AN

INTRODUCTION
TO
ASTROPHYSICS
DR. JIMIN GEORGE
 04
Solar System
1 Stars
Distance to the stars - Stellar parallax, Brightness of the stars - The magnitude
scale, Colour and temperature of the stars - Blackbody radiation, The
classification of stars – Stellar spectra, The Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram,
Interior and Atmosphere of stars, The sun
2 Stellar evolution
Interstellar Dust and Gas, The Formation of Protostars, Pre-Main-Sequence
Evolution, Evolution on the Main Sequence stars, Late Stages of Stellar
Evolution, Post-Main-Sequence Evolution of Massive Stars, Supernovae,
Gamma-Ray Bursts, Cosmic Rays, White Dwarfs, The Chandrasekhar limit,
Neutron Stars, Pulsar
3 General relativity and Black holes
The General theory of relativity, the curvature of spacetime, the principle of
equivalence, the bending of light, Gravitational redshift and time dilation, The
Schwarzschild radius, A trip into the black hole, Mass range of black holes,
Tunnels in space time, Hawking radiation
4 Solar system
1. Planets and Moons, Asteroid belt, The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects, Solar
system formation, atmosphere of planets, The terrestrial planets – Mercury,
Venus, earth and Mars, The giant planets – Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and
Neptune.
5 Galaxies
1. Classification of galaxies, The Milky way Galaxy – Morphology of the galaxy and
the galactic center, Galactic evolution – Interaction of galaxies and the formation
of galaxies. The structure of the universe - The Extragalactic Distance Scale, The
Expansion of the Universe and Clusters of Galaxies
 Solar system - Planets

❑ Terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

❑ Giant Planets ( Jovian planets) – Jupiter and Saturn (Gas Giants) and Uranus and
Neptune (Ice giants)

❑ The planets have long been studied from Earth, first with the naked eye and later
with telescopes.

❑ Since the invention of space flight, we have sent spacecraft to every planet on the
solar system
 Planets
Size Comparison
Size Comparison
 Solar system - Planets
❑ Table shows apparent magnitude of the planets

❑ Uranus and Neptune cannot be seen with the naked eye

❑ Planets through an astronomical telescope
 Moons of the Planet

❑ The number of moons orbiting each planet also varies significantly between the
terrestrials and the giants.

❑ Neither Mercury nor Venus has any moons, Earth has one relatively large moon, and
Mars has two tiny satellites.

❑ On the other hand, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are known to have many
moons. Combined with their ring systems, each of the giant planets possesses a
complex orbital system.
 ❑ According to
their size:

1. Ganymede
2. Titan
3. Callisto
4. Io
5. Moon
6. Europa

❑ Ganymede and
Titan are
slightly bigger
than planet
Mercury
Asteroid belt (Main asteroid belt)
❑ Asteroid belt is a region between
Mars and Jupiter containing several
irregularly shaped solid objects
called asteroids.

❑ The total mass of the asteroid belt

is estimated to be 3% that of the
Moon

❑ The asteroid material is so thinly

distributed that numerous
uncrewed spacecraft have
traversed it without incident. The
average distance between
asteroids is 1 million km.
 Asteroid belt
❑ Ceres is the only object in the asteroid belt large enough to be called as a dwarf planet,
ceres is about 950 km in diameter

❑ The next three large asteroids Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea have mean diameters less than
600 km. There are about 140 main-belt asteroids with a diameter greater than 120 km.
Around 1 million asteroids have a diameter greater than 1km.

Ceres
 The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects
❑ Comets are snowballs of ice and dust. Their spectacular, long tails are simply the
evaporating dust and gas due to the solar radiation.

❑ Some comets, like the famous Halley’s comet, have relatively short orbital periods of
less than 200 years (75 years), whereas the long-period comets can take over one
million years to orbit the Sun.
 The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects
❑ From their orbital characteristics, it seems
very likely that the source of the short-
period comets is the Kuiper belt, a
collection of icy objects located beyond
the orbit of Neptune, typically ranging
from 30 AU to perhaps 50 AU or more
from the Sun.

❑ Kuiper belt is similar to the asteroid belt,

but is far larger - 20 times as wide and
20–200 times as massive

❑Kuiper belt objects are composed largely

of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as
methane, ammonia, and water.
 The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects

❑ It is now realized that

Pluto and its moon
Charon and other dwarf
planets such as Sedna,
and Quaoar are among
the largest known
members of the family of
Kuiper belt objects
(KBOs). Objects beyond
Neptune are also
referred to as Trans-
Neptunian Objects
(TNOs).
 The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects

❑ Pluto is the largest and most massive

member of the Kuiper belt . Image shows
Pluto and it’s Moon Charon take by Nasa’s
New Horizon spacecraft during the flyby
in 2015
 The Comets and Kuiper Belt Objects

❑ The long-period comets (period above

200 years) apparently originate in the
Oort cloud, an approximately
spherically symmetric cloud of comets
with orbital radii of between 3000 and
100,000 AU.

❑ Because of the huge distance we

cannot observe Oort cloud from earth.
So Oort cloud is a theoretical prediction
which is yet to be observed.

