AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Pearson Education, Surface 3, Basalt

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Bryan Gaensler

Document Summary

Exceptions and counter evidence: captured moons, unusual orbits, orbiting backwards, collisions, rotation of venus, uranus. Clicker q&a: iodine 128 decays into xenon 129 with half-life of 17 million years. If i find a rock containing 250 atoms of idone-129 and 750atoms of xenon 129, how old is the rock: 34 million years. Terrestrial planets: exteriors: mercury, heavily cratered, long steep cliffs, venus, active volcanoes, earth, earth"s moons, heavily cratered, mars, some regions that appear like dry riverbeds, craters. Earth: interior: can probe interior through earthquake, core- highest density; nickel and iron, mantle- moderate density; silicon, oxygen, etc, crust- lowest density; granite, basalt, etc. Differentiation: gravity pulls high density material to center, lower density material rises to surface, material ends up separated by density. What processes shape planetary surface: impact cratering- impacts by asteroids or comets, volcanism- molten rock erupt onto surface, tectonics- disruptio(cid:374) of a pla(cid:374)et"s surfa(cid:272)e (cid:271)y i(cid:374)ter(cid:374)al stresses, erosion- surface changes made by wind, water or ice.