Nature of the Great Red Spot

The true nature of Jupiters unique Great Red Spot was still unknown at the start of the 21st century, despite extensive observations from the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft. On a planet whose cloud patterns have lifetimes often counted in days, the Great Red Spot has survived as long as detailed observations of Jupiter have been madeat least 300 years. There is some evidence that the spot may be slowly shrinking, but a longer series of observations is needed to confirm this suggestion. Its present dimensions are about 20,000 by 12,000 km (12,400 by 7,500 miles), making it large enough to accommodate both Earth and Mars. These huge dimensions are probably responsible for the features longevity and possibly for its distinct colour. The rotation period of the Great Red Spot around the planet does not match any of Jupiters three rotation periods. It shows a variability that has not been successfully correlated with other Jovian phenomena. Voyager observations revealed that the material within the spot circulates in a counterclockwise direction once every seven days, corresponding to super hurricane-force winds of 400 km (250 miles) per hour at the periphery. The Voyager images also recorded a large number of interactions between the Great Red Spot and much smaller disturbances moving in the current at the same latitude. The interior of the spot is remarkably tranquil, with no clear evidence for the expected upwelling (or divergence) of material from lower depths. The Great Red Spot, therefore, appears to be a huge anticyclone, a vortex or eddy whose diameter is presumably accompanied by a great depth that allows the feature to reach well below and well above the main cloud layers. Its extension above the main clouds is manifested by lower temperatures and by less gas absorption above the Great Red Spot than at neighboring regions on the planet. Its lower extension remains to be observed.

Lunar History
The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite, circling in a slightly elliptical orbit at 2,300 miles per hour (3,683 km/hr). At this speed, it takes about 27 days to completely encompass the Earth, which is 240,250 miles (384,400 km) away. Although it doesn't revolve around the Sun, because of its size and composition, planetary scientists call the Moon a "terrestrial planet" - akin to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Spacecraft have been studying the Moon for nearly half a century. The history of direct lunar exploration formally began in 1959, when probes from the Soviet's Luna spacecraft first flew by and then impacted the Moon's surface. Around the same time, NASA's Pioneer 4 passed within 37,000 miles of the Moon. Subsequent U.S. missions, such as Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter photographed the lunar

surface in preparation for landing astronauts. On July 20, 1969, the dream of putting a human on the Moon became reality when Neil Armstrong stepped off the Apollo 11 spacecraft and onto the rocky, dusty lunar terrain. Ensuing Apollo missions returned the first scientific samples from an extraterrestrial body to Earth - nearly 850 pounds (400 kilograms) of Moon rock. While both Soviet and U.S. lunar missions have returned to Earth a wealth of data, including breathtaking pictures and surface rock samples, many scientific questions remain unanswered. Much of the composition and structure of the Moon is still a mystery to scientists - less than a quarter of its surface has been mapped in detail, and little is known about how it formed, what it is made of, and how it has evolved over time. Direct lunar exploration has spanned more than four decades. In the mid-1960s, U.S. missions called Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter photographically mapped the Moon's surface to determine whether the lunar terrain was hospitable enough to land humans. These missions succeeded in providing early pictures of the Moon's crater-filled surface. NASA's Apollo series of missions first landed humans on the Moon. Much more recently, in 1994, a tiny spacecraft called Clementine made worldwide headlines when it discovered possible indirect evidence for water ice on the Moon, in a permanently shadowed miles-deep crater at the south pole. Analysis of the Apollo rock samples revealed that the Moon consists predominantly of volcanic materials, and that its composition is very similar to that of the Earth. Apollo's seismic studies and density measurements also suggested that the Moon has only a tiny metallic core, roughly 15 times smaller than that of the Earth. Lunar surface samples, however, contain important clues not only to the origin of the Moon itself, but to the beginnings of the entire Solar System. Data obtained from these Moon rocks, for instance, has led scientists to conclude that the Moon may have formed when, 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth collided with a very large object (the size of Mars or larger), ejecting raw materials that eventually became the Moon. This is known as the impact theory. Currently, the impact theory is perhaps the one most widely accepted by planetary scientists, but other theories are still plausible. Coaccretion theory holds that the Moon formed in Earth's orbit along with all the other planets in the Solar System. Fission theory states that, when the Solar System was very young, the Earth was spinning so fast (nearly 10,000 miles per hour (16,000 km/hr), or ten times its current speed), that it threw off a large chunk of material in order to stabilize itself; that chunk, the theory holds, became the Moon. Capture theory holds that the Moon was formed elsewhere in the Solar System and was seized by the Earth. Of all these theories, the impact theory fits best with all the data that has thus far been accumulated about the Moon. Future lunar exploration, especially that which will determine global bulk composition of the Moon, should help scientists settle this issue. The surface of the 38 mile (60 km)-thick lunar crust is covered with a layer of powdery dust called regolith. The Moon's terrain is a combination of heavily cratered highlands and smooth maria. The older and more rugged highlands were sculpted early in lunar history (more than four billion years ago), when crystals floated to the surface of the Moon - at that time a liquid

