Transcript The Solar System - Net Start Class

The Solar System:
A Family Portrait
Q.How did the solar system form?
A. (possible) The Nebular Theory
1. Nebular Cloud
2. This massive loosely-bound cloud of dust, ice particles, and gases
(primarily hydrogen and helium) had some small rate of rotation due
to the method in which it was formed.
3. Over time, this nebular cloud began to collapse inward. The
collapse may have itself been triggered by a supernova that sent
shockwaves through the cloud causing it to compress.
4. As the cloud compressed on itself, the gravitational attraction of the
matter within increased and pulled the material in even further.
5. The nebula continued to contract under the influence of gravity
causing it to spin faster. The more the cloud contracted, the faster it
rotated due to the conservation of angular momentum.
6. The rate of contraction was greatest near the center of the cloud
where a dense central core began to form.
7. As the rate of rotation of the nebula continued to increase,
centrifugal effects caused the spinning cloud to flatten into a disk
with a bulge at its center.
Q.How did the solar system form?
A. (possible) The Condensation
with Accretion Model
http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr1212005/Notes/Chapter15.html
Nebular Theory, Illustrated
Sun
Basic Motion Vocabulary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWyMM8o0c
The Zodiac: Nothing to live by, but
something to dance to!
Definition: The set of constellations that the sun,
moons, and major planets move across.
Due to the fact that the planets revolve around the
Sun’s center of gravity, the 8 major planets form
a fairly flat disk, which from Earth is seen as a
linear path in the sky, called the ecliptic. The
background constellations for the ecliptic form
the zodiac.
Members of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud are
less restricted to the ecliptic, due to the sun’s
weaker gravity at that distance. So comets can
be seen in almost any constellation.
Ecliptic and Equator
How the Dance Works…
http://www.astronomynotes.com/nakedeye/s5.htm
Zodiac, cont.
The sun takes about a month to pass
through each zodiacal constellation.
Since the sun and moon both occupy about
the same area in our sky (~ one degree, or
one fingertip), eclipses can occur when the
two are in the same constellation – hence
the term, ecliptic.
Basic Overview of the Solar System
• http://www.space.com/12288-solarsystem-photo-tour-sun-planetsmoons.html
Mercury
• Smallest major planet
• rotates three times in
two of its years.
• Very little atmosphere;
looks very much like
moon.
• Inferior orbit to earth;
goes through phases.
The Phases of Mercury
http://www.aaa.org/month0901
Venus
Earth’s “twin” due to
being close in size.
Retrograde rotation.
Extremely thick
atmosphere of CO2
and H2SO4 makes for
“Greenhouse Effect”
run amock.
Venus is hottest and
most volcanic planet
in Solar System.
♀
Phases of Venus
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060110.html
Earth
Only place in
universe known to
have…
Water in liquid form
Large amounts of O2
Life
Mars
Tantalizing with its bright red
color due to iron oxide
surface, polar ice caps,
and evidence of water
having once flowed on its
surface. A Martian day is
almost the same as an
Earth day.
Largest volcano in Solar
System – Olympus Mons
(or Tharsis Rise?)
Largest Canyon – Valles
Marineris
Through the telescope – what you’ll
see
Martian Moons – Phobos & Deimos
Jupiter
Largest planet
Mostly composed of H2
Colorful bands actually
mark global wind belts.
“ Great Red Spot” – huge
storm that continues to
blow around the
southern hemisphere for
eternity(?)
Has four major (“Galilean”)
moons – Io, Europa,
Ganymede, Callisto –
plus
many, many more
From Earth – what you’ll see
Io
Innermost of Jupiter’s
moons
First extraterrestrial object
discovered to have
active volcanoes;
Extremely tectonically
active due to tidal
forces exerted by
Jupiter
More on Io
Io is the most
volcanically
active body
in the solar
system.
http://www.astro.washington.edu/courses/labs/clearinghouse/
labs/Io/volcanoes_io.html
Europa – an icy world
Thought to be
covered with
water ice, which
occasionally
erupts out in
geyser form
What’s in those cracks?
Callisto & Ganymede
Callisto has
pockmarked
surface due to
comet impacts
Ganymede
Largest moon in Solar System
Asteroids
Fire from the heavens
• http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ida.html
Saturn
Most beautiful
telescope object in
solar system
Planet is naked-eye;
rings are not.
Rings composed of
ice and rock
Saturn through the telescope
Titan – Saturn’s unusual moon
You “will find a tropical world
where temperatures
plunge to minus 274
degrees Fahrenheit,
methane rains from the
sky and dunes of ice or
tar cover the planet's
most arid regions.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2007/10/07100
2114345.htm
Uranus
Blue due to CH4 in its upper
atmosphere.
Completely bizarre axis tilt – why?
this planet is so tilted that it's poles
are alternately facing the Sun.
This means that while one pole
is getting 42 years of
continuous sunlight, the
opposite pole gets 42 years of
darkness. This would lead one
to believe that the polar region
facing the Sun would be the
hottest point on the planet, but
it isn't, the equator is hotter
than any of the poles during
their days in the Sun.
Uranus through the telescope
Uranian Moons
Named after
Shakespearian
characters.
The Broken Moon - Miranda
Was it shattered by a
comet impact –
then came back
together?
Neptune
Last of the major
planets.
Neptune through the telescope
Largest of Neptune’s moons –
Triton
Contains ice volcanoes?
Retrograde orbit is bringing it ever closer to
Neptune.
Beyond the Planets:
Kuiper Belt v. Oort Cloud
Kuiper Belt
http://www.solstation.com/stars/kuiper.htm
Oort Cloud
http://www.solstation.com/stars/oort.htm
Comets and Meteors – related?
Comets – Kuiper & Oort objects that somehow get
bumped out of their orbit and so begin making
trips into the inner solar system, sublimating as
they near the sun, thus forming beautiful tails.
This tail material refreezes and remains
suspended in space.
Meteors – As Earth passes through these comet
remains, our atmosphere catches them up like a
vacuum cleaner and they disintegrate as a
streak of light.
Current Positions for Planets
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgibin/Solar/action?sys=-Sf
How old will you be when each of these planets
RETURNS to its current place?