Jupiters Moons

Our solar system consists of the Sun, the planets and their moon satellites, asteroids (small planets), comets, and meteorites. The planets are generally divided into two categories Earth-like (terrestrial) planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars and Giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Little is known about Pluto, the most remote planet from Earth. 

Jupiter s moon lo on which a number of very active sulfur volcanoes have been discovered [64]. These volcanoes are powered by SO2 gas which forces the hquid sulfur from its underground deposits to the surface. 

S2O and the polysulfuroxide formed from it are also suspected to be components of the surface and the atmosphere of Jupiter s moon lo [22], and S2O has been detected in the atmosphere of the planet Venus [23]. 

C12-0053. Titan, one of the moons of Jupiter, appears to have oceans composed of liquid methane. Describe how this liquid differs from liquid water, and predict whether methane-based life forms are likely. 

Portal page to a series of pages Air, Moon, Jupiter, Fire, Mercury, Saturn, Water, Venus, Sun, Earth, Mars. Also an interesting page "A Christian Mandala - explanation of this mandala and its sources by Robert Ellaby"... 

Jupiter s moon Europa has only been the subject of intense scientific investigation in recent years it is considered to be a member of that small group of heavenly bodies which could perhaps accommodate life (or a precursor of life). About 20 years ago, the Voyager passes afforded sensational pictures of Europa. These showed a network of linear bands, of differing breadths, on a very bright surface. The mean density was calculated as 3,018 35 kg/m3, and the surface temperature measured was 90-95 K. Circumstantial evidence points to either a surface consisting of water ice, or the presence of liquid water or warm ice under the surface. Three models were proposed (Oro et al., 1992) ... 

Callisto orbits Jupiter at a distance of 1.9 million kilometres its surface probably consists of silicate materials and water ice. There are only a few small craters (diameter less than a kilometre), but large so-called multi-ring basins are also present. In contrast to previous models, new determinations of the moon s magnetic field suggest the presence of an ocean under the moon s surface. It is unclear where the necessary energy comes from neither the sun s radiation nor tidal friction could explain this phenomenon. Ruiz (2001) suggests that the ice layers are much more closely packed and resistant to heat release than has previously been assumed. He considers it possible that the ice viscosities present can minimize heat radiation to outer space. This example shows the complex physical properties of water up to now, twelve different crystallographic structures and two non-crystalline amorphous forms are known Under the extreme conditions present in outer space, frozen water may well exist in modifications with as yet completely unknown properties. 

The next most likely possibility is cometary delivery of the atmosphere but again there are some problems with the isotope ratios, this time with D/H. The cometary D/H ratios measured in methane from Halley are 31 3 x 10-5 and 29 10 x 10-5 in Hayuatake and 33 8 x 10-5 in Hale-Bopp, whereas methane measurements from Earth of the Titan atmosphere suggest a methane D/H ratio of 10 5 x 10-5, which is considerably smaller than the ratio in the comets. The methane at least in Titan s atmosphere is not exclusively from cometary sources. Degassing of the rocks from which Titan was formed could be a useful source of methane, especially as the subnebula temperature around Saturn (100 K) is somewhat cooler than that around Jupiter. This would allow volatiles to be more easily trapped on Titan and contribute to the formation of a denser atmosphere. This mechanism would, however, apply to all of Saturn s moons equally and this is not the case. 

In one sense, the creation of alchemy represented a step backward. The Egyptians had known seven metallic elements gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and mercury, which they associated with the seven planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, respectively). The Greeks, however, failed to recognize them as distinct elements. According to the Aristotelian theory, the metals were mixtures of the traditional four elements. This idea seemed to... 

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