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Brown Bag Seminar (4-04-12)


"Planetary Space Science Overview and an Example of Comparative Planetary Environments"
Presentation by: Dennis Gallagher (NASA/MSFC)

The Earth is about 2 ½ times larger than Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. Jupiter is about 11 times larger than the Earth and the Sun is yet another 10 times larger than Jupiter. Ganymede and Earth are rocky bodies, however Jupiter is a gas giant planet and the Sun is large enough to sustain thermonuclear reactions in the core. Saturn and Uranus are also gas giant planets, much larger than Earth, yet all of these solar system objects have strong commonality hiding just above the surface in the surrounding space. What we have learned near Earth turns out to be useful at all these other bodies throughout the solar system. All become our local laboratory for understanding the same processes occurring throughout the cosmos. In this brief tour of the solar system very low frequency radio waves are used to explore our small piece of the universe.


Past Brown Bag Abstracts