Lecture 8: Uranus, Neptune and the outer solar system

Further reading

• The home page for the "New Horizons" mission, which flew past Pluto and Charon and on to the Kuiper Belt, is at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
• There's a terrific page on the discovery of Neptune at http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Neptune_and_Pluto.html
• Mike Brown's page about the discovery of Eris and the most recent observations of it is at http://web.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/
• His page about trying to draw the Solar System to scale is interesting reading: http://www.mikebrownsplanets.com/2009/08/planetary-placemats.html. Hal Levison has another interesting page called "A Hand-Waving Derivation of Planethood" at http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~hal/planet/index.html
• Scott Shepherd, one of the discoverers of 2012 VP113, has a very interesting page about the discovery at "Beyond the Edge of the Solar System: The Inner Oort Cloud Population" http://home.dtm.ciw.edu/users/sheppard/inner_oort_cloud/
• Emily Lakdawalla has a terrific blog post about the search for possible KBO targets for New Horizons: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/10151024-finally-new-horizons-has-a-kbo.html
• The competition to name MU69 is at http://www.frontierworlds.org/

Source for images

All images with PIA numbers are from the NASA Planetary Photo Journal https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/

• Voyager: from NSSDC Voyager Project Information http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/voyager.html
• Voyager trajectories: from UCR Space Physics http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=v25/v0.html
• Uranus: PIA18182 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18182
• Uranus/Earth comparison table: after "The Cambridge Photographic Guide to the Planets" by F. W. Taylor (Cambridge UP, 2001), p. 268.
• Herschel: from National Air and Space Museum, Exploring the Planets: Discovering New Planets http://www.nasm.si.edu/ceps/etp/discovery/disc_planets.html
• Why Uranus is blue: from "Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy" by Thomas T. Arny, Fig. 9.18, http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/astronomy/arny/instructor/graphics/ch09/0918.html
• Atmosphere and rings: picture from the Keck Telescope, from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2004 November 18 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap041118.html
• Seasons: from "Uranus' magnetic forces switch 'on and off' " https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/uranus-magnetic-forces-switch-off
• Side-on rings: Hubblesite release STScI-2005-33 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/solar-system/uranus/2005/33/. Eclipse on Uranus: Hubblesite release STScI-2006-42 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/solar-system/uranus/2006/42/
• Changing view of Uranus: from Imke de Pater http://astro.berkeley.edu/~imke/Infrared/UranusAo/Uranus_darkrings.htm
• Dark cloud: Hubblesite release STScI-2006-47 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/47/
• Interior: from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/browse/uranus/uranusint.jpg
• Storms on Uranus: from Hubble Site News Release Archive, March 29 1999, "Huge Spring Storms Rouse Uranus from Winter Hibernation" http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/1999/11/
• Uranus' magnetic field: from Astronomy 161, The Solar System, Lect 17 http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/uranus/surface.html
• Rings: false colour image of a Voyager photo, from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/cap/uranus/u-ring.htm
• Moon pictures: from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/eng/triton.htm
• Montage of Uranus and moons: artist's impression based on Voyager images. From Smithsonian Institution: Exploring The Planets: Uranus http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/physical/astronomy/ss/uranus/uran_moons.html
• Uranus encounter times: from "Atlas of Uranus" by Garry Hunt and Patrick Moore (Cambridge UP, 1989), p. 53
• Trajectory of Uranus encounter: from "What do we know about Uranus' moons? Part 1" http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2009/1815.html
• HST image of rings and moons: from Astronomy Picture of the Day 26 November 1997 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap971126.html
• Changing position of the poles: re-drawn from "Atlas of Uranus" by Garry Hunt and Patrick Moore (Cambridge UP, 1989), p. 30
• Moon images: from Voyager 2's images of Uranian moons by Ted Stryk, http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/uranus/voyager-2-s-images-of-uranian-moons.html
• Montage of Neptune and Triton: from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/cap/nep/trinep1.htm
• Adams: from "John Couch Adams and the discovery of Neptune" by A. B. Ruth, The Eagle 1997 http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/publications/eagle97/Eagle97-John.html
• Discovery position of Neptune: from http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Neptune_and_Pluto.html
• Galileo's drawing: from Standish & Nobili, "Galileo's observations of Neptune", Baltic Astronomy, 6, 97 (1997) http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997BaltA...6...97S
• Neptune and Uranus compared: http://astsun.astro.virginia.edu/~mnc3z/astro121.html
• Full disk of Neptune: Voyager image, from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/cap/nep/neptunes.htm
• Atmosphere images: from Views of the Solar System by Calvin J. Hamilton http://www.solarviews.com/cap/index/neptune.html
• Time-lapse movie of Neptune's weather: from HST news release archive, "Hubble Makes Movie of Neptune's Rotation and Weather", October 24 1996, http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/1996/33/
• Interiors and magnetic fields: from "Planets, Stars and Galaxies" by Todd Adams, http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~tadams/courses/fall02/ast1002/lectures/Lecture092502.pdf