❑The comet with the longest known

orbit takes more than 250,000 years to
make just one trip around the Sun!
❑ Orbit of Halley’s comet ( time
period is 76 years)

❑ Unlike the planets, trans-

Neptunian objects mostly move
on eccentric orbits, inclined to the
plane of the planets.
❑ Orbit of
Trans-
Neptunian
object Eris
❑ Orbit of Trans-
Neptunian object
Sedna.

❑ Sedna has an
orbital period of
11,400 years!!

❑ Sedna goes far

beyond the
Kuiper belt, to
the Oort cloud.

❑ Sedna was
discovered in
2003. It has a
diameter of
1000km
 Meteorites
❑ When asteroids collide with one another, they can produce small fragments known as
meteoroids. If a meteoroid should happen to enter Earth’s atmosphere, the heat
generated by friction results in a glowing streak across the sky, referred to as a meteor.

❑ If the rock survives the trip through the atmosphere and strikes the surface, the remnant
is known as a meteorite. By analyzing the composition of meteorites, we can learn a
great deal about the environment in which they originated.

❑ Another source of meteoroids is the slow disintegration of comets exposed to the heat of
the inner Solar System. When Earth encounters the debris left in a comet’s orbit, the
result is a meteor shower of micro meteorites raining down through the planet’s
atmosphere

❑ The most probable cause of Dinosaur extinction is an asteroid impact on earth 65 million
years ago at the cost of Mexico. The asteroid must have had a diameter of 10km.
 Meteorites

Perseids
meteor shower
is one of the
most visible,
which peak on
12 August of
each year at
over one
meteor per
minute.

https://www.yo
utube.com/wat
ch?v=UDfD58
MDUyY
❑ Perseids meteor shower is seen when earth enters the orbit of comet Swift-Tutlle filled with micro
meteorites
❑ Meteor Crater or Barringer Crater is a
meteorite impact crater in Arizona, USA. The
crater is 1.2 km in diameter. The crater was
created about 50,000 years ago. The
meteorite was made of nickel and iron of
50-meter diameter.
 Solar system formation
❑ The formation of the Solar System began about 4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational
collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in
the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a protoplanetary disk out of which
the planets, moons, asteroids, and other small Solar System bodies formed.

❑ From the protoplanetary disk, planets were formed through accretion, in which the planets
began as dust grains in orbit around the central protostar. These grains formed into clumps
up to 200m in diameter, which in turn collided to form larger bodies called planetesimals
of ~10 km in size. These gradually increased through further collisions, growing at the rate
of centimeters per year over the course of the next few million years.

❑ The inner Solar System, the region of the Solar System inside 4 AU, was too warm for
volatile molecules like water and methane to condense, so the planetesimals that formed
there could only form from compounds with high melting points, such as metals (like iron,
nickel, and aluminium) and rocky silicates. These rocky bodies would become the terrestrial
planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars).
❑ Since the nonvolatile compounds are quite rare in the Universe, comprising only 0.6% of
the mass of the nebula, so the terrestrial planets could not grow very large

❑ The giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed further out, beyond the
frost line, which is the point between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where the material is
cool enough for volatile icy compounds to remain solid. The ices that formed the Jovian
planets were more abundant than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial
planets, allowing the giant planets to grow massive enough to capture hydrogen and
helium, the lightest and most abundant elements.

❑ Uranus and Neptune are thought to have formed after Jupiter and Saturn did, when the
strong solar wind had blown away much of the disc material.

❑ After between three and ten million years, the young Sun's solar wind would have
cleared away all the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disc, blowing it into interstellar
space, thus ending the growth of the planets
❑ At the end of the planetary formation phase, the inner Solar
System was populated by 50–100 Moon to Mars-sized
protoplanets. Further growth was possible only because
these bodies collided and merged, which took less than 100
million years. These objects would have gravitationally
interacted with one another, tugging at each other's orbits
until they collided, growing larger until the four terrestrial
planets we know today took shape.

❑ The asteroid belt initially contained more than enough

matter to form 2–3 Earth-like planets, and initially formed
20–30 Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos. however,
the gravity of Jupiter made the the orbit of these bodies very
unstable and they were thrown into different part of the
solar system. Only 1% of earth’s mass is now left in the
asteroid belt.

❑ The impact of asteroids on earth during this phase probably

supplied most of the water on planet earth.
❑ Jupiter and Saturn have several large moons, such as Io, Europa, Ganymede and
Titan, which may have originated from discs around each giant planet in much the
same way that the planets formed from the disc around the Sun.

❑ The outer moons of the giant planets tend to be small and have eccentric orbits with
arbitrary inclinations. These are the characteristics expected of captured bodies. Most
such moons orbit in the direction opposite to the rotation of their primary. The largest
irregular moon is Neptune's moon Triton, which is thought to be a captured Kuiper
belt object.

