The Density of the New Planet
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From the work of the students from the first year (1999/2000)
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From the work of the students from the second year (2000/2001)
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Density, represented by the Greek symbol Rho (r ), is the amount of mass of an object in a given volume. Mathematically,
where r is the density of the object in units of kilograms per cubic meter (kg/m3), M is the mass of the object in units of kilograms (kg) , and V is the volume of the object in units of cubic meters (m3). Below is a table of some common densities.
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Substance |
Mass Density |
Substance |
Mass Density |
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Air (gas) |
1.29 |
Lead |
11,340 |
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Aluminum |
27,000 |
Steel-Iron |
7,830 |
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Blood (liq.) |
1,050 |
Tin |
7,300 |
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Brass |
8,500 |
Titanium |
4,500 |
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Bronze |
8,800 |
Tungsten |
19,300 |
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Copper |
8,960 |
Uranium |
18,700 |
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Gasoline (liq.) |
700 |
Water (liq.) |
1,000 |
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Glass |
3,000 |
Water: Ice |
917 |
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Gold |
19,300 |
Water: Sea (liq.) |
1,025 |
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Granite |
2,700 |
Water: Steam (gas) |
6 |
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Human body |
1 |
Wood: Balsa |
170-800 |
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Iron |
7,880 |
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The density of some objects in our solar system, shown below, reveal two types of planets: terrestrial and jovian.
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Planet |
Average Mass Density |
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Mercury |
5,440 |
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Venus |
5,240 |
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Earth |
5,497 |
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Moon |
3,360 |
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Mars |
3,940 |
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Asteroids |
1,000 to 12,000 |
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Jupiter |
1,340 |
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Saturn |
690 |
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Uranus |
1,190 |
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Neptune |
1,660 |
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Pluto |
1,840 |
By using Eq. 17-2 on the known planets we detect a noticeable trend. There seems to be two classifications of planets: terrestrial and Jovian.
The terrestrial planets with rather high densities around 5,000 kg/m3are
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars.
The jovian planets with rather low densities around 1,500 kg/m3are
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune.
Pluto is absent from both lists due to reason we wont go into now, but its density is jovian-like.
Since the diameter of the new planet was already determined, then treating it like a giant ball or sphere, it volume was found to be V = 5.08 x 1018 m3 and thus using the mass of the planet, the teams found the density to be 9,200 kg/m3.
This clearly does not fit either terrestrial nor jovian, but it does seem to fit those described as asteroids. We have never encountered an asteroid with oceans or air before, but we have found some with moons.
It seems this new planet may be some sort of high density asteroid or planet core!
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The image above is of the asteroid 4179 Toutatis from NASA
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© 2000 Jeffrey Lynn Hopkins & MTC Last edited Tuesday, September 05, 2000 03:53:57 PM |