Robert Navarro, Blog Post 05 FUN FACTS ON PLUTO

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Robert Navarro

Pluto’s as a planet is very intriguing. Despite being located far from the Sun; Pluto has seasonal changes due to its tilted axis (just like earth!) and highly elliptical orbit. When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the frozen nitrogen, and methane on its surface can temporarily sublimate, creating a thin atmosphere. This atmosphere can lead to the formation of haze and clouds, which is a reason on why Pluto appears reddish. However, as Pluto moves farther from the Sun, its gases refreeze, and the atmosphere collapses back to a thin layer of frost on the surface. The surface of Pluto is diverse as it has plains, mountains of water ice, and regions covered in tholins (uv light hitting carbon), which is a mixture of complex organic compounds that give the surface its reddish appearance. The most famous feature on Pluto is the heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio, a plain named after the discoverer of Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh. This region is a very new surface feature, that was most likely formed by the convection of nitrogen ice. Pluto’s terrain and weather is very dynamic, despite its small size and large distance from the Sun, it remains to have unknowns that interest lots of Physicists today.

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Hubble and the TRAPPIST-1 System

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Angela Harris

An artist’s illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system 

One thing from this unit I found interesting was learning about extrasolar planets. The Hubble Space Telescope was the first to detect an exoplanet’s atmospheric conditions and collect data about its makeup. In 2000, Hubble was used to study the exoplanet 209458 b which was the first extrasolar planet that was known to make transits across its host star.

One notable discovery by Hubble is the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system which contains seven Earth-sized planets. All seven of the planets orbit closer to the host star than Mercury orbits our Sun! The planets are also orbiting very close to each other. This means that if you are standing on any given planet, it is possible that you could see clouds or geological features on the neighboring planets! 

The TRAPPIST-1 system compared to our solar system

Since the TRAPPIST-1 star is an ultra-cool dwarf, it is possible that liquid water could survive on some of the planets. Planets e, f, and g are in the habitable zone, which is where temperatures are optimal for liquid water to exist on the worlds’ surfaces.

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Geological Activity Far out in the Solar System

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Tejas Mahesh

Based upon the formation and evolution of the rocky terrestrial planets, size of the planet results in whether the planet is geologically active or dead. However, the moons of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are smaller in size than Earth, yet are geologically active. How come?

Comparing the moons to the rocky planets. Credits: Interesting Engineering

It turns out that the magma volcanic activity of the rocky planets can be replaced with liquid volcanic activity of water and ice. For example, Europa, despite being smaller than the Moon (hence, should not be geologically active) happens to be less cratered than the Moon. So, its surface is younger than the Moon which means that the surface must be continually repaved. We know that Europa is an icy moon. So, Europa must have an ocean of water underneath the surface layer of ice. So, whenever the surface layer of ice breaks off, the ocean underneath replaces that surface, somewhat analogously to how our injured skin might be replaced or “healed” by the skin underneath it. How does Europa have a liquid ocean? Well, due to tidal heating, Europa’s inner ocean is liquid. Furthermore, we know that Europa’s ocean is salty because Europa has a magnetosphere! Recall that a magnetic field can be created by accelerating charged particles. The rotation of the Europa rotates the salty ocean, containing positive charged sodium and negative charged chlorine ions. Hence, the acceleration of the charged particles leads to the creation of a magnetic field.

The big characteristics of Europa are similar to the big characteristics of Earth! The lack of craters, liquid stuff, and the existence of a magnetosphere are similar characteristics between Europa and Earth. Despite the drastically different composition of Europa from Earth, Europa and Earth have some similar structures that help govern how the moon operates. The rotating, liquid stuff (molten lava in Earth and salty ocean in Europa) helps create a magnetosphere.

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A Messenger From Afar

Posted on April 7, 2024 by John Newell

 ‘Oumuamua, our first confirmed Extrasolar Object

On October 19th, 2017, a telescope at the University of Hawaii, called Pan-STARRS1 detected an object unlike any before observed in our Solar System. It was highly elongated (by a ratio of at least 10:1), completely inert (no dust floating around or behind), and composed of rock and possibly metal. Based on this makeup, and the fact that it was not observed to have any water or ice, the initial appearance was that of an asteroid. However, its trajectory and varying speed was more akin to a comet. Eventually it was determined that, in fact, the object Pan-STARRS1 was observing was not from our Solar System at all. It would come to be named ‘Oumuamua, meaning “A messenger from afar arriving first,” in Hawaiian. Prior to encountering our Star system, ‘Oumuamua was roaming the Milky Way, not in the orbit of any star for some time. We are still unsure of its precise origins – and it will be difficult to pin down, as ‘Oumuamua is not in orbit around our Sun, either — it was simply a visitor. With roughly one extrasolar object passing through the inner solar system every year, though, it is only a matter of time before we learn much more about these fascinating visitors.

‘Oumuamua, Getty Images
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Europa

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Jack Abrams
Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Alien life could very well be found in our own Solar System, and Europe is a prime candidate! Being one of Jupiter’s moons, Europe is one of the coolest moons of the giant planets in our solar system. It is about 90% the size of our Moon, with an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles. However, if we replaced Europa with our Moon, it would be much, much brighter as its surface is made of water ice so it reflects 5.5 times the sunlight that our Moon does. 

The surface of Europe is also one of the smoothest in our entire Solar System and has streaks and cracks on its ice which are caused by the large tidal forces from Jupiter. These tidal forces are also what is expected to be responsible for the geothermal heating that allows for Europa’s subsurface ocean to be in a liquid state.