❑ Moons of solid Solar System bodies have been created by both collisions and capture.
Mars's two small moons, Deimos and Phobos, are thought to be captured asteroids.
The Earth's Moon is thought to have formed as a result of a single, large head-on
collision. The impacting object probably had a mass comparable to that of Mars.
(Giant impact hypothesis). The collision kicked into orbit some of the impactor's
mantle, which then coalesced into the Moon. The impact was probably the last in a
series of mergers that formed the Earth.
❑ Collision of object called Theia with earth forming the Moon
 Atmosphere of Planets
❑ The evolution of a planetary atmosphere is a complex process that depends on the local
temperature of the solar nebula during the time of the planet’s formation, together with
the planet’s temperature, gravity, and local chemistry following the formation process. In
the case of the terrestrial planets, outgassing from rocks and volcanos also played a role
after the development of the initial, primordial atmosphere. On Earth, the development of
life has also contributed significantly to the evolution of its atmosphere. Impacting
comets and meteorites affect planetary atmospheres as well.

❑ Earth is often described as having had three atmospheres. The first atmosphere,
captured from the solar nebula, was composed of light elements from the solar nebula,
mostly hydrogen and helium. A combination of the solar wind and Earth's heat would
have driven off this atmosphere. After the impact which created the Moon, the molten
Earth released volatile gases; and later more gases were released by volcanoes (Also
impacting meteorites), completing a second atmosphere rich in greenhouse gases but
poor in oxygen. Finally, the third atmosphere, rich in oxygen, emerged when bacteria
began to produce oxygen about 2.8 billion year ago.
The terrestrial Planets
 Mercury
❑ Atmosphere - Very thin atmosphere

❑ Size – Slightly larger than Earth’s Moon

❑ Satellites - None

❑ Gravity – 37% g

❑ 1 mercury year – 88 days (Fastest planet going

around the Sun)

❑ 1 mercury day – 176 days

❑ Temperature – 400˚C (day) and -180˚C (night)

❑ Image of Mercury taken by the MESSENGER

spacecraft while orbiting the planet in 2011.
❑ The first spacecraft to visit Mercury is
NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974.

❑ Pictures returned by Mariner 10 revealed

a planet that bears a strong superficial
resemblance to the Moon Mercury is a
world that is heavily cratered, indicating
that it underwent extensive
bombardment during its nearly 4.6-
billion-year history.

❑ MESSENGER) mission flew by Mercury

three times in 2008-2009 and orbited the
planet from 2011 to 2015, mapping the
entire surface.
❑ Mercury's axis has the smallest tilt of
any of the Solar System's planets, about
1⁄30 of a degree

❑ At Mercury's poles there are large

reservoirs of water ices that are never
exposed to direct sunlight

❑ Since both Mercury and Venus orbits the

Sun within Earth's orbit, making it
appear in Earth's sky only as a "morning
star" or "evening star" that is relatively
close to the Sun.

❑ Mercury has a weak magnetic filed

 Orbital Velocity and Period of a Planet

❑ Derive an equation for orbital speed a planet around the Sun using Newton's law of
Gravity, (assuming a circular orbit and sun is not moving).
❑ Derive an equation for orbital speed a planet around the Sun using Newton's law of
Gravity, (assuming a circular orbit and sun is not moving).

For a circular orbit, centripetal force for a planet to remain in an orbit is is given by the
gravitational force,

𝑚𝑣 2 𝐺𝑀𝑚
=
𝑅 𝑅2

𝐺𝑀
➔ 𝑣=
𝑅

Where M is the mass of the Sun and R is the radius of the orbit.
❑ Derive an equation for orbital period of a planet around the Sun using Newton's law
of Gravity, (assuming a circular orbit and sun is not moving).

For a circular orbit, centripetal force for a planet to remain in an orbit is is given by the
gravitational force,
𝑚𝑣 2 𝐺𝑀𝑚
=
𝑅 𝑅2
2
𝐺𝑀
𝑉 =
𝑅
2𝜋𝑟
Since velocity is distance/time, 𝑣=
𝑇

4𝜋2 𝑅 2 𝐺𝑀
➔ =
𝑇2 𝑅

𝑅3
➔ 𝑇 = 2𝜋
𝐺𝑀
❑ Calculate the orbital speed and orbital
time period of mercury around the Sun
using Newton's law of Gravity,
(assuming a circular orbit). The radius of
the orbit (semi major axis) is 58 million
km. Given Mass of Sun = 2 x 1030 Km
❑ Calculate the orbital speed and
orbital time period of mercury around
the Sun using Newton's law of
Gravity, (assuming a circular orbit).
The radius of the orbit (semi major
axis) is 58 million km. Given Mass of
Sun = 2 x 1030 Km

𝐺𝑀
𝑣=
𝑅

6.67 × 10−11 × 2 × 1030

𝑣= = 48 𝑘𝑚/𝑠
58 × 106 × 103
❑ Calculate the orbital speed and orbital time period of mercury around the Sun using
Newton's law of Gravity, (assuming a circular orbit). The radius of the orbit (semi
major axis) is 58 million km. Given Mass of Sun = 2 x 1030 Km

𝑅3
𝑇 = 2𝜋
𝐺𝑀

(58 × 109 )3
𝑇 = 2𝜋
6.67 × 10−11 × 2 × 1030

= 7598781.28 seconds = 88 days

 Venus

❑ Atmosphere - Weighting 92 times that of

earth

❑ Pressure on the surface – 100 times that of

earth ( Equivalent pressure 1km beneath
ocean)