"magma ocean." The younger, smoother maria - large, dark plains - were formed three to four billion years ago after huge asteroid impact basins were later filled with molten lava. Unlike the Earth, the Moon does not have a significant magnetic field, and it has no significant atmosphere. Its unprotected regolith is thus constantly being bombarded by the solar wind. The Sun continuously embeds chemical elements, such as hydrogen ions, into the lunar surface. Thus, by studying the surface of the Moon, scientists can learn a lot about the Sun. Many other questions remain. For instance, scientists still don't understand why the crust is thicker on one side, or what the Moon's volcanic history is. Lunar Prospector will attempt to answer some of the lingering questions scientists have about the Moon and its history.

Saturn and Jupiter

Katie Jupiter and Saturn are alike in six different ways. They both are huge and they both have a lot of moons. They both have rings and they are in our Solar System. Plus they are both gas planets, and they and they don't have any solid ground. Jupiter and Saturn are different because Saturn has 18 moons and Jupiter has 16. They are also different because Saturn has thousands of rings and Jupiter has only two I think. Plus Jupiter has a moon with a volcano on it. Saturn has a moon with a mountain on it. Its higher than Mount. Everest.

Jupiter and Saturn

Antionette Jupiter and Saturn are alike in several ways. Saturn and Jupiter both have a orbit around the sun. They also have color bands, rings and moons.They both have gas giants and their both planets. Jupiter and Saturn are different in many ways. Saturn has duller clouds. Jupiter has bright colors, a Great Red Spot, and one faint ring. Saturn also has 18 moons and many visible rings. Saturn has many sharp edges on it's ring.

Jupiter and Saturn

Chase Jupiter and Saturn are alike in many ways. They both have at least more than fifteen moons. Both Jupiter and Saturn have rings. They both are in our Solar System. Both of them are made up of gas. Neither one has solid ground. Now Im going to tell you how theyre different. Jupiter has only one ring and Saturn has a lot of rings. Saturn has more moons than Jupiter. Jupiter is larger than Saturn. Saturns rings are easier to see than Jupiters. Saturn gets less sun than Jupiter because it is farther back in the solar system and Jupiter is blocking its way.

Jupiter and Saturn

Thomas I'm going to tell you how Jupiter and Saturn are alike. They both are huge, and have moons. They also are in our Solar System, have no solid ground and have rings. Now I'm going to tell about how Saturn and Jupiter are different. Jupiter has 16 moons, Saturn 18 moons. Saturn's bands are brighter colors and sharp, Jupiter's bands aren't as bright or sharp.

Jupiter and Saturn

Ashley Schultz Im going to talk to you about Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter and Saturn both orbit around the sun. They also have moons, rings, colored bands, and many other things. They both have gas giants and theyre both planets in our Solar System. Jupiter is different from Saturn in many ways, Jupiter has a great big red spot and brighter colored bands. Jupiter also has 16 moons and

hurricane force winds. Saturn has duller colored bands and many moons. Saturn also has many visible rings.

