EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCE

Lesson 1. UNIVERSE AND SOLAR SYSTEM

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The most prominent scientific theory about the origin of the solar system involves a spinning
cloud of dust called a SOLAR NEBULA. This Nebula is a product of the Big Bang. Philosophers,
religious scholars and scientists have lots of ideas about where the universe came from, but the
most widely-held scientific theory is the Big Bang Theory. According to this theory, the
universe originated from an enormous explosion.

There are some scientific theories of origin and evolution of the solar system and the earth:

1. Nebular Hypothesis. This was proposed by the German philosopher Kant and French
mathematician Laplace. The central idea of this hypothesis of the origin of the solar
system is that the Earth, planets and sun originated from Nebula, or a spinning cloud of
dust which collapsed on its own gravity which caused it so spin faster.
2. Tidal Hypothesis. This was proposed by Jeans and Jeffrey in 1925. The central idea of
this hypothesis is that large stars passed near the sun and due to the gravitational pull a
gaseous tide was raised on the surface of the sun and the star.
3. Planetesimal Hypothesis. This was proposed by Chamberlin and Moulton in 1904.
Planetesimal hypothesis centers on the idea that a disk shaped cloud of gas and dust
which was a remnant after the formation of the sun began to clump together forming
bodies of planetisimals.
4. Binary Star Hypothesis. This was proposed by an American astronomer H. N. Russell in
1937 to solve the question raised on the tidal hypothesis. He proposed that at the
beginning a companion star was revolving around our sun. Then a giants star with an
opposite revolutionary direction came near the companion star.
5. Gas Dust Cloud Hypothesis. This was proposed by the scientist Harold C. Urey in 1952.
This states that the universe is composed of dust and gas. This very large amount of dust
and gas began to condense and began to spin.

Lesson 2. EARTH AND EARTH’S SYSTEM

THE EARLY ATMOSPHERE

The present composition of the atmosphere is:

21% Oxygen
78% Nitrogen
0.04% Carbon dioxide
0.9% Argon
The Earth is composed of four subsystems known as:

1. Biosphere- is the life sphere of the Earth. It refers to te sphere where all the living
organisms including the bacteria, protozoan’s, fungi, plants and animals are found.
2. Atmosphere- is the invisible layer of gases that surround the planet. It plays a crucial
role in hydrologic cycle, weather and temperature regulation and in protecting the Earth
from harmful meteoroids, ultra violet rays, and solar flares.
3. Lithosphere- is the rock or solid sphere of the earth which includes the upper mantle and
the crust. It is bordered by the atmosphere above and the asthenosphere below. It is
the habitat of various species of flora and fauna including human. The lithosphere is also
the provider of all the mineral that man uses as raw materials for different things that
we use in our daily lives which includes nickel, iron, gold, chromium, mercury, talc, granite,
etc.
4. Hydrosphere- is the water sphere of the Earth. It includes all water in land, oceans and
the atmosphere including the solidified water in the arctic regions and the evaporated
water in the atmosphere. More than 70% of our planet is composed of water but only a
small portion of that is fresh water and almost 97% is salty water.

The Earth’s atmosphere has 5 distinct layers.

1. Troposphere- is the weather layer of the Earth where climatic changes take place. It is
where weather disturbances and water cycle takes place.
2. Stratosphere- it has triatomic oxygen or what we refer as ozone. The second layer of
the atmosphere is like the earth’s natural sunblock as the ozone layer protects us from
the harmful ultra violet rays.
3. Mesosphere- serves as another protection as it protects us from the destruction that
meteorites can cause. The mesosphere burns and melts the falling meteorites.
4. Thermosphere-
5. Exosphere- which is the outermost layer of the atmosphere.

The Earth is composed of four different Layers:

1. Crust- is the thinnest and outermost layer which is inhabitated by almost all forms of life
including human.
2. Mantle- is like a melted plastic and is 1,800 miles thick which is the thickest among the
Earth’s layer.
3. Liquid outer core- is basically liquid and extends 2,900 kilometer thick. Both the inner
and outer core are mainly composed of the heavier elements iron and nickel.
4. Solid inner core- it is still composed of nickel and iron but this is not in liquid form and
has a lower temperature of around 9,000 degrees Farenheit.