❑ Satellites – None

❑ Gravity – 90% g (Very similar Mass and

Radius)

❑ 1 Venusian year – 225 days

❑ Image of Venus taken by

❑ 1 Venusian day – 116 days
Mariner-10 spacecraft in 1974
❑ Atmosphere - 96% CO2, 3% Nitrogen. Also
contains Sulfuric acid in its clouds

❑ Temperature on the surface – Greenhouse effect

produces an average 400 degree Celsius at the
surface (Hottest planet in the solar system)

❑ Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of

most planets ( retrograde motion) in the solar
system: Atmosphere drag and tidal forces from
Sun and other planets is thought to be the reason
for changing prograde motion of Venus to
retrograde motion.

❑ Because of the slow spin, Venus has no magnetic

field (no dynamo mechanism in the core )
Processed ultraviolet images showing
❑ Because of the thick atmosphere reflecting
the clouds on Venus, taken by
sunlight, Venus is the brightest planet in the night Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki in 2018
sky
❑ How could Earth’s sister planet have developed
an atmosphere so different from our own?

❑ The formation of terrestrial atmospheres is still

not well understood and is an area of active
research. However, based on the direct evidence
we have of outgassing from Earth’s volcanoes
and the discovery of volcanoes on both Venus
and Mars, it seems likely that at least a portion of
a terrestrial planet’s atmosphere may arise from
volcanic activity. It has also been suggested that
significant fractions of the atmospheres of these
planets may have been delivered by comets and
meteorites. Processed ultraviolet images showing
the clouds on Venus, taken by
Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki in 2018
❑ Carbon dioxide is the dominant Constituent on Venus today, and very little water is
present. Conversely, water is abundant in Earth’s oceans, but there is very little
atmospheric carbon dioxide. What happened to change the relative abundances of those
molecules on the two planets?

❑ Most probably both planets began with similar compositions, since they formed near one
another and have comparable sizes. So, water was probably much more abundant on
Venus in the past. Since the luminosity of the zero-age main sequence Sun was only
about 0.677 solar luminosity today, Venus may have had hot water oceans on its surface
early in its history. As the Sun’s luminosity increased the surface temperature began to
rise, and the oceans started to evaporate. The addition of more infrared-absorbing water
vapor in the atmosphere triggered a runaway greenhouse effect, causing the surface
temperature to climb to near 1800 K, hot enough to vaporize the remainder of the water
and even melt rock. At the same time, the atmospheric pressure at the surface reached
300 atm. Since H2O is lighter than CO2, the water migrated to the top of the atmosphere
where it was dissociated by solar ultraviolet radiation through the reaction H2O + γ → H
+ OH. This UV photodissociation process liberated the lighter hydrogen atoms, allowing
most of them to escape from the planet. Since the carbon dioxide remained, it became the
dominant species in the atmosphere of Venus.
❑ Because of the thick atmosphere, it is
very hard to study the surface of Venus.

❑ The surface was mapped using radar

by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in
1990–91. The ground shows evidence
of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in
the atmosphere may indicate that there
have been recent volcanic eruptions.

❑ Visualization from the radar data of

NASA’s Magellan spacecraft is shown
in the picture.

❑ There are a number of volcanic

mountains on the surface, but the
surface is relatively flat.
❑ First view of Venus' surface .The first clear panoramic image taken by Venera 9 lander,
send by soviet Union. This image was sent back in the lander's 53 minute lifetime October
22, 1975.
❑ The Soviet Union's Venera 14 probe captured two color panoramas of Venus's surface in
1982. This panorama came from the front camera
 Earth

❑ Earth’s rotational speed – 1675 km/h

❑ Earth’s orbital speed – 1 lakh km/h

❑ ( Photo Taken by deep space

climate observatory, 15 lakh
kilometers away
❑ Beginning early in its history, the bulk of Earth’s water condensed to form its oceans.
Unlike Venus, however, given Earth’s slightly greater distance from the Sun, our planet
never got hot enough to turn much of the liquid to vapor . Therefore, the runaway
greenhouse effect never developed. Instead, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was
dissolved into water, where it became chemically bound up in carbonate rocks such as
limestone.

❑ If all of the carbon dioxide trapped within rock today were released into Earth’s
atmosphere, the amount would be comparable to that currently contained in the
atmosphere of Venus.

❑ The atmosphere owes its current composition in part to the development of life on the
planet. For instance, plants process carbon dioxide into oxygen as a by-product of
photosynthesis.
Volcanic activities ( Hawaii – 2 million years old)
 Moon

Atmosphere - None
Gravity – 16% g
Near side- 300,000 craters wider
than 1 km
 Moon

These images were taken between

3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on 16
July 2015. The series of images
shows the fully illuminated “dark
side” of the moon that is never
visible from Earth. Taken by deep
space climate observatory.
❑ Because of its low surface gravity, the Moon has
been unable to retain a significant atmosphere.
Without a protective atmosphere, the Moon has
suffered impacts by meteorites throughout its
history. Along with a large number of smaller
impacts, a significant number of very large
collisions occurred approximately 700 million
years after the Moon formed. These impacts were
powerful enough to penetrate its thin crust,
allowing molten rock in the interior to flow across
the surface. The result was the formation of the
many smooth, roughly circular maria (or “seas”)
that can be seen on the surface of the Moon facing
Earth. It is the distribution of these maria that has
led humans to imagine seeing the face of the
“man in the Moon.”
❑ Photo of the far side of moon taken by
Apollo 11 Astronauts. The biggest
crater is 80km in diameter
❑ Apollo Landing sites
❑ Water ice on poles
of Moon detected by
India’s Chandrayaan-
1 orbiter . Since
there is no
atmosphere, no liquid
can be there on the
surface. Liquid Water
boils off even at low
temperature.

