mikeb-jupiter

== =Jupiter Lab= Date of Publication (Date of Most Recent Edits)


 * Participants**:Michael bateman, Trevor wood, Ryan payne?
 * Purpose**: The purpose of this lab is to use computer software and learn techniques to determine the mass of jupiter, using pictures of jupiter and its moons.

Here is a picture of jupiter with it's four moons in an 8 day sequence. the red lines through the moon sequences are used to measure the distande each moon is from the center of jupiter. The graphs on the right of the image are related to the red lines. the red lines tell you the brightness of the pixel it runs over at a certain distance, by analyzing the mini graphs the red line makes, you can see where the moons are. the moons are either at an extreme high or low point on the graph.
 * Brief Description of Experiment**: This lab started out with a small unit in supernova. We took pictures off the computer and overlapped them, then subtracted one from the other, and what was left (if anything) would be a bright dot which is where a star would be in 1 picture and not in another. to do the mass of jupiter portion of the lab, we had to take pictures of jupiter and its moons at 2 day intervals and add and subtract them from eachother until we got jupiter, with 4 of its moons and their paths of motion on the same image. the program we used was called Hands on Universe
 * Data**: Our main data was in pictures and graphs of information off those pictures.

sequences are used The next two graphs are of how far the moons are away from jupiter, compared to days. we plotted these points, then since we knew the moons were moving around in a circular motion, we fitted sin graphs to them. (these are the same graph, the first one is zoomed in, the second isnt.)
 * [[image:moon_distance_v_time.JPG width="933" height="430" caption="moon_distance_v_time.JPG"]]



Sample Calculations:** Describe or reproduce any calculations that are performed during the experiment (other than averaging). For example, if you use a distance and a time to calculate a speed, you should show: 1 arc minute = 60 arc seconds 1 pixel = 0.63 arcsecs 1 radian = 57.3 degrees Distance of Jupiter from Earth for images jup5 to jup10 = 6.63 x 10^8 km 1 km = 1000 m ||
 * //Pixel to meter conversion// || 1 degree = 60 arc minutes
 * Jupiters mass || The mass of Jupiter is found by using the given 4pi squared and multiplying that by the radius of orbit of one of Jupiter's moons (D) cubed. This is then divided by the product of the constant of universal gravitation (G = 6.67 x 10^-11) and the time in seconds (T) it takes the moon to complete one orbit.

Mass of Jupiter = (4pi^2 x D^3) / (G x T^2) = 1.890798735 x 10^27 kg || //Don't forget to link to your lab report from the lab reports page and to include a link to your lab report in your reflection.//
 * Results**:The mass of Jupiter is 1.890798735 x 10^27 kg. We calculated this by using the radius of one of Jupiter's moons, the time it takes the moon to complete one orbit, and a constant for gravity and the formula for finding the mass of Jupiter which is described in the calculations.
 * Conclusion**: This experiment did produce a valid and reproducible result, because we used actual pictures of jupiter, and followed step by step directions. all the work was done on the copmuter, so there was not alot of room for human error. We found the mass of Jupiter to be 1.890798735 x 10^27 kg, while the accepted value is 1.8986×1027 kg, there is a .41% difference between the two. There is not really a solution to the problem, but if you were to want to get a more accurate answer, you would want to use much larger pictures, with more pixels, and take your time to make sure you answers were correct.