Kepler's third law: Galilean satellites

081116-1060598-invert
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waiferx/3035594981/
Originally uploaded by Waifer X

Tracker chart for the Galilean satellites of Jupiter, adapted from the "Jupiter Moon Tracker Results" data from the NASA Planetary Rings Node website (http://pds-rings.seti.org/tools/tracker2_jup.html), used to determine the mass of Jupiter using Kepler's third law.

Astronomy in-class activity: active satellites

Astronomy 10 In-class activity 12 v.06.02.28, Spring Semester 2008
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Astronomy 10 learning goal Q6.4

Students find their assigned groups of three to four students, and work cooperatively on an in-class activity worksheet comparing the active geo- or hydrological processes of Io, Europa, and Triton. Students are instructed to look for patterns and entries used more than once (e.g. "tidal heating"), then to concentrate on specific differences.



The answers for each satellite are shown below.