LESSON 1

U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E and
S.O.L.A.R S.Y.S.T.E.M
#THESOLARSYSTEM
Origin of the Solar System

The planetesimal theory

The exploding star

theory
Origin of the Solar System

The nebular
theory

The dust cloud

theory
 Solar System
• planets, with their satellites, comets and asteroids - held
together in space by a central star
 Sun
• central of the solar system
•gravitational force holds the other
members in orbit and governs their
motions
•outweighs all other components of the
solar system combined
• more than 99 percent of the mass of the
entire solar system
• 864 000 miles
 Sun
•provides virtually all the energy of
the solar system
•surface composition - hydrogen
(74% - mass; 92% - volume), helium
(24-25% of mass; 7% of volume),
and trace quantities - Fe, Ni, O, Si, S,
Mg, C, Ne, Ca, Cr
 Sun
Where does the sun gets its energy?
•Albert Einstein- “matter can be
converted into very large amounts of
energy”
•Nuclear fusion
•Thermonuclear reaction
-nuclei fuse under very high temperature
 Sun
Where does the sun gets its energy?
•Albert Einstein- “matter can be
converted into very large amounts of
energy”
•Nuclear fusion
•Thermonuclear reaction
-nuclei fuse under very high temperature
Sun
Sun’s interior three main parts
Sun’s interior three main parts

•Core
- innermost
section
-hottest part
Sun’s interior three main parts

•Radiative Zone
-energy that
radiates through
the layers of
gasses.
Sun’s interior three main parts

•Convection Zone
-composed of
hot gases
Sun’s interior three main parts
Sun’s atmospheres three parts
 Sun’s atmospheres three parts
•Photosphere
- layer below the
chromosphere
-where most of the sun’s
activity starts
-principal source of the
sun’s radiation
 Sun’s atmospheres three parts
•Chromosphere
- height of about 5 000
km from the sun’s
surface
-appears coloured
during a solar eclipse
 Sun’s atmospheres three parts
•Corona
- envelope of white light
around the sun
-outermost part of the
sun
#OURNEIGHBORSINSPACE
PLANETS
What force keeps the planet in its orbit?
• Orbit-Imaginary paths
• Revolution-movement
• Gravitational pull- the force of attraction towards
its center that keeps each one of the planet in a
definite orbit
• Inertia-force enabling the continuous motion
PLANETS
-from the Greek word
“wanderer”

Two Groups

1. Terrestrial
2. Jovian
 -from the Greek word “wanderer”
-a planet is a celestial body that
PLANETS (a) is in orbit around the sun
(b) has sufficient mass for its
self-gravity to overcome rigid
body forces so that it
assumes a hydrostatic
equilibrium
(nearly round) shape, and
(c) has cleared the
neighbourhood around its orbit

Two Groups
1. Terrestrial
2. Jovian
Terrestrial (earth-like)

• Dense rocks and metallic materials

• Meager atmospheres
 Jovian (Jupiter-like)
• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
• large percentage of hydrogen and helium with some
amounts of ice (frozen ammonia and methane)
• thick atmosphere of helium and hydrogen
 Mercury
• nearest the sun
• diameter of about 4868
kilometers
• mass of about 0.056 that
of the earth and a density
of 5.1 g/cm3
• revolves around the sun in
88 days and rotates on its
axis every 59 days
• widest extremes of
temperature
 Venus
• most brilliant natural
object in the nighttime sky
• most similar to Earth in
size, mass, and density
• rotates once every 243 days
in retrograde motion
(direction opposite to the
direction of rotation of
most of the other planets)
• atmosphere - mainly of
carbon dioxide, with
droplets of sulfuric acid in
the upper clouds
 Venus
• diameter of 12112 km
average density of 5.3
g/cm3
• surface pocked with large
meteor crater
 Earth
• atmosphere is rich in
nitrogen and oxygen
• largest of the inner
planets
• 70% of the surface is
covered with water
• moon - only natural
satellite
Mars
• half the size of Earth
• atmosphere is composed
mostly of carbon dioxide;
very thin
• temperature at the
planet’s surface varies
widely during the course
of a Martian day
• tilted on its rotational
axis
• seasonal variation
Mars
• Liquid water cannot exist
on Mars’s surface
• Low temperature and pressure
• water exists only as ice
deposited at the poles;
trapped below the surface
and as vapor in the
atmosphere
Olympus Mons - largest
volcano in the solar system
• 17 miles (27 kilometers)
• three times higher than
Mount Everest
Mars
• two small satellites -
Phobos and Deimos
• may be captured asteroids
• Phobos - 27 kilometers long
• Deimos - 15 kilometers long
 Jupiter
• Largest planet
• mass of 318 times that of
the earth; average density
is 1.34 g/cm3
• composed mostly of
hydrogen and helium
• no solid surface, only
layers of gaseous clouds;
center is probably a rocky
core
 Jupiter
• topmost clouds - dark belts
and bright zones that encircle
the planet - from tawny yellow
to brown and gray
• spins rapidly on its axis,
completing one rotation in
less ten hours
• Great Red Spot - cyclonic
storm, as big as two
Earthsized planets placed side
by side
• 165 known satellites
• narrow system of rings - tiny
rocks and dust particles
 Saturn
• mostly of hydrogen and helium
• covered with cloud bands - some
forming cyclonic patterns
• ring system - tens of thousands
of rings
• ice and ice covered particles
 Saturn
• At least twenty satellites orbit
Saturn
• largest is Titan - rock and half
ice, with an atmosphere of
nitrogen and methane
• other major satellites - Mimas,
Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea
and Lapetus. -icy, cratered
surfaces
 Uranus
• hydrogen, helium,
substantial amounts of
water, and probably some
methane, ammonia, rock and
metal
• trace amounts of methane in
its upper atmosphere - blue
green color
• immense ocean of water
heated to several thousand
degrees Kelvin
• core of the planet is most
likely rock and metal
 Uranus
• rotates in retrograde, or
clockwise, motion about
once every 17 hours
• 15 known satellites -
mostly of ice and are
heavily cratered
• Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel,
Titania, and Oberon
 Neptune
• mass is comparable to that of
Uranus
• thick atmosphere of hydrogen,
helium and some methane gives it a
bluish color
• rotates rapidly, once every 16.1
• rocky core surrounded by water ice
and liquid methane, surrounded by
hydrogen and helium gases
• eight known satellites
• Triton - largest satellite
• revolves in a direction opposite to
that of most other satellites
 Asteroids
• Circling around the sun between Mars
and Jupiter
• minor planets
• small as a house; large as a mountain
 Theories of Asteroid
formation
• fragments of a planet which
was shattered by
gravitational forces when it
passed too close to Jupiter
• pieces of two planets which
collided and were both
blasted into fragments
• fragments of the solar system
which never grew large enough
to form an ordinary planet
Comets
Structure and Composition
• nucleus, or core -
resembles a large, dirty
snowball
• 25% - dust and chunks
of rocky or metallic
material and 75% ice
(frozen water, with
compounds containing
methane, ammonia and
carbon dioxide radicals,
or subunits of
molecules)
Comets

