EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E 
Moons of Our Solar System
David Rothery, The Open University
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/moons
C O U R S E   L E C T U R E 
The Icy Moons
Notes taken on November 4, 2016 by Edward Tanguay
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as you get to Jupiter and beyond, you get to the frost line
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bodies are icier than rocky
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the moons of Jupiter and the moons further out tend to have more ice on their surfaces and interiors
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how ice fractures is different than it fractures on earth
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icy moons
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a group of small bodies
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orbit the giant gas planets
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also in the Kuiper Belt there are icy bodies
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1000 kilometers across or smaller
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generally composed of 50% or more of water ice
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a mix of ices
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mostly water ice
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low-temperature melting materials
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carbon dioxide
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carbon monoxide
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Triton
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orbits Neptune
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nitrogen gas is so cold it freezes on the surface
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the moons are so interesting because they have this water ice
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Europa (Jupiter), Ganymede (Jupiter), Callisto (Jupiter), Titan (Saturn), Triton (Neptune)
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interior temperatures are warm enough that it will actually melt those ices
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spacecraft that have gone to these bodies have detected the magnetic signature of water oceans that lie deep in the interior
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Europa (Jupiter)
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ocean lies on top of a silicate rocky core
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liquid is where life could exist
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not a lot of sunlight there
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life would have to rely on chemical energy
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could be bacterial life
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Ganymede
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the largest moon in the solar system
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the third moon out from Jupiter
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parts of its surface appear old and parts appear young
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it has its own magnetic field
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generated possibly by a liquid core inside the moon
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only two other bodies have that kind of magnetosphere: the Earth and Mercury
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for an icy moon to have one is still a bit of a puzzle