Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy (Arny), 7th Edition

Chapter 10: The Outer Planets

Problems

1
How long does it take sunlight to reach Jupiter? Uranus? How might this affect missions to these planets?
2
Given its rate of rotation, at what speed does a point on the equator of Jupiter move? Give your result in km/hr.
3
Use the modified form of Kepler's third law, illustrated in figure 8.7 (and discussed in detail in chapter 3), to calculate Jupiter's mass using the orbital data for any of Jupiter's moons given in the appendix. Be sure to convert the orbital period to seconds and the orbital radius to meters before putting those numbers into the formula.
4
If Saturn were compressed until it had the same density as Jupiter, what would Saturn's new radius be? Compare this to Jupiter's radius.
5
At closest approach, Saturn is about 8.5 AU from the Earth. If the rings are 270,000 kilometers in diameter, what is their angular size seen from Earth?
6
Use the modified form of Kepler's third law and Saturn's mass to calculate the period of the material at the inner and outer edges of Saturn's rings, with values for "a" of 90,000 and 136,000 kilometers. Can you see why the rings cannot be solid?
7
During a close flyby, the Cassini spacecraft yielded a new estimate of the mass of Enceladus of 1.08 × 1023 g. Given that Enceladus's diameter is 499 km, calculate its density. What does this density suggest about Enceladus's composition? (Ice has a density of about 1 g/cm3 and rock about 3 g/cm3.)
8
What is the "surface" gravity of Neptune (at the top of the clouds)?
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