Chapter 9: An American Ship At The Frontiers of The Solar System Flashcards
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 111
What is Triton's Size? Orbit distance around Neptune? Atmospheric Makeup? Surface Makeup? Size compared to Titan?
Triton
-Biggest Neptune Moon
- 6 earth days for orbit
- Nitrogen Rich Atmosphere
-World of methane/nitrogen
ice
-almost 1/2 the size of Titan
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 109-10
Name Origin? Discovery Date? Upper Cloud Temp? How bright is sun on Neptune? Orbit Distance? Dark Spot?
Neptune:
-Named after God of Sea
- Upper Cloud Temp -240°C
- Sun appears as a Bright Star
- Discovered in 1846
- 23 billion mile orbit distance
- 5 hours for Sun light to reach
-Great Dark Spot approx sam
latitude of Great Red Spot on
Jupiter
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 114
Where is the Kuiper Belt?
What is its makeup?
Kuiper Belt
-class of objects(inactive
comets) beyond Neptune
and Pluto
-Inner province Oort Comet Cloud
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 116
What is the ranging sizes and compositional makeup of nearby stars beyond Pluto?
Nearby Stars
-surrounded by thin discs of
orbiting gas and dust, often
extending to hundreds of
AU(astronomical units )
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 116
Astronomical Unit (AU) distance? AUs from Sun to Neptune?
1 AU = the distance from the Earth to the Sun
Sun to Neptune = 40AU
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 118
B-1257+12 is what and where, exactly? How rapid is its RPS(rot per sec)? RPM? How much energy does it yield? Is it visible, what kind of charge?
B1257+12
-Pulsar, 1,300 light years away
-Rapidly Rotating Neutron Star
-Rotates once every
.00621 sec
-10,000 rpm
-Energy puts out 4.7x that of
Sun*
-Energy, not visible, but
electrically charged particlesCarl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 119
What would the surface temp of a planet orbiting B1257+12 from 1 AU away be?
planet’s surface temp 1 AU away would be 280°C above water boiling point (greater than Venus Temp)
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 120
How crude was the resolution of the instruments on aboard the Voyager?
On very few worlds was Voyager able to resolve details as small as a kilometer across. By this standard, it would not have detected even our own civilization had it been transplanted to the outer solar system.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 120b
How do Jovian planets broadcast radio waves so prolifically?
Jovian Planets are prolific broadcasters of radio waves
•abundantly trapped and
beamed charged particles
in their magnetic fields
* by lightning
* hot interiors
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 121
How desperate are we to define ambiguous findings as definitive life forms?
Life is a hypothesis of last resort. You invoke it only when there’s no other way to explain what you see
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 122
What is the Heliopause?
Heliopause-where the interplanetary particles and magnetic fields are replaced by their interstellar counterparts*
Objects influenced magnetically by other objects outside the solar system
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 122
The Escape Trajectories of the Voyager was flung at 1) what high speeds, and 2) by what planets?
The voyager spacecraft are bound for the stars. They are on escape trajectories from the solar system, barreling along at almost a 1,000,000 miles a day. The gravitational fields of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have flung them at such high speeds that they have broken the bonds that once tied them to the Sun.”
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 123
How long will it take for the Voyagers to escape the orbiting pull of the Sun?
But if your definition of the edge of the Solar System is the distance at which our star can no longer hold worlds in orbit about it, then the Voyagers will not leave the Solar System for hundreds of centuries.
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 124
What is the Golden Phonograph Record?
voyagers’ list of artifacts intend for the review if otherworldly lifeforms exhibit intelligent life. (GOLDEN PHONOGRAPH RECORD)
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 124
How similar will hypothetical alien life forms be to us?
The hypothetical aliens are bound to be very different from us—independently evolved on another world