Jupiter and Saturn

David Jupiter and Saturn are alike in many ways. They are both giant gas plants in our Solar System. They both orbit around the sun. They both have moons, colored bands, and rings. Both of them are in the solar system of seven planets. Jupiter and Saturn are different in many ways. The ways they are different are that Saturn has rings around the planet and Jupiter doesnt. Jupiter has the great red spot Saturn doesnt. The biggest planet of those two planets is Jupiter.

What is comparison between Saturn and Jupiter?

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Jupiter is the larger gas giant. Saturn of course has a magnificent ring system. Jupiter has a ring system, but clearly not as bright and easily detectable as Saturn's. Saturn's core is much larger than Jupiter's, even though it's the smaller planet. Jupiter may have atmospheric belts where the pressure is so high that the temperature is a nice toasty 75 degrees Fahrenheit, a perfect temperature for ammoniabreathing balloon-like creatures. Wouldn't that be something? There are many scientific and technical differences, but in the larger picture, they are both gas giants, as are Uranus and Neptune. The moons of Jupiter and Saturn, however, are of immense interest. One of the moons of Jupiter, for example, Europe, may have Liquid Ocean under its icy crust. At some depth, like the atmospheric layer I suggested earlier, the temperature may be nice and toasty 75 degrees, despite the immense distance from the sun. We live in interesting times. We've already landed a probe on one of the moons of Saturn (Titan) a few years ago. This is scientific hubris of the first order. Can you imagine, sending a spacecraft on a journey of a BILLION miles and getting it to land on a moon there and send back pictures before it froze solid? Totally awesome Anyway, as you can tell, I just like to go on and on about my favorite subject astronomy. Hopefully, I've given you some comparisons. By the way, both planets have many moons, but you can see Jupiter's four Galilean moons (named after that hapless seventeenth century Italian astronomer, Galileo, who discovered them (who was persecuted by the Church for telling the truth about what he saw through his telescope and that everything could not possibly revolve around the

Earth) even with a small telescope, like pearls strung out across the ecliptic of the small disk of Jupiter, with its two dark grey-brown equatorial bands. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter-type planets are common throughout the galaxy. Many planets have ring systems, theorized to be caused by a stray moon getting too close to the large planet's gravitational tidal forces that rip the moon apart. The limit for how close a moon can get to a planet without being ripped apart is called the Roche Limit, after the astronomer who figured out the math for the critical distance limit.

METEOROIDS
Meteoroids are small bodies that travel through space. Meteoroids are smaller than asteroids; most are smaller than the size of a pebble. Meteoroids have many sources. Most meteoroids come from asteroids that are broken apart by impacts with other asteroids. Other meteoroids come from the Moon, from comets, and from the planet Mars.

METEORS
A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth's atmosphere, usually making a fiery trail as it falls. It is sometimes called a shooting star or a falling star. Just before a meteor enter's the Earth's atmosphere, it is moving at roughly 70 kilometers per second. The friction between the fast-moving meteor and the gas in the Earth's atmosphere causes intense heat; the meteor glows with heat and then burns. Most meteors burn up before hitting the Earth. Only large meteors can survive the trip through our atmosphere. A fireball is any meteor that is brighter than Venus (magnitude -4). A meteor shower is a phenomenon in which many meteors fall through the atmosphere in a relatively short time and in approximately parallel trajectories. A very intense meteor shower is called a meteor storm.

METEORITES
A meteorite is a meteor that has fallen to Earth. These rare objects have survived a fiery fall through the Earth's atmosphere and have lost a lot of mass during that process. Meteorites are made up of rock and/or metals.

Introduction to Comets
A comet is a small, icy celestial body that orbits around the sun. It is made up of a nucleus (solid, frozen ice, gas and dust), a gaseous coma (water vapor, CO2, and other gases) and a long tail (made of dust and ionized gases). The tail develops when the comet is near the Sun. Its long ion tail of always points away from the sun, because of the force of the solar wind. The tail can be up to 250 million km long, and is most of what we see. Comets are only visible when they're near the sun in their highly eccentric orbits.