• Rings: from Voyager 2 Gallery of Neptune's Ring System http://ringmaster.arc.nasa.gov/neptune/voyager/
• Moons: from "Satellites of the outer planets" http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/outerp/moons.html
• Orbits of Triton and Nereid: from https://ase.tufts.edu/cosmos/view_picture.asp?id=1231
• Neptune's small moons: from https://www.universetoday.com/105361/a-tale-of-a-lost-moon-new-hubble-observations-of-neptunes-moons-and-its-rings/
• New moons of Neptune: from CfA Press Release No.: 03-03, "New Moons Found Around Neptune" http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/press/pr0303.html
• Moon collision: painting by Don Davis, from http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/pluto_3_moons.html
• Binary capture of Triton: from Alessandro Morbidelli, "Interplanetary kidnap", Nature, 441, 162 (2006)
• Pluto and Charon: from NASA, "Charon and Pluto: Strikingly Different Worlds" https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/charon-and-pluto-strikingly-different-worlds
• Artist's conception of Pluto and Charon: from Astronomy Picture of the Day 2001 October 18 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011018.html
• HST image of Pluto/Charon: from Astronomy Picture of the Day 13 February 1999 http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990213.html
• Pluto through the years: from Olkin, Ennico.& Spencer, "The Pluto system after the New Horizons flyby", NatAst 1, 633 (2017), Fig. 1
• Pluto discovery images: from Astronomy 110 by Gareth Wynn-Williams, Lecture 9: The small planetary bodies http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~wynnwill/110/9_small_bodies.htm
• Pluto's orbit: from "The Cosmic Perspective" by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider and Voit, (Benjamin Cummings, 2000), http://dosxx.colorado.edu/Pluto/orbits.jpg
• Charon's orbit: from Fran Bagenal, "Pluto,Charon & the Kuiper Belt", http://lasp.colorado.edu/~bagenal/1010/SESSIONS/17.PlutoCharon.html
• Pluto, Charon and the Earth: from https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galleries/pluto-charon-size-compared-to-earth
• Pluto from Charon: image by Mark Garlick, from http://www.space-art.co.uk/image.php?gallery=solar-system&image=pluto-from-charon
• Pluto's seasons: from http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/05021212-plutos-seasons-new-horizons.html
• New Horizons trajectory: http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/The-Path-to-Pluto/Mission-Timeline.php
• View of Pluto and Charon: from Olkin et al. "The Pluto system after the New Horizons flyby", NatAst 1, 663-670 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0257-3
• Pluto's heart: PIA19952 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19952
• Pluto feature names: from http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/pics/PlutoFeaturesMap083117.png
• Sputnik Planitia: from http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/09/10/pluto_new_images_from_new_horizons.html
• Pits: from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-top-10-pluto-pics
• Floating hills: PIA20464 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20464
• Close-up of icy plains: PIA20336 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20336
• Sputnik Planitia filling impact basin: from Olkin et al. Fig. 3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0257-3
• Pluto's orientation with Sputnik Planitia: from Keane et al., "Reorientation and faulting of Pluto due to volatile loading within Sputnik Planitia", Nature 540, 90-93 (2016)
• Sub-surface ocean: from Olkin et al. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0257-3
• Departure view of Pluto: from http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/plutos-majestic-mountains.html
• Charon: PIA19709 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19709
• Charon in enhanced colour: PIA19968 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19968
• Mountain in a moat: https://www.space.com/29970-pluto-moon-charon-mountain-photo.html
• Pluto's small moons: from http://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1303/ and http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/small-bodies/family-portrait-of-plutos-moons.html
• Pluto's spinning moons: from http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/dps15-1110-small-moons.html
• Eris images: Michael Brown: The discovery of 2003 UB313 Eris, the 10th planet largest known dwarf planet http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/planetlila/
• Eris orbit: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(dwarf_planet)
• Discovery images of 2012 VP113: from http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-supported-research-helps-redefine-solar-systems-edge/#.VCoQ5ueE9QY
• Possible Planet 9: from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2074106-hints-that-planet-nine-may-exist-on-edge-of-our-solar-system/
• Mars-sized planet in the Kuiper Belt: from https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431314-400-weird-orbits-hint-planet-ten-might-lurk-at-solar-system-edge/
• "KBO chasers" stellar occultation images: from http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/KBO-Chasers.php
• Wink of a star: from https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/08/new-horizons-next-target-might-be-a-binary-pair/
• Stellar occultation of Haumea: from Ortiz et al., "The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation", Nature 550, 219-223 (2017)
• Artist's impressions of MU69: from http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/KBO-Chasers.php and https://www.nasa.gov/feature/help-nickname-new-horizons-next-flyby-target
• Voyagers entering the solar heliopause: from "Voyager Enters Solar System's Final Frontier", http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/voyager_agu.html
• Voyager: from https://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-voyager.html
• Artist's concept of planet formation: PIA05988 https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05988

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Last updated 21 November 2017