Thursday, September 5, 2013

Logscale Giant Planet Systems

Another spin-off from the Solar System Exploration History: Giant planet systems on a logarithmic scale, in the same manner as the Logscale Solar System

With all the major moon, rings and subgroups of moons located by semi major axis and inclination. Irregular moons have different colors for prograde and retrograde (incl. > 90º, here mirrored to 180-incl.) groups. Also shown are the planet's orbital plane, and the Hill sphere, where the gravitational force of the planet and the Sun balance, so the graphic covers the whole sphere of control of the planet. Not the whole sphere of influence, though. That one covers the whole orbital region of the given planet; see the IAU's definition for "planet." The Roche limit indicates the closest possible orbit for a body of a given density, here the density of ice (1 g/cm3.

The flybys (orange), orbit insertions (red) and entries/landings (EDL, purple) are given by location of entry or closest approach (periapsis) for each spacecraft. Finally, at the lower edge are distance scales in planetary radii and kilometers.

Below are all the giant planetary systems as separate images.

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