PARTS OF A COMET Nucleus: The nucleus is the frozen center of a comet's head. It is composed of ice, gas, and dust. The nucleus contains most of the comet's mass but is very small (about 1 to 10 km across - or more). Coma: The coma is the roughly spherical blob of gas that surrounds the nucleus of a comet; it is about a million km across. The coma is comprised of water vapor, carbon dioxide gas, ammonia, dust, and neutral gases that have sublimed from the solid nucleus. The coma and the nucleus form the head of a comet. Ion Tail: A tail of charged gases (ions) always faces away from the sun because the solar wind (ions streaming from the sun at high velocities) pushes it away (it is also called the plasma tail). When the comet is approaching the Sun, the ion tail trails the comet: when the comet is leaving of the Sun, the ion tail leads. The tail fades as the comet moves far from the Sun. The ion tail can be well over 100 million km long.

Dust Tail: The dust tail is a long, wide tailcomposed of microscopic dust particles that are buffeted by photons emitted from the Sun; this tail curves slightly due to the comet's motion. The tail fades as the comet moves far from the Sun. Hydrogen Envelope: Hydrogen gas surrounds the coma of the comet and trails along for millions of miles (it is usually between the ion tail and the dust tail). The hydrogen envelope is about 10 million km across at the nucleus of the comet and about 100 million km long. It is bigger when the comet is near the Sun. A COMET'S ORBIT Comets orbit the Sun in highly elliptical orbits. Their velocity increases greatly when they are near the Sun and slows down at the far reaches of the orbit. Since the comet is light only when it is near the Sun (and is it vaporizing), comets are dark (virtually invisible) throughout most of their orbit. The solar wind pushes the tail away from the Sun. Some comets crash into the Sun or get so close that they burn up; these comets are called sungrazers. COMET EXPLORATION NASA's Stardust Mission will visit the Comet Wild 2 in 2004. It will take a sample of comet particles and return them to Earth. The small spacecraft (about 770 pounds = 350 kg) was launched February 7, 1999 and rendezvoused with comet Wild 2 in January, 2004. It will return to Earth on January 15, 2006, and land in western Utah, USA. Comet Wild 2 (aka Comet 81P) is a short-period comet that was discovered by the Swiss astronomer Paul Wild on January 6, 1978. The comet's nucleus is about 3 miles (5 km) across. Wild 2 orbits the Sun every 6.39 years; its elliptical orbit ranges from about Mars' orbit to Jupiter's orbit. COSMIC SNOWBALLS There is a new and very controversial theory that comets (composed of frozen water) are constantly bombarding the Earth. These "cosmic snowballs" have (perhaps) been seen by the visible imaging system of the Polar Satellite. In theory, these frozen comets vaporize in the atmosphere, adding water vapor to the environment.

CROSSING A COMET'S ORBIT: METEOR SHOWERS

The Earth passes through the orbit of some comets. When this happens, the left-over comet debris (rocks, etc.) bombards the Earth and they burn up in our atmosphere. This is called a meteor shower. In it, many meteors fall through the atmosphere in a relatively short time and in approximately parallel trajectories.

WHERE COMETS ORIGINATE

Long-period Comets (comets with an orbital period over 200 years and up to 30 million years): The Oort Cloud is a cloud of rocks and dust that may surround our solar system. This cloud may be where long-period comets originate. The Oort Cloud was named for Jan H. Oort, who proposed its existence in 1950. It has been hypothesized that the Oort Cloud is responsible for the periodic mass extinctions on Earth. Short-period Comets (comets with an orbital period under 200 years): The Kuiper belt is a region beyond Neptune in which at least 70,000 small objects orbit. This belt is located from 30 to 50 (?) A.U.'s and was discovered in 1992. It is a region where the planetbuilding process was stopped in before any large objects were formed; there are only primitive remnants from the early accretion disk of the solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. The Kuiper belt may be the source of the shortperiod comets (like Halley's comet). The Kuiper belt was named for the Dutch-American astronomer Gerard P. Kuiper, who predicted its existence in 1951.

