Transcript History of the Universe, Solar System, and Planets

• How do black smokers work?
• Let’s take a look at this animation…
• http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/expedit
ions/blacksmokers/animation.html#animatio
n
• Another webpage about black smokers
http://www.wnet.org/savageearth/hellscrust/ht
ml/sidebar2.html
• Spreading centers and magnetic reversals
• http://www.visionlearning.com/library/flash
_viewer.php?oid=1683
Plate boundaries, polar shifts,
transform faults and so much more!
• http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/ege
o/animations/ch2.htm
History of the Universe, Solar
System, and Planets
Jacopo Tintoretto's "The Origin of the Milky Way"
Structure of the Universe
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Earth is one of nine planets in solar system
Our sun is a star
Stars cluster to form galaxies
Our sun is one of over 300 billion stars in
the Milky Way galaxy
• Milky Way is one of 100 billion galaxies in
the visible Universe
• Most galaxies look like stars to us.
• All cultures have creation myths
Origin of Earth and the universe
• Judeo-Christian tradition
God created the Heavens and Earth
God created light, oceans, land, plants,
animals, humans
Origin of Earth and the universe
• Inca
The Earth was dark, the God Con Tiqui emerged out
of a lake bringing first humans with him.
He made the sun, moon, stars
He made more humans out of large rocks
Humans weren’t grateful enough, Con Tiqui
punished them with drought
Another God drove out Con Tiqui, turned his people
into monkeys, made our ancestors
Origin of the Universe
• The Scientific community
– The Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory
• All matter in small point with no volume
• No matter, only energy
• The point exploded 15 billion years ago
Big Bang Theory
• ~one ten-thousandth of a second later:
– universe cooled to ~5 billion degrees
– Protons and neutrons form
• Atoms form ~half a billion years later
• 10 billion years for planets to form
Big Bang Theory
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1 million years after Big Bang
Universe was hot cloud
98% hydrogen and 2% helium
Today: 98% hydrogen AND helium, 2%
other elements
Evidence of Big Bang Theory
• The universe is expanding (red shift or blue
shift– based on Doppler premise)
• Background radiation in universe
• Origin of our solar
system
Solar
• Material in galaxy
condensed, collapsed
• Cloud is solar nebula
• Cloud flattened, started
rotating; rotated faster
and faster as material
contracted
• Material segregated
into rings, which
turned into planets
Nebula theory
Solar Nebula theory
• 90% of mass in middle
• Cloud cools,
condenses
• Gases, liquids, solid
form planetesimals
• Planetesimals grow
into planets
• Material in center of
nebula condenses,
collapses, heats to few
million degrees
• Forms our sun
Our solar system
Our solar system
Jovian planets
Terrestrial planets
Planets of our solar system
• Inner planets: small, rocky
• Outer planets: large, gaseous
• Pluto is transitional : small and icy; not a
planet anymore!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060824-plutoplanet.html
Other things in our solar system
• Asteroids: planetesimals between Mars and
Jupiter
Other things in our solar system
• Meteorites
• Rock left over from beginning of solar
system
Structure of the Earth
Homogeneous accretion theory
• Formation of layered
Earth
• Earth starts out
homogeneous
Homogeneous accretion theory
• Iron, nickel sink to
core
Homogeneous accretion theory
• Iron, nickel sink to
core
• Lighter elements in
mantle and crust
• Extreme pressure at
center of earth keeps
the core solid
Our
Moon
• Moon’s surface:
– Maria (dark colored)
are basalt
– Highlands (light
colored) igneous rock
• Parts of Moon’s
surface:
– Maria 3.8-3.2 billion
– Highlands 4.4 billion
Our moon
Origin of moon
Some theories:
• Formed as two-planet system
• Broke from Earth during formation
• Captured
• Impact with planetesimal
Origin of moon
Our moon
• Parts of Moon’s
surface:
– Craters from meteor
impacts
Craters on Earth
• Only 120 identified
craters
Craters on Earth
• Only 120 identified
craters
• Why so few on Earth
and so many on
Moon?
Trivia about our solar system
• Our solar system is on the edge of a spiral
arm in the Milky Way
• Our solar system rotates around the center
of the galaxy once every 250 million years
• Relative to the center of the Milky Way, our
solar system rotates at 200 km/s