12.07.2015 Views

The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System

The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System

The Origin and Evolution of the Solar System

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16 <strong>The</strong> structure <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Solar</strong> <strong>System</strong>Figure 1.8. Three successive alignments <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> three inner Galilean satellites which forma Laplacian triplet. Orbits <strong>and</strong> Jupiter are drawn to scale but angles are exaggerated.Table 1.5. Titius-Bode type relationship compared with <strong>the</strong> actual semi-major axes for <strong>the</strong>Galilean satellites. Distances are in units <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jupiter radius.1 2 3 4SatelliteAmal<strong>the</strong>a Io Europa Ganymede Callisto 2.5 5.9 9.4 15.0 26.4 Ò 3 6 9 15 27Òtable 1.5. Similar relationships may be constructed for <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r major planetsystems.It is easy perhaps to overstate <strong>the</strong> similarities between <strong>the</strong> major satellitesystems <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> planetary system itself. One property <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> planetary systemthat is not mirrored in <strong>the</strong> satellite systems is <strong>the</strong> ratio <strong>of</strong> angular momentum for<strong>the</strong> primary spin to that contained in <strong>the</strong> secondary orbits. As we have seen earlier<strong>the</strong> total magnitude <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> orbital angular momentum <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> major planets is morethan 200 times that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> solar spin. By contrast, <strong>the</strong> spin <strong>of</strong> Jupiter has angularmomentum 100 times that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> orbital value for <strong>the</strong> Galileans. Two major factorscontribute to this difference.

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