COMET EXPLORATION NASA's Stardust Mission will visit the Comet Wild 2 in 2004. It will take a sample of comet particles and return them to Earth. The small spacecraft (about 770 pounds = 350 kg) was launched February 7, 1999 and will rendezvous with comet Wild 2 in January, 2004. It will return to Earth on January 15, 2006, and land in western Utah, USA. COSMIC SNOWBALLS

There is a new and very controversial theory that comets (composed of frozen water) are constantly bombarding the Earth. These "cosmic snowballs" have (perhaps) been seen by the visible imaging system of the Polar Satellite. In theory, these frozen comets vaporize in the atmosphere, adding water vapor to the environment.

SOME MAJOR COMETS

HALLEY'S COMET Halley's comet is a periodic comet (made of frozen gas and dust), that orbits around the sun. Its earliest-recorded sighting was in 240 B.C. in China, but Edmund Halley was the first person to recognize that it was periodic. It was last seen in 1986 and will be seen next in the year 2061; its period is 76 years. When the Earth passes through Halley's comet's orbit (twice each year), its detritus causes the meteor showers the Eta Aquarids and the Orionids. SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9 Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL-9) was a short-period comet that was discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David H. Levy. As the comet passed close by Jupiter, Jupiter's gravitational forces broke the comet apart . Fragments of the comet collided with Jupiter for six days An SL-9 impact site on Jupiter, during July, 1994, causing huge fireballs in Jupiter's July 6, 1994. Photo by Hubble atmosphere that were visible from Earth.
Space Telescope.

COMET LINEAR Comet LINEAR [designated C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)] was a comet that broke apart when it approached the Sun. The comet's icy core disintegrated as it passed close to the Sun (its perihelion) in July 2000. The Sun's intense heat had more to do with this comet's break-up than the Sun's gravitational forces. HALE-BOPP COMET Hale Bopp (designated C/1995 O1) is a periodic comet that orbits around the sun. Its earliest-recorded sighting was on July 23, 1995. It was independently discovered by Alan Hale (of New Mexico) and Thomas Bopp (of Arizona), both amateur astronomers. This comet has a diameter of about 40 km; it's rotation rate is 11.4 hours.

It was last seen in 1997 and will be seen next in the year 4377; its period is 2380 years.

Asteroids
ASTEROIDS Asteroids are rocky or metallic objects, most of which orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. A few asteroids approach the Sun more closely. None of the asteroids have atmospheres. Asteroids are also known as planetoids or minor planets.
Asteroid 253 Mathilde, a Near-Earth Asteroid photographed by NASA's NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) mission in June 1997. Mathilde is about 60 km in diameter and orbits in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

THE ASTEROID BELT The asteroid belt is a doughnut-shaped concentration of asteroids orbiting the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, closer to the orbit of Mars. Most asteroids orbit from between 186 million to 370 million miles (300 million to 600 million km or 2 to 4 AU) from the Sun. The asteroids in the asteroid belt have a slightly elliptical orbit. The time for one revolution around the Sun varies from about three to six Earth years.

The strong gravitational force of the planet Jupiter shepherds the asteroid belt, pulling the asteroids away from the Sun, keeping them from careening into the inner planets. THE KIRKWOOD GAPS The asteroid belt is not smooth; there are concentric gaps in it (known as Kirkwood gaps). These gaps are orbital radii where the gravitational forces from Jupiter do not let asteroids orbit (they would be pulled towards Jupiter). For example, an orbit in which an asteroid orbited the Sun exactly three times for each Jovian orbit would experience great gravitational forces each orbit, and would soon be pulled out of that orbit. There is a gap at 3.28 AU (which corresponds to 1/2 of Jupiter's period), another at 2.50 AU (which corresponds to 1/3 of Jupiter's period), etc. The Kirkwood gaps are named for Daniel Kirkwood who discovered them in 1866. HOW MANY ASTEROIDS ARE THERE? There are about 40,000 known asteroids that are over 0.5 miles (1 km) in diameter in the asteroid belt. About 3,000 asteroids have been cataloged. There are many more smaller asteroids. The first one discovered (and the biggest) is named Ceres; it was discovered in 1801.

Gaspra, Asteroid #951.

