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Ganymede Enhanced (APOD 2009 September 20)

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:16 am
by neufer
  • ----------------------------------------------
    . As You Like It > Act I, scene III
    ...........................................................
    CELIA: What shall I call thee when thou art a man?

    ROSALIND: I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page;
    . And therefore look you call me Ganymede.
    . But what will you be call'd?

    CELIA: Something that hath a reference to my state
    . No longer Celia, but Aliena.
    ----------------------------------------------
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001218.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090106.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070824.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070329.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041209.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041111.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011215.html

Re: Ganymede Enhanced (APOD 2009 September 20)

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:48 pm
by orin stepanek
I take it that the rayed craters are the younger ones. :? Some of the craters look as though they be bulged upwards; rather than indented. Could this be a possibility?

Planet sized-- 8) Two moons in our solar system are larger than Mercury; Ganymede and Titan. How big does a moon have to be to be called planet sized? :roll:

Orin

Re: Ganymede Enhanced (APOD 2009 September 20)

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:49 am
by neufer
orin stepanek wrote:I take it that the rayed craters are the younger ones. :?:
That sounds about right.
orin stepanek wrote:Some of the craters look as though they be bulged upwards; rather than indented. Could this be a possibility?
Certainly not the floor of a crater if that's what you mean. (E.g., our own moon:)
Image
orin stepanek wrote:Planet sized-- 8)
Two moons in our solar system are larger than Mercury; Ganymede and Titan.
How big does a moon have to be to be called planet sized? :roll:
Actually a planet is more defined by its mass than its volume:
  • A planet must have sufficient mass:

    1) for self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces such that
    it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and

    2) that it is able to clear the neighborhood around its orbit.
If it were my decision I would make the cutoff at 10^23 kilograms
such that Ganymede, Titan & Callisto are "planet sized"

Code: Select all

Mass in
10^22 kilograms

33.022   Mercury 	
--------------------
14.82    Ganymede 	
13.45    Titan
10.76    Callisto
..................
8.932    Io
7.348    Moon
4.80     Europa
2.14     Triton 
--------------------
1.67     Eris  
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