❑ https://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=glLP
MXq6yc0&t=331s
❑ Neil Armstrong
and Edwin Aldrin
returning from the
surface of the
Moon in the lunar
module to the
command module
which was orbiting
the Moon with
Michael Collins in it
❑ Gravity of the
Moon is only 1/6 th
of that of earth
❑ Apollo 11 landing site 40
years later
Photographed by NASA’s
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,
24km above the surface of
moon.

❑ LRRR – Lunar Laser Ranging

Experiment
❑ Lunar nearside
with major maria
and craters
labelled
 Mars
❑ Atmosphere - Very thin Atmosphere

❑ Atmospheric Pressure – Less than 1% of

earth

❑ Atmospheric composition - 96% CO2 +

2% N2 + traces of oxygen and water

❑ Satellites - Phobos and Deimos

❑ Gravity – 37% g

❑ 1 mars year – 686 days

❑ Photo of Mars taken by the
NASA’s Rosetta spacecraft during
❑ 1 mars day – 24 hours and 39 minutes
its February 2007 flyby of the
planet.
❑ Red planet – Presence of iron oxide on the
surface

❑ There has been numerous missions to the

Mars over the years (Both orbiter and
Lander missions)

❑ Photo of Mars taken by the

NASA’s Rosetta spacecraft during
its February 2007 flyby of the
planet.
❑ Despite the many studies of Mars from Earth, from Mars orbit, and from its surface,
no sign of life has been found on the planet. At first inspection, the images returned
by different missions give an impression of a dry, dusty world. However, on closer
inspection of data returned by Mars rovers, along with information from the orbiters,
research has revealed a fascinating world that, although dry today, once clearly had
water flowing across its surface. Apparent in images of the surface from the Mars
Orbiter are channels that are characteristic of water erosion found on Earth. There is
also evidence that huge flash floods may have occurred on the surface of the planet.
With present-day surface temperatures varying between −140◦C and 20◦C,
combined with the very low atmospheric pressure found near the surface it appears
that the water is now present only in polar ice caps in the form of ice. In fact, it is the
low atmospheric pressure that makes the existence of persistent water in liquid form
impossible on the surface today.
A huge dried-up delta on
the surface of Mars
photographed by the Mars
Global Surveyor in 2005.
This delta was formed
millions of years ago by the
flow of a liquid, most likely
water. Various Mars rovers
have also found evidence
of ancient water-lakes on
the Martian surface!
Water-ice on Mars' north
pole, photographed by the
the Mars Global Surveyor
in 1999 while in orbit
around the planet
Nasa’s Curiosity
Rover on Mars
( Selfie)
Photo of the
surface of Mars!
Taken by the Mars
rover Curiosity.
Curiosity rover collecting a scoop of soil to
analyze.
Photo of the
surface of Mars!
Taken by the Mars
rover Curiosity in
2015..
A large volcanic
mountain called
Olympus Mons on the
surface of Mars
photographed in 1978
by the Viking-1
spacecraft while in orbit
around Mars. Its height
is 22 kilometers, more
than twice that of Mount
Everest, making it the
tallest mountain known
in the solar system.
Valles Marineris is a
system of canyons that
runs along the Martian
surface . At more than
4,000 km long, 200 km
wide and up to 7 km
deep, Valles Marineris is
the largest canyon of the
Solar System. The origin
of the Valles Marineris
remains unknown,
although a leading
hypothesis holds that it
started as a crack billions
of years ago as the
planet cooled
An evening star in
the Martian sky
An evening star in
the Martian sky
❑ Mars had a magnetic field just like earth when it was formed and had much thicker
atmosphere with water on its surface. Because of the green house effect from the
thicker atmosphere, the planet was much warmer than today.

❑ But Mars lost its magnetic field Billons of years ago. Most probably the core of the
planet cooled down faster because of the small size of the planet, but exact
mechanism is not yet understood.

❑ Without the protection from magnetic field, the solar wind (charged particle from the
Sun) slowly removed the Martian atmosphere. Most of the Atmosphere is lost into
space.

❑ As the atmospheric pressure is decreased at the surface, the liquid water completely
evaporated into space.

❑ Because of the thin Atmosphere, there is very less green house effect, and the planet
is much colder now.
❑ Even though the atmospheric density is
quite low near the surface, it is
sufficient to produce huge dust storms
that sometimes cover the entire surface
of Mars.

