Is the largest of the moons, it's larger than Mercury and Pluto which are full on planets. It has some neat craters, like a line of them thought to be caused by a comet breaking up before hitting.
Io - The most volcanic body in the solar system. It's surface looks like a pizza, all sulfur mist and lava. Some astronomer once spotted a massive eruption on the moon (300km or something like that into space). This was the first proof that another body in the solar system was volcanic. It's the still evolving moon, the fire of the group.
Europa - This is the ice of the group. This planet excites me. It is covered in a crust of ice with what seem to be huge cracks in it, implying that underneath there may be liquid water. We've discovered relatively recently that not all organisms require the sun to survive. Some live around the mineral rich black smokers in the depths of the ocean, taking their base nutrients from within the earth. What if Europa has similar black smokers? Could there be life under all the ice?? There are plans to send a probe to Europa to find out. It will certainly be interesting to find exactly what is there. Like digging for fossils on Mars could be a very groovy endeavour as well.
Callisto - Callisto is the old moon. It's one of the most cratered bodies in the solar system, having been hit by perhaps millions of asteroids and meteorites and comets. Jupiter is so huge that it's gravity pulls most asteroids towards it so they never get near the earth. Which is why Earth is relatively safe from impact and has been able to evolve as it has. Three cheers for Jupiter!!
Another tidbit - Venus has the longest day in the solar system, a whopping 244 earth days. All that time facing one side to the sun would explain it's ridiculous surface temperatures and extreme greenhouse effect. Mercury has a day that is 58 earth days long. This is short enough for Mercury to have the honour of being one of the hottest and one of the coldest bodies in the solar system. On one side you're right next to the sun, anything there would be vapourised, and on the dark side it gets as low as -200C. Jupiter has the shortest day at almost 10 earth hours. Such a massive planet made essentially of gasses and plastic material moving so fast, no wonder the gravity is enourmous, and the storms. Did you know that Jupiter's red spot is as wide as three earth's?? Well, now you do.
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Date: 2003-04-03 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-04 08:36 am (UTC)