In: Physics
Formaldehyde (H2CO) is known to be common in interstellar space.
a) Could the Moon (the Earth’s satellite) have retained this gas?
Use the simple theory
for the average surface temperatures of the planets to calculate
the surface tempera-
ture of the Moon, assuming it is only heated by sunlight. The
albedos for the Earth
and the Moon are A? = 0.36 and A = 0.07, respectively.
b) Under the same assumptions, could Saturn’s satellite Mimas have
retained formalde-
hyde? For Mimas, the radius is R ~ 200 km, the mass is
4×1022 gm, and the albedo
is AMimas = 0.5.