THE SIZES OF ASTEROIDS Asteroids range in size from tiny pebbles to about 578 miles (930 kilometers) in diameter (Ceres). Sixteen of the 3,000 known asteroids are over 150 miles (240 km) in diameter. Some asteroids even have Asteroid 4 Vesta, the brightest asteroid and orbiting moons.
the fourth largest. Vesta is the only asteroid that can be seen without a telescope (it is sixth magnitude).

CERES: THE LARGEST ASTEROID Ceres is the largest of the asteroids. It was the first asteroid ever discovered (by the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1, 1801). Ceres is the size of the state of Texas! It is so huge in comparison with the other asteroids that its mass is equal to over one-third of the 2.3 x 1021 kg estimated total mass of all the 3,000 cataloged asteroids. Ceres is about 578 miles (930 kilometers) in diameter. Ceres is now

considered to be a dwarf planet. ASTEROIDS BECOMING MOONS Asteroids can be pulled out of their solar orbit by the gravitational pull of a planet. They would then orbit that planet instead of orbiting the Sun. Astronomers theorize that the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are The asteroid 243 Ida and its tiny asteroid moon, captured asteroids.
Dactyl. This is the first asteroid ever found with an orbiting moon. Ida's dimensions are about 56 x 24 x 21 kilometers (35 x 15 x 13 miles). Dactyl is only about 1.2 x 1.4 x 1.6 km (0.75 x 0.87 x 1 mile) across.

ORIGIN OF THE ASTEROID BELT The asteroid belt may be material that never coalesced into a planet, perhaps because its mass was too small; the total mass of all the asteroids is only a small fraction of that of our Moon. The total mass of all the asteroids is about 2.3 x 1021 kg ); our moon's mass is 7.35 x 1022 kg; the asteroids' mass combined is about 1/30 of the mass of the Moon. A less satisfactory explanation of the origin of the asteroid belt is that it may have once been a planet that was fragmented by a collision with a huge comet. TROJAN ASTEROIDS Trojan asteroids are asteroids that orbit in gravitationally stable Lagrange points in a planet's orbit, either trailing it or preceding it (these places are where the gravitational attraction of the Sun and of the planet balance each other). Jupiter has the most Trojan asteroids; Mars also has some. Achilles was the first Trojan asteroid found. The asteroids preceding Jupiter in its orbit were named for Greek heroes; those following Jupiter in its orbit were named for Trojan heroes.

What is the main source of a meteoroid?

1. Interplanetary debris that was not gravitationally swept up by the planets during the formation of the solar system. 2. Material from the asteroid belt. 3. The solid remains of comets that once traveled near Earth's orbit.

Why is Venus sometimes called Earth's twin?

Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin because Venus and Earth are almost the same size, have about the same mass (they weigh about the same), and have a very similar composition (are made of the same material). They are also neighboring planets. However, Venus and Earth are also very different. Venus has an atmosphere that is about 100 times thicker than Earth's and has surface temperatures that are extremely hot. Venus does not have life or water oceans like Earth does. Venus also rotates backwards compared to Earth and the other planets.

The Mysterious Moons of Mars

Deimos (left), and Phobos (right), above Mars in this composite picture.

(NASA/Lee Krystek)

They [the Laputians] have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary planet exactly three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the center of Mars, which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift - 1726 The fourth planet out from the Sun, Mars, has two moons. The are named Phobos (meaning "fear") and Deimos (meaning "panic"); appropriate companions for Mars, the God of War.

Over a hundred years before the moons' discovery, in 1877, British writer and satirist Jonathan Swift "predicted" their existence in the book we now know as "Gulliver's Travels." There is no way Swift could have known the moons were real yet he described Phobos' orbital period as 10 hours (very close to the real figure of 7.6) and Deimos' as 21.5 (close to the real 30.2). Both seem to be very lucky guesses. How was Swift able to predict the existence of the moons and their attributes so well? Some have seriously suggested he had psychic powers. More likely, though, Swift may have employed the same logic as the French writer Voltaire did a quarter century later when he also predicted Jonathan Swift: Was his prediction about two Martian moons. Voltaire knew that the inner the existance of the two Martian moons planets, Mercury and Venus had no moons and the outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn each had just a lucky guess? many. Earth had one. It seemed likely to Voltaire that Mars, that next out from Earth, probably had at least two. Even if Swift had employed the same logic to figure the number of moons his estimate on the duration of their orbits was still startlingly accurate. Swift's prediction isn't the only mystery about the Martian moons. In 1862 scientists were looking for them carefully because conditions for finding Martian satellites were extremely favorable. The scientists found nothing. Fifteen years later Asaph Hall, an American astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., discovered them at time when conditions for observation weren't nearly as good.