❑ The dust on the surface appears

reddish in color and contains a
relatively high abundance of iron, which
oxidizes (rusts) when exposed to the
atmosphere. Iron oxide is red in color

❑ Apparently, all of the iron did not sink

into the core when the planet was
molten, possibly because the smaller,
more distant planet cooled more rapidly
following its formation. Dust storm seen by the curiosity
rover
❑ The two moons of Mars are Phobos and Deimos. They are irregular in shape.

❑ Compared to the Earth's Moon, the moons Phobos and Deimos are very small.
Phobos has a diameter of 22.2 km while Deimos measures 12.6 km .

Phobos Deimos
❑ Phobos in the Martian sky
The Giant Planets
 The Giant Planets
❑ Naked-eye observations of Jupiter and Saturn began when human beings first
started gazing up at the sky. But it was in 1610 that Galileo became the first person
to look at these planets through a telescope. In so doing, he detected the four large
moons of Jupiter, now collectively known as the Galilean moons. Galileo also saw
Saturn’s rings, but because of his telescope’s low resolution, he thought that the
rings were two large satellites situated on either side of the planet.

❑ Uranus was discovered in 1781 and Neptune was discovered in 1846

❑ The first missions to giant planets were NASA’s Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 flybys
of Jupiter (1973, 1974) and the Pioneer 11 flyby of Saturn (1979). Later, Voyager 1
and Voyager 2 embarked on their spectacularly successful “Grand Tour” missions.
Both Voyagers, launched from Earth in 1977, visited Jupiter (1979) and Saturn
(1980, 1981), and Voyager 2 continued to Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989).
❑ An extended and detailed investigation of the Jupiter system began in 1995 when
the Galileo spacecraft (launched in 1989) entered into orbit around Jupiter. In
addition to observing the planet carefully, Galileo completed numerous flybys of
the Galilean moons during the eight years it spent in the Jovian system. As a part of
the mission, a probe descended into the planet’s atmosphere by parachute,
sampling the atmosphere’s composition and physical conditions.

❑ The Cassini–Huygens mission, launched in 1997, entered the Saturnian system in

Jul 2004. Cassini is an orbiter and Huygens is a lander. Cassini orbited Saturn for
13 years studying Saturn and its planets. Cassini exhausted its fuel supply. And to
protect moons of Saturn that could have conditions suitable for life, Cassini was
sent on to Saturn’s Atmosphere diving between the icy rings, Cassini plunged into
Saturn’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017, returning science data to the very end.
Huygens landed on Saturn’s Moon Titan on January 14, 2005. Huygens send data
for 90 minutes after landing on the surface.

❑ Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter’s orbit in 2016 and it is still orbiting and studying
Jupiter
 Jupiter

❑ Atmospheric composition - 75% Hydrogen +

24%Helium + Methane, Ammonia, water, etc.

❑ Temperature - -110oC

❑ Satellites - At least 95

❑ Mass – 2.5 times that of all the other planets

combined (318 times that of earth)

❑ 1 Jupiter year – 11.8 years

❑ 1 Jupiter day – 9 hours and 55 minutes

❑ Photo of Jupiter taken by Hubble
space telescope
❑ Jupiter consist of a dense core, a surrounding
layer of liquid metallic hydrogen (with some
helium) extending outward to about 80% of the
radius of the planet, and an outer atmosphere
consisting primarily of molecular hydrogen.

❑ The atmosphere of Jupiter extends to a depth of

3,000 km below the cloud layers

❑ Jupiter is covered with clouds of ammonia

crystals with a depth of 50km, forming bands at
different latitudes, known as tropical regions.
The interactions of these conflicting circulation
patterns cause storms and turbulence.

❑ The orange and brown colours in the clouds of

Jupiter are caused by compounds that change
colour when they are exposed to ultraviolet light
from the Sun.
❑ Time-lapse sequence of Jupiter
approach by Voyager 1 in 1979,
showing the motion of the
atmospheric bands, recorded over
32 days.

❑ A well-known feature of Jupiter is

the Great Red Spot, a persistent
cyclonic storm. The Great Red Spot
is larger than the Earth.
❑ Jupiter's magnetic field is the
strongest of any planet in the Solar
System, with a dipole moment of
4.170 gauss (20 times stronger than
earths)

❑ The source is the dynamo mechanism

in the metallic hydrogen core

❑ The magnetic field creates Aurorae in

its poles
❑ Jupiter has a faint
ring system made
of dust, whereas
Saturn's rings are
made of ice.

❑ James Webb telescope image in

infrared showing the faint ring of
Jupiter
 Moons of Jupiter

Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

❑ Four of the biggest moons of Jupiter orbiting Jupiter, recorded by the Juno
spacecraft from 10 million miles away as it approached Jupiter in 2016
 Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

❑ Io is the closest of the four large Galilean moons to Jupiter. It is a bizarre-looking

yellowish-orange world with as many as nine active volcanoes observed to be erupting
simultaneously.
❑ Europa is covered with a thin layer of water-ice that is crisscrossed by cracks and nearly
devoid of any cratering.
❑ Ganymede has a thick ice surface that shows evidence of significant cratering.
❑ And finally, Callisto appears to be covered with a layer of dust and has an old and very
thick ice crust that has been subjected to extensive bombardment
 Io
❑ With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active
object in the Solar System. This extreme geologic activity is the
result of tidal heating from friction generated within Io's interior as
it is pulled between Jupiter and the other Galilean moons—Europa,
Ganymede and Callisto.

