Astrobites at AAS 232: Welcome
This week, Astrobites is attending the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Denver, Colorado! We’ll be bringing you highlights from the meeting all week long.
Why Jupiter spins fast, but not really fast
Thinking of taking a vacation to Jupiter this summer? With Jupiter’s quick rotation period, you’ll only have 10 hours per day to see all of the sights. But if not for Jupiter’s magnetic field, you might have only had 3 hours each day.
Like a Captured Stone: How did Pluto Settle in its Peculiar Orbit?
We dive back into one of the earliest studies of the outer solar system that helped us understand how four gas giants playing a chaotic game of catch could have knocked Pluto into its topsy-turvy orbit.
Astrobites at AAS 231: Day 1
We report on Day 1 of the winter AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD. Highlights include a spectacular look at Jupiter’s poles, a look at the major upcoming exoplanet survey TESS, and insight into the expanding universe from Nobel prize winner Adam Riess.
On the Insides of Giants: Heat Transfer in Hot-Start, Core-Accreting Gas Giants
Thick clouds shroud the interiors of gas giants, like Jupiter, in mystery. Today’s authors set out to blow some of that mystery away. Using equations and modeling, they explore processes of heat transfer within the interiors of hot-start, core-accreting gas giants.
Can gas giant planets form through pebble accretion?
Giant planets take too long to form from large planetesimals. Does including much smaller pebbles fix this problem?