RANDY L. PHELPS
This is the Planetary
Interiors (Background) Module
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Procedure
1. For this module, please look through the
"lecture" notes for "Planetary Interiors - Background".
These notes contain the material, in condensed form, that I will expect you to become
familiar with. I am sure you will have questions about the material, especially
since it is presented in the form of lecture notes. To help you fill in the blanks,
I have added web links that you can follow, in order to gain further insight into the
material.
Upon completing
this assignment, you should be comfortable with the following material:
- Definitions and Concepts: Regions of a planet's
interior (crust, mantle, core). Magnetic regions around planets (magnetosphere,
magnetopause, magnetosheath, bow shock, magnetotail, plasma sheet).
- Various techniques used to learn about planetary
interiors.
Upon completing
this assignment, you should be able to answer these, and similar questions
General
Concepts
- What are the general layers within a planet's interior?
- Can mass alone tell much about the interior of a planet? Why or why
not?
- Can density tell much aout the interior of a planet? Why or why
not?
- What is geometric oblateness?
- What is pressure ionization?
- What is the moment of inertia?
- What is dynamical oblateness?
- On what astronomical object(s) might direct drilling have provided
insights into the interiors of the object(s)?
- Which type of seismic wave travels the fastest, a compression (P) wave or
a shear (S) wave?
- Which type of seismic wave cannot pass through liquid, a compression (P)
wave or a shear (S) wave?
- On what astronomical object(s) might seismology have provided insights
into the interiors of the object(s)?
- What is a magnetosphere? What is a bow shock?
Applications
- A moon is found to have a density of 1.2 grams/cm3. What
might its composition be?
- A moon is found to have a density of 5 grams/cm3. What
might its composition be?
- If a fast rotating planet is made of rock, how can it have a
non-spherical shape and what shape might it have?
- How can Hydrogen conduct electricity?
- A moon is found to have a coefficient for the moment of inertia, k,
of 0.40. What might the mass distribution within its interior be like?
- A moon is found to have a coefficient for the moment of inertia, k,
of 0.10. What might the mass distribution within its interior be like?
- Using seismology, how can it be shown that Earth has a liquid component
to its interior?
- A planet has a rotation period of 10 hours, and a strong magnetic field.
What can be said about its interior?
- A planet has a rotation period of 100 days, and no magnetic field is
detected. What can be said about its interior?
These questions, and similar ones, will form the basis of the exam
material for this section of the course. If you have problems with the material,
please see me. If you are unable to answer some of the questions, I will help
you before the date specified on the syllabus, provided you show me the results of your
inquiry into the material.
That is, you must provide me the answers you
we able to obtain for all questions, including your attempts at problem questions, before
I will help you with any of them!
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