momentum puzzle
Each planet has orbital angular momentum (by virtue of it moving around the sun) whose axis is normal to
the orbital plane and spin angular momentum (by virtue of it spinning about an axis that passes through its
CM). It is interesting to note that the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, shown separately) as
well as the outer planets (with the exception of Pluto) are nearly in the same orbital plane. Note that the
orientation of the spin axis is also indicated for each planet. The actual tilts of each orbital plane and the
orientation of the spin axes are tabulated below.
NEPTUNE
MERCURY VENUS EARTH MOON MARS JUPITER SATURN URANUS PLUTO
Mass (1024kg) 0.330 4.87 5.97 0.073 0.642 1898 568 86.8 102 0.0146
Diameter (km) 4879 12,104 12,756 3475 6792 142,984 120,536 51,118 49,528 2370
Density (kg/m3) 5427 5243 5514 3340 3933 1326 687 1271 1638 2095
Gravity (m/s2) 3.7 8.9 9.8 1.6 3.7 23.1 9.0 8.7 11.0 0.7
Escape Velocity
4.3 10.4 11.2 2.4 5.0 59.5 35.5 21.3 23.5 1.3
(km/s)
Rotation Period
1407.6 -5832.5 23.9 655.7 24.6 9.9 10.7 -17.2 16.1 -153.3
(hours)
Length of Day
4222.6 2802.0 24.0 708.7 24.7 9.9 10.7 17.2 16.1 153.3
(hours)
Perihelion (106 km) 46.0 107.5 147.1 0.363* 206.6 740.5 1352.6 2741.3 4444.5 4436.8
Aphelion (106 km) 69.8 108.9 152.1 0.406* 249.2 816.6 1514.5 3003.6 4545.7 7375.9
Orbital Period (days) 88.0 224.7 365.2 27.3 687.0 4331 10,747 30,589 59,800 90,560
Orbital Velocity
47.4 35.0 29.8 1.0 24.1 13.1 9.7 6.8 5.4 4.7
(km/s)
Orbital Inclination
7.0 3.4 0.0 5.1 1.9 1.3 2.5 0.8 1.8 17.2
(degrees)
Orbital Eccentricity 0.205 0.007 0.017 0.055 0.094 0.049 0.057 0.046 0.011 0.244
Axial Tilt (degrees) 0.01 177.4 23.4 6.7 25.2 3.1 26.7 97.8 28.3 122.5
Mean Temperature
167 464 15 -20 -65 -110 -140 -195 -200 -225
(C)
Surface Pressure
0 92 1 0 0.01 Unknown* Unknown* Unknown* Unknown* 0
(bars)
Number of Moons 0 0 1 0 2 67 62 27 14 5
Global Magnetic
Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Unknown
Field?
NEPTUNE
MERCURY VENUS EARTH MOON MARS JUPITER SATURN URANUS PLUTO
A possible scenario for the evolution of a self-gravitating (particles interacting only through their own
gravitational forces) gas:
A self-gravitating collection of particles acquires angular momentum (one possible mechanism can be due to
the torque that arises when the center of mass (CM) is not equal to the center of gravity (CG) when does
this happen?) in the initial phases of formation. By the time the two centers (CM and CG) coincide, the
angular momentum would have been built-up by the non-vanishing torque. Once CM equals CG, the torque
vanishes (no other external forces are present) and the angular momentum is conserved. This in turn leads
to particles, located perpendicular to the spin axis, acquiring increasing kinetic energies and competing with
gravitational potential energies (why?). The spinning gas cloud keeps contracting, due to gravity, more
preferentially along the spin axis (why?) and the gas cloud acquires a disc-like shape with a bulge at the
center. You will see many galaxies in our universe having this structure. Below is a picture of the real Milky
Way taken by the satellite COBE. The disk and center region of our Galaxy are readily recognizable. This
image makes the Milky Way appear much more galaxy-like and less like the smudge of stars we see
stretching across our night sky.
In 1796 the French mathematician-astronomer Pierre Simon de Laplace tried to develop the nebular model
in a quantitative way. He was able to show mathematically that the conservation of angular momentum
demands that an interstellar cloud like the hypothetical solar nebula must spin faster as it contracts. A
decrease in the size of a rotating mass must be balanced by an increase in its rotational speed.
The increase in rotation speed, in turn, must have caused the nebula's shape to change as it collapsed. The
rapidly spinning nebula tends to develop a bulge around its middle. It eventually flattened into a pancake-
shaped primitive solar system. If we now suppose that planets formed out of this spinning material, we can
already begin to understand the origin of some of the large-scale architecture observed in our planetary
system today, such as the circularity of the planets' orbits and the fact that they move in nearly the same
plane.
Using this formula, we calculate the L column of this table from the given orbital data.
When applied to gaseous bodies such as the Sun or Jupiter, this will yield an overestimate, because the
interiors of such gaseous bodies are denser than their outer layers.
So the rotational angular momentum of the Sun, which is 1.1e42, is less than 4% that of the total orbital
angular momentum of the planets, which is 3.1e43. Based on this calculation Jupiters orbital angular
momentum alone accounts for over 60% of the total angular momentum of the Solar system! The orbital
angular momentum of the Moon 2.9e34 is about four times that of the rotational angular momentum of the
Earth, which is 7.1e33. However, the total orbital angular momenta of the largest moons of Jupiter is less
than a hundredth the rotational angular momentum of the planet. ( 2001 Stevan White. All rights reserved.)
Berkeley Physics Course Vol. 1 Mechanics (Chapter on Linear and Angular Momentum)
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/solarsys/nebular.html