Composition/ Temperature Gradient and Snow Line
What planets are rich in volatiles?
Gas and ice giants.
What are the names of the four terrestrial planets in our solar system?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
During the formation of gas giants, the solid and gas masses approach the same mass, known as what?
Crossover mass
What are the gravitational forces that prevent accretion of material or break apart moons?
Tidal forces.
What is the name for the stable locations where an object will remain “stationary” with respect to the planet?
Lagrange points.
What is the snow line?
The distance from the central star at which a volatile freezes (typically refers to the snow line for water).
What are the four stages of terrestrial planet formation?
Dust, planetesimals, embryos, and planets.
What is the favoured model to explain planetary formation?
Core accretion.
What describes the radius within which a celestial body can orbit a primary body before being destroyed by tidal forces?
The Roche Limit.
How many Lagrange points are there around Earth?
Five.
What explains the composition gradient in our solar system?
Nebular disk temperature gradient at the time of formation.
What is the name of the process in which planetesimals with larger radii accrete those with smaller radii?
Runaway accretion.
At distances of 5AU from the protosun, what was able to condense out?
Water-ice.
What are the four Galilean moons of Jupiter?
Callisto, Ganymede, Io, Europa
Which Lagrange point is the James Webb Space Telescope located at?
L2
What is a main difference between the planets on either side of the snow line?
The state of hydrogen (in the inner region hydrogen compounds stay vaporized, in the outer region they condense).
Fine-grained matrix calcium-aluminum rich inclusions (CAIs) create what small-sized dust intermediate?
Chondrules.
Uranus and Neptune are better known as what instead of gas giants?
Ice giants.
Describe the orbit of a captured object moon using at least 2 descriptions?
highly eccentric, large orbital radius, irregular moon, high inclination
What is the name for the “gaps” in the asteroid belt, and what is the reason for these gaps?
Kirkwood gaps; resonance.
What is the habitable zone, in relation to the snow line?
It is in the inner region of the snow line, where water can exist in a liquid state.
Heavier elements sink toward the middle of a planet creating the planet’s core, while lighter elements float to the surface. This process is called what?
Differentiation.
Jupiter and Saturn are better known as what instead of gas giants?
Liquid planets.
What process contributes to the addition of solid particles for pebble accretion within a circumplanetary disk?
Ablation/friction.
What is an example of resonance in the solar system, other than in the asteroid belt?
Unstable resonance in Saturn’s rings, stable 2:3 resonance between Pluto and Neptune.