Why did Hall find Phobos and Deimos when better equipped scientists failed to find them earlier? One American scientist, Frank Salisbury, suggested, in the journal Science, the moons were actually artificial satellites and the failure to detect them was due to them only being launched, by the Martians, sometime after 1862. We now know from space probe observations that both Phobos and Deimos are natural objects. Phobos is a chunk of blackish carbonaceous chondrite rock some 17 miles long by 12 miles wide. Its most striking feature is a giant depression, Stickney Crater, which is about a half a mile across. Demios, 10 miles long and 7.5 miles wide, is like Phobos in composition, but with a smoother surface. Both are very similar to the many asteroids found between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. This leads some scientists to speculate that they actually originated in the asteroid belt and only later were captured by Mars' gravity.

The U.S. Naval Observatory in the 19th century: No probelm seeing the moons.

1) Why does Mars have bigger volcanoes than the Earth?

Credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute

The Tharsis region of Mars with a map of the western United States for scale. Olympus Mons is the volcano at upper left.

Martian volcanoes are not currently active as far as we can tell but some of them must have been quite recently (at geological scale), which means about 1 million years ago or less. Are they extinct or only dormant? No one can tell with volcanoesand we are still looking for a spectral signature that could show us a region of heat on Mars. We'll see. As you said, these volcanoes are quite big compared to the Earth's volcanoes. Although you probably have heard a lot about Olympus Mons and all the Tharsis montes, which are really big, there are all sorts of volcanoes on Mars. Many of them are about the size of those found on our planet. Now, what the Martian volcanoes are not: they are not created by subduction which requires moving plates. Lots of volcanism on Earth happens on, or at, the margins of continental plates. Plates are moving and because of that it is hard for terrestrial volcanoes to build large structures. Look at the Hawaiian Islands. There is a very active hot spot right below. The magma is coming up at the surface and has been coming up for some time. However, since the plate on which the islands are formed is moving away from the hot spot, what happens is that (1) the volcano gets disconnected from its source of magma, is not active anymore, thus does not grow anymore, and (2) as the plate slides, the magma will find a way up to the surface through the Earth's crust and another volcano will be formed. Because the hot spot is at the same place and because the movement of plates is somewhat homogeneous, in time a chain of aligned volcanic islands is created. These volcanoes are big, all right, but not as big as on Mars because they do not have time to grow as they are rapidly disconnected from their source of magma. On Mars, there is no plate tectonic. Martian volcanoes are due to hot spot volcanism. Once the magma has found its way out by one point, it will tend to always get out by the same point. Therefore, volcanic structures will tend to be higher than on Earth (see the cartoon I made for you below). Finally, for your informationon Earth, do you know how fast the continental plate that supports America is moving away from the African plate? Well the answer is at the tip of your fingers. It is moving as fast as your finger nails are growing!

1. Briefly outline the history of the moon. 2. Venus has been referred to as Earths twin. In what way are these two planets similar? How do they differ? 3. What is the nature of Jupiters Great Red Spot? 4. How are Jupiter and Saturn similar? 5. Compare meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite. 6. What is the most comets thought to reside? What eventually becomes that orbit close to the Sun? 7. What are the three main sources of meteoroids? 8. Where are most asteroids found? 9. It has been estimated that Halleys Comet has a mass of 100 billion tons. Furthermore, this comet is estimated to lose 100 million tons of materials during the few months that its oprbit brings it close to the sun. With an orbital period of 76 years, what is the maximum remaining life span of Halleys Comet?