Out of all of the moons and planets in our solar system, Europa has one of the strongest potentials for life due to the subsurface ocean that exists below the moon’s icy shell which also helps protect from radiation. The Hubble Space telescope also observed water vapor plumes coming from Europe, further solidifying this theory.

Future missions to this moon include NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE mission. Specifically, the Europa Clipper is a spacecraft specifically designed to observe Europa thoroughly. This spacecraft will make almost 50 flybys of Europa at closest approach altitudes as low as 16 miles above the surface to scan nearly the entire moon. Its magnetometer will study Europa’s magnetic field, with a goal of confirming that Europa’s subsurface liquid ocean exists, as well as measure its depth and salinity. Hopefully, from this mission, we will gain an even better understanding of this fascinating Moon which could one day lead to the finding of alien life!

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The Lesser Known Moon

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Ayden Harris

Titan is a commonly forgotten about moon in our solar system. It is the second largest moon that orbits Saturn. There are a few interesting things about Titan. Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds found to date. Titan’s atmosphere is comprised of mainly nitrogen (95%) and some methane (5%). However, why it is unique is that there are organic molecules such as carbon and hydrogen in combination with the ice on the surface are similar to what is found Earth and are quintessential for life. Although Titan is too far from the sun right now (and thus too cold), in 6 billion years or so when the sun becomes a red giant the conditions will be amicable to for some forms of life. Only time will tell whether this is true or not, and unfortunately it will not be during our lifetime.

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Blog Post 6 – Hubble Space Telescope

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Thomas Shelton

NASA Science

The Hubble Space Telescope! How cool!

The idea for the telescope first came around in the 1940’s! Nearly 100 years ago, a scientist wrote a paper about the advantages of having a big telescope out in outer space, and they were right! Work on the telescope didn’t then begin until 1974 but the idea had been in place for decades. The telescope officially launched in early 1990 and for the past 30+ years, it has been providing us with great pictures of deep space and numerous insights.

What’s fascinating is how and why the telescope works. The reason telescopes work so well in outer space, hence the reason the aforementioned paper was written, is because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks some wavelengths, and the Hubble Telescope orbits outside of Earth’s atmosphere and can therefore get clearer shots. This coupled with the fact that it can focus without moving 7/1000 of an arcsecond while orbiting Earth at 17,500 makes for some very impressive imaging!

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Blog 6: Asteroid Size

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Charles Knoll

Asteroids, with their varied shapes and sizes, are fascinating objects of the solar system. Their shapes are largely dictated by gravitational forces, with larger asteroids having enough gravity to form into roundish objects. These space rocks are riddled with craters due to many collisions over time. Among them, Ceres stands out as the largest, with a diameter just under 1000 kilometers, about one-fourth that of the Moon. It’s believed that over a million asteroids have diameters exceeding 1 kilometer. To estimate an asteroid’s size, astronomers measure its brightness, which varies based on its size, distance from Earth, and reflectivity. Brightness helps determine size: the brighter the asteroid, the larger it is, assuming equal distance from Earth. This distance is measured by tracking the asteroid’s orbital position, while reflectivity is gauged by comparing the light it reflects from the Sun to its infrared emission, indicating its temperature.

Ceres: Facts

Sources: Ceres (photo)

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The Not so Coolest Exoplanet

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Andres Becerra

Now, I am from Phoenix, Arizona and it gets pretty hot over there. Which is why I think this is the “coolest” exoplanet. 55 Cancri E. Take a look at this beauty.

Artist representation of 55 Cancri E

This is a planet I can get down with. It looks exactly like Mustafar from Star Wars. This planet is extremely hot, reaching up to temperatures of about 3500 degrees Celsius on the daytime side and about 1400 degrees Celsius on the nighttime side. 55 Cancri E is twice the diameter and eight times the mass of Earth. This planet is super close to its star at 0.01544 AU away. This is partially what makes it so hot on this planet. And because it is so close, it also orbits around its star very quickly. It completes one full orbit in 0.7 Earth days, which is about 17 hours. So a year on 55 Cancri E is not even a DAY on Earth! It is tidally locked with another planet in its system so it is constantly getting cooked on one side because it never spins. The entire surface is covered in volcanoes and seas of lava. The planet also has a very unique atmosphere. There are silicates (salts) in the atmosphere and when clouds are formed, the light from the lava is reflected off the silicates causing the sky to sparkle. This planet is awesome and if my body wouldn’t burn up into a crisp the second I got there, I would totally live here.

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Blog 5 – Pluto

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Thomas Shelton 
Johns Hopkins University HUB

As we learned in class/from Dr. Stern’s Pluto talk, we really did not know a whole lot about Pluto until the historic New Horizons flyby in 2015. However, that daring team of scientists allowed us to discover new things about Pluto that people had not even fathomed before. For example, Pluto had been assumed to be a relatively “dead,” or “inactive planet,” but we discovered that Pluto actually has a “heart” of sorts that keeps the planet active. We can tell this through imaging but also through changes we observe on the planets surface. For example, the fact that Pluto’s basin faces Charon, Pluto’s moon is a result of Pluto’s heart, also known as Sputnkik Planitia. Also, Pluto might still be technically active because of the possibility that there is a vast ocean beneath the surface of Pluto, still liquid.

Pluto is not even as big as our Moon. The fascinating part is that Pluto is over 16,000 times farther from Earth than the Moon is, and yet from just one (meticulously calculated) flyby we have learned so much.

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