Size Comparism Of The Moons Of The Gas Planets, Moon Systems of the gas giants compared |
Size Comparism Of The Moons Of The Gas Planets, Moon Systems of the gas giants compared |
Guest_spaceffm_* |
Nov 15 2005, 12:10 AM
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Nov 16 2005, 02:31 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
If this post is deemed not on topic for the thread, I pre-emptively accept your gentle rebuke.
What of Jupiters smallest possible satellites? I have been toying with an idea, if it is of no consequence, let me know. After comet Shoemaker-Levi was 'zorched' into Jupiters atmosphere, I wondered about the 'tail'. Or the tail of any other 'cometary' body orbiting Jupiter. Would the tail materials manifest themselves similarly to a meteoroid stream in orbit around the sun, but instead around Jupiter? Granted such a 'swarm' would probably not stay collimated very well for very long, and I suspect solar radiation pressure and gravitational perturbations would 'flush' them out of the system fairly quickly. However, as we saw, recently, comets might happen by to 'restock the shelves'. Are these possible swarms of tiny moonlets orbiting Jupiter of any import? Well, not having any appreciable atmospheres around any satellites of Jupiter rules out any naked eye confirmation by eventual astronauts there. But if a mechanism is found that keeps these streams in any way concentrated any where, such places may not be where we would want a space craft to traverse at high speed. Would a stream interact with the magnetosphere of Jupiter, perhaps characteristic changes of radio emissions of Jupiter might result. But perhaps a spacecraft might view them via scatterring effects on light or perhaps in a way analagous to seeing zodiacal light. |
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