❑ Several volcanoes produce plumes of sulfur and sulfur dioxide that

climb as high as 500 km (300 mi) above the surface. There is a thin
atmosphere of sulfur dioxide.

❑ Most of Io's surface is composed of extensive plains with a frosty

coating of sulfur (yellow and yellow-green) and sulfur dioxide
(white and grey).

❑ There is no evidence of water on the surface, this lack of water is

likely due to Jupiter being hot enough early in the evolution of the
Solar System to drive off volatile materials like water in the vicinity
of Io.
 Europa
❑ Europa’s has a water ice surface 15 to 25 kilometers thick,
floating on an ocean 60 to 150 kilometers deep. Its ocean may
contain twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean. Europa’s
ocean is considered one of the most promising places in the
solar system to look for life beyond Earth. Heat from tidal force
allows the subsurface ocean to remain liquid. Europa also has a
thin atmosphere primarily made of oxygen.

❑ Europa's most striking surface features are a series of dark

streaks crisscrossing the entire globe, called lineae (English:
lines). These are thought to be cracks on the ice crust caused by
tidal forces of Jupiter. There are plumes observed on the surface, Image taken by
thought to be water plumes coming from the cracks. NASA's Galileo
spacecraft
❑ Europa is the smoothest known object in the Solar System,
lacking large-scale features such as mountains and craters. The
water plumes most probably covered the craters.
 Ganymede
❑ Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, even
bigger than the planet Mercury. Like Io, Ganymede also has a
water ice surface and an ocean layer underneath, that might
be holding more water than all the Water on earth.

❑ Ganymede is the only moon known to have its own

magnetic field. There is evidence that Ganymede has a thin
oxygen atmosphere

❑ Unlike Europa's surface, Ganymede’s surface shows signs

of varying age. The darker regions are heavily cratered,
suggesting they are billions of years old. The lighter regions
show no signs of craters, and it is thought that eruptions of
water covered the surface before freezing over. These areas Image taken by
are geologically younger than the darker regions. Juno spacecraft
 Callisto
❑ Callisto is Jupiter’s second largest moon. Its surface is the
most heavily cratered of any object in our solar system.

❑ Callisto has a much thicker and hard ice surface

compared to Ganymede (80-150 km thick) and there is
probably water underneath the ice. Because of the
thicker ice, there are no plumes, and the billions of years
old craters are still there.

❑ Callisto apparently cooled and solidified quite rapidly

after material accreted out of the disk around Jupiter. As
a result, its surface continued to collect dust as the disk
thinned, blanketing the moon with the dark material.
The whitish appearing impact craters are the result of Image taken by Voyager-2
spacecraft
ice being exposed during the collisions
 Saturn

❑ Atmospheric composition - 75% Hydrogen

+ 24%Helium + Methane, Ammonia, water,
etc.

❑ Temperature - -178oC

❑ Satellites - At least 146

❑ Mass – 95 times that of earth

❑ 1 Saturnian year – 29.4 years ❑ Photo of Saturn taken by Cassini

Spacecraft. Titan is seen in the left
❑ 1 Saturnian day –10 hours and 32 minutes corner
❑ Saturn's interior is thought to be composed of a rocky core, surrounded by a deep layer
of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and
finally, a gaseous outer layer.

❑ Saturn has a pale-yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An
electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's
planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth’s.

❑ The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived
features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 kilometers per hour
❑ The rings of Saturn are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar
System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to
meters, that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water
ice, with a trace component of rocky material.

❑ Based on observations made from Earth, several distinct rings have long been known to
exist, labeled (from the outside in) A, B, and C. Between the prominent A and B rings,
the Cassini division was thought of virtually devoid of ring material. Another empty
region, called the Encke gap, was observed within the A ring. After the planet was
visited by the Voyager spacecraft, other rings were discovered. It also revealed
previously unexpected complexity in the system. Instead of large, almost continuous
rings, thousands of ringlets were discovered; even the Cassini division has a number of
rings lying in it, although the number density of the particles is much lower than in the
neighboring regions. Rings D, E, F, and G are fainter and more recently discovered.

captured by the
James Webb Space
Telescope’s infrared
camera instrument on
❑ Saturn's ring system extends up to 282,000 kilometers from the planet, yet the vertical
height is typically about 10 meters in the main rings.

❑ According to new research, Saturn's rings could have evolved from the debris of two icy
moons that collided and shattered a few hundred million years ago.

Photo taken by
Cassini spacecrafton
 Saturn’s Moons
❑ There are 146 Moons ranges in different sizes, from few meters in diameter to Titan,
which is bigger than Mercury.

❑ Only 7 Moons are big enough to be gravitationally rounded. Titan, was discovered in
1655 by Christiaan Huygens. Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus were discovered
between 1671 and 1684 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Mimas and Enceladus were
discovered in 1789 by William Herschel
 Titan
❑ Titan is the second largest Moon in the solar system. It is the
only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and is the only
known object in space other than Earth on which clear evidence
of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.

