Neptune Pluto

The chemical dynamics, reactivity, and stability of carbon-centered radicals play an important role in understanding the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), their hydrogen-dehcient precursor molecules, and carbonaceous nanostructures from the bottom up in extreme environments. These range from high-temperature combustion flames (up to a few 1000 K) and chemical vapor deposition of diamonds to more exotic, extraterrestrial settings such as low-temperature (30-200 K), hydrocarbon-rich atmospheres of planets and their moons such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Titan, as well as cold molecular clouds holding temperatures as low as 10... 

Body Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto... 

Researchers have learned a vast amount of new information about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Objects in the last century. Improved terrestrial telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, and space explorations such as Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, and Cassini have produced new data that will take astrochemists years to analyze and interpret, providing them with even more detailed information about the chemical composition of the atmospheres, satellites, surfaces, and other features of the outer planets and their associated bodies. 

Pluto is small, rocky, and so mysterious that astronomers aren t sure what to make of it. Its elongated orbit, which is tilted to the rest of the solar system, overlaps the orbit of Neptune. As a result, from 1979 to 1999, Pluto was closer to the Sun than Neptune. Pluto s major moon, Charon, is so relatively large... 

Like Uranus and Neptune, Pluto primarily influences generations. Its influence in an individual s birth chart is usually subtle — unless Pluto occupies a prominent spot in your chart. Pluto is prominent if... 

The only planetary aspects that scarcely matter are conjunctions of Saturn and Saturn, Uranus and Uranus, Neptune and Neptune, Pluto and Pluto. 

Alkanes have the general molecular formula C H2 +2 The srmplest one methane (CH4) rs also the most abundant Large amounts are present rn our atmosphere rn the ground and rn the oceans Methane has been found on Juprter Saturn Uranus Neptune and Pluto and even on Halley s Comet... 

Diacetylene (HC=C—C=CH) has been identified as a component of the hydrocarbon rich atmospheres of Uranus Neptune and Pluto It is also present m the atmospheres of Titan and Triton satellites of Saturn and Neptune respectively... 

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. 

The gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The planet Pluto has a status of its own, and has recently been renamed a dwarf planet. 

The density estimates in Table 7.1 show a distinction between the structures of the planets, with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars all having mean densities consistent with a rocky internal structure. The Earth-like nature of their composition, orbital periods and distance from the Sun enable these to be classified as the terrestrial planets. Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus have very low densities and are simple gas giants, perhaps with a very small rocky core. Neptune and Pluto clearly contain more dense materials, perhaps a mixture of gas, rock and ice. 

J In outer space, frozen water, or ice, has been found on the moon, on planets— particularly Mercury, Mars, Neptune, and Pluto—and in comets and clouds between stars in our galaxy. Recent explorations of Mars indicate that there may be liquid water underground on Mars.This means there could be microorganisms living there ... 

Of some interest is that after uranium ( jU) was named after the planet Uranus, neptunium (jjNp), which was discovered next, was named after Neptune, the next planet in our solar system. And Anally, plutonium (g4Pu) the next transuranic element discovered, was named after Pluto, the last planet discovered so far in our solar system. 

This isotope had a half-life of about 24,000 years. It proved to be fissionable (56) and was the basis for the plutonium atomic bomb. Concentrated work on the new element was now begun by the Manhattan Project. The main work was done at Chicago. At this time it became desirable to have names for the elements which had previously been called simply 93 and 94 by the men who worked with them. The name suggested by McMillan, neptunium, was therefore adopted for 93, and by analogy 94 was named plutonium from the planet Pluto, next beyond Neptune in the solar system (53, 69). 

This division corresponds to the division into rocky planets of the inner solar system and gaseous planets of the outer solar system, separated by the minor planets. By analogy, a larger sequence of solar satellites (planetoids, comets), of which the Pluto/Charon system is the first, is predicted to continue the regular progression beyond Neptune. 

All these studies provide evidence for a rich radiation chemistry. For example, in N2-dominated ice (modeling the surfaces of Pluto and Triton, a moon of Neptune), the authors have proven by infrared spectroscopy the formation of HCN as well as HNC starting from N2/CH and N2/CH /CO mixtures. Other species such as HNCO, NH3, NH4, OCN , CN and N3 were also detected. As many of these species are involved in reactions producing biomolecules (amino acids, polypeptides), these results suggest the possibility of an interesting prebiotic chemistry on Triton and Pluto. 

Neptune s largest moon, Triton, was discovered within weeks of the discovery of the planet itself. It is one of the most distant objects in the solar system. Even the outermost planet, Pluto, and its moon, Charon, spend considerable time on their eccentric orbits closer to the Sun than Triton. Its nature remained a mystery until the advent of new astronomical methods in the 1970s and 1980s and the flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. In many ways, it is a planetary body on the edge —on the outer edge of the main part of the solar system, and the inner edge of the realm of comets and the recently discovered Kuiper belt objects. As such, it shares some of the characteristics of the icy satellites of the rest of the outer solar system with some of the nature of the colder, more distant, cometary bodies. 

Cruikshank D. and Brown R. H. (1986) Satellites of Uranus and Neptune, and the Pluto-Charon System. In Satellites (eds. J. A. Burns and M. S. Matthews). University of Arizona... 

A remarkable aspect of the Kuiper Belt is the number of large bodies that it contains. Pluto is in 3 2 resonance with Neptune and it is a member of the bodies swept up by Neptune. Due to orbital... 

MaUiotra R. (1995) The origin of Pluto s orbit implications for the solar system beyond Neptune. Astron. J. 110, 420. 

Neptune s large satellite Triton, which has a very thin nitrogen atmosphere with clouds, plumes, and haze, an extremely cold surface with nitrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide ices which interact with the atmosphere, and a fairly high mean density, make it seem more like Pluto than the other satellites of Neptune and those of Saturn and Uranus. Not enough is known about Pluto to explore these similarities this probably awaits future missions to Pluto, especially the New Horizons mission that NASA hopes to launch in 2006. 

Neptune is in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun at a 30.1 astronomical unit (a.u.) mean distance (4,500,000,000 km) from it, making it the most distant known Jovian planet (and probably the most distant known major planet, since recent findings indicate that the Pluto-Charon system is too small to be considered a major planet) from the Sun. Kepler s third law gives 165 years for Neptune s period of revolution around the Sun. Therefore, Neptune will not have made one complete revolution around the Sun since its discovery until 2011. 

Neptune clockwise instead of counterclockwise (direct motion). If c ie views the solar system from above the Sun s north pole, all the planets have diiect (counterclockwise) revolutions around the Sun, and most of them have direct rotations the exceptions are Venus, Uranus, and possibly Pluto. Infrared (at wavelei lhs loi r than those of red light) observations of Triton since 1980 indicated the presence of an atmosphere containing methane, and the presence of nitrogjen in solid or liquid form on its surface. However, its size and mass remained poorly known. 

Seaborg s team suggested the name plutonium for the new element, in honor of the planet Pluto. The two elements just before plutonium in the periodic table had also been named for planets uranium for Uranus and neptunium for Neptune. 

The solar system is sometimes divided into two parts consisting of the inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—and the outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and, until recently, Pluto. One might imagine that understanding the chemical and physical properties of the inner planets would help in understanding the chemical and physical properties of the outer planets. No such luck. The two groups of planets differ from each other in some fundamental and important ways. 

---