Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s29/3/2/solution

Rotation rate, oblateness and measured external gravitational multipoles provide constraints beyond mass and radius; spin-axis precession/nutation and satellite dynamics can add moment-related information. For a giant planet the deep rotation rate and hydrostatic approximation matter. These measurements require an interior model or supplementary constraints for an accurate moment: a spherically symmetric body's exterior monopole alone cannot reveal its radial density distribution. An exact moment cannot generally be inferred just by labeling a measured as .

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