❑ Titan's atmospheric composition is nitrogen (97%), methane

(2%) and trace amounts of other gases.

❑ At the base of the atmosphere, the pressure is approximately

1.5 atm and the temperature is -180oC. With those conditions,
methane can condense as a liquid and then evaporate again,
and thus it plays a role much like that of water on Earth. At the
Huygens landing site, the ground was moist, with liquid
methane occurring a few centimeters below the surface. It is
possible that it had rained methane at that location shortly
Surface of Titan taken
before the arrival of Huygens.
by Huygens lander
❑ Titan has clouds, rain, rivers,
lakes and seas of liquid
hydrocarbons like methane and
ethane. The largest seas are
hundreds of meter deep and
hundreds of kilometers wide.
Beneath Titan’s thick crust of
water ice is more liquid—an
ocean primarily of water. The
surface lakes and seas of liquid
hydrocarbons could
conceivably harbor life that ❑ Infrared data collected by
uses different chemistry than NASA's Cassini spacecraft,
we’re used to. Titan could also reveals hydrocarbon lakes at
be a lifeless world. Titan
 Enceladus
❑ Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th
largest in the Solar System). It is about 500
kilometers in diameter. It is mostly covered by fresh,
clean ice, making it one of the most reflective bodies
of the Solar System. There is an ocean of liquid water
underneath the ice layer.

❑ In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered that

icy water particles and gas gush from the moon’s
surface. The eruptions appear to be continuous,
generating an enormous halo of fine ice dust around
Enceladus, which supplies material to Saturn's E-
ring. Only a small fraction of the material ends up in
the ring, most of it falling like snow back to the
moon’s surface, helping keep Enceladus bright white. Cassini image of Enceladus
❑ The water jets are mixed with carbon dioxide, methane, perhaps a little ammonia along
with salts and silica. Cassini performed chemical analysis of Enceladus's plumes, finding
evidence for hydrothermal activity (volcanic activity under the ocean), possibly driving
complex chemistry

❑ With liquid ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Enceladus has become a promising
lead in our search for worlds where life could exist.

Cassini image of Plumes from Enceladus

 Uranus

❑ Atmospheric composition - 83 % Hydrogen

+ 15% Helium + 2% Methane + Ammonia,
water, etc.

❑ Temperature - -197oC

❑ Satellites - At least 27

❑ Mass – 14.5 times that of earth

❑ 1 Uranus year – 84 years

❑ Image of the planet Uranus

❑ 1 Uranus day –17 hours and 14 minutes
taken by the spacecraft
Voyager 2 in 1986
❑ Uranus consists of three layers: a rocky
(silicate/iron–nickel) core in the center, an
icy mantle in the middle and an outer
gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope

❑ The bulk compositions of Uranus and

Neptune are different from those of
Jupiter and Saturn, with ice dominating
over gases, hence justifying their separate
classification as ice giants.
❑ Uranus spins at 97-degree angle from the plane of
its orbit. This possibly because of the result of a
collision with an Earth-sized object long ago

❑ Uranus is blue-green in color due to large amounts of

methane, which absorbs red light but allows blues to
be reflected into space.

❑ Uranus has a magnetic field

❑ Uranus also has a thin ring around it

❑ James Webb telescope’s
Infrared image of Uranus
with its rings and Moons
around them.
 Neptune

❑ Atmospheric composition - 80 % Hydrogen

+ 18% Helium + 2% Methane + Ammonia,
water, etc.

❑ Temperature - -218 oC

❑ Satellites - At least 14

❑ Mass – 17 times that of earth

❑ 1 Neptune year – 165 years

❑ Image of the planet Uranus

❑ 1 Neptune day –16 hours and 6 minutes
taken by the spacecraft
Voyager 2 in 1989
❑ Neptune consists of three layers: a rocky (silicate/iron–nickel) core in the center, an icy
mantle in the middle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope

❑ The bulk compositions of Uranus and Neptune are different from those of Jupiter and
Saturn, with ice dominating over gases, hence justifying their separate classification as
ice giants.
❑ Neptune has a magnetic field Similar to Uranus

❑ Neptune also has a thin ring system around it

❑ Voyagur-2
image of
the ring
system of
Neptune
 Neptune’s Moons

❑ Neptune has 14 known moons. Triton is the largest

Neptunian moon, comprising more than 99.5% of
the mass in orbit around Neptune, and it is the only
one massive enough to be rounded by gravity.

❑ Triton has a diameter of 2700 km and the next

largest moon Proteus has a diameter of only 420
km.
 Triton
❑ Triton’s orbit is retrograde (opposite) to Neptune's rotation and
inclined relative to Neptune's equator, which suggests that it
did not form in orbit around Neptune but was instead
gravitationally captured by it.

❑ Triton was probably once a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt

❑ Image of Triton taken

by Voyager-2 in 1989
Triton’s orbit
compared to the
orbit of other
Moons of Neptune
❑ James Webb telescope’s
Infrared image of Neptune
with its rings and Moons
around them.
THANKS!

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