• As comet nears the sun,

its ice begins to
sublimate (directly from
a solid to gas form)
• gases spread out around
the nucleus, thin
atmosphere – coma
• sunlight causes the
atoms in the coma to
glow - pearly spherical
patch of light
Comets
• as the comet approaches
the sun, solar wind
sweeps cometary gases
away from the sun
(straight tail of up to
150 million kilometers)
• second tail - shorter and
more curved
• Comet tails always point
away from the sun
• force exerted by solar wind
and radiation on the
cometary material
 Meteors
• Shooting stars - rocks
or metals that travel
around space
• not actually star
• enter the earth’s
atmosphere - collide
with air molecules
• travel so fast - collision
results to great friction
which - burn up
• reduced to ashes in the
atmosphere; bigger chunks
reach the ground
 Meteors
• fragments of asteroids or pieces of a
disintegrated comet
• Meteoroids - small pieces of space debris on a
collision course with the Earth
• Meteors - meteoroids enter the Earth's
atmosphere
• Meteorites - strike the surface of the Earth
 Meteors
• Meteor shower - enter the
atmosphere in tens or hundreds at
one time
• usually happens when the earth crosses
a comet’s path
 A Body in Space

Earth’s Position in Space

• ancient times - earth
was not moving and the
other heavenly bodies
revolve around it
 A Body in Space
• planet rotates around its
axis once every 24 hours
• creates day and night
• side of the earth that
faces the sun – daytime;
other side – night
• rotates in a west to east
manner
• sun seems to rise at the
east and sinks at the west
• determines time in
different parts of the
globe
 A Body in Space
• earth’s axis is tilted
at 23.5 o angle
• unequal heating of the
earth’s surface
• northern hemisphere -
leaning toward the sun;
other half - facing away
from the sun
• defines the seasons
 A Body in Space
• 365.5 days to revolve around the sun
• planet completes its revolution -
passes through four seasons
• divided into 12 months.
• months roughly represent the number of
days needed by the moon to orbit the
earth
Moon
• satellite - object that revolves
around another body
• diameter - around 3 467 km (about ¼
the size of the earth)
• gravitational pull is 1/6 that of the
earth
• person weighing 60 kg on earth will weigh
only 10 kg of the moon
Moon
• moon does not produce its own light
• lighted by the sun
• average distance of less than 400 000
km to the earth
Moon
• no atmosphere - no sound
is heard
• neither rain nor wind
• gravity too weak to hold
gases
• no weathering of the
moon’s rocky surface
• temperatures range -
120 oC to 132 oC
• Daylight two weeks
followed by two weeks of
darkness
Motion of the Moon
• moon’s orbit with respect to the earth -
slightly oval shaped, or elliptical
• comes a little closer to the earth on
one side of its orbit than on the other
• Perigee - moon at the point of its orbit
closest to the earth
• Apogee - farthest point in its orbit
Motion of the Moon
• once every 29 ½ days
• moon revolves at the same rate same
side of the moon always faces the earth
• moon orbits earth - different amounts
of the side facing earth are lighted by
the sun
Motion of the Moon
• phases of the moon - changes in the
lighted side of the moon
Motion of the Moon
 Tides

• largest of all ocean

waves
• caused by the moon’s
and sun’s gravity
• moon’s gravitational
pull causes the
oceans to bulge
toward it
• high tide
Tides
 Tides
• sun’s gravitational force also raises tidal
bulges on the earth
• much weaker - sun’s greater distance from the
earth
• spring tides - twice each month sun and
moon are in line with each other (new moon
and full moon)
• tidal effects at both are added together
 Tides
• neap tides - first and last quarters
in the moon’s orbit - sun, and the moon
are at right angles to each other
• high tides are lower than usual - tidal
bulges of the sun and moon tend to cancel
each other
Tides
 Eclipse
• moon’s orbit around the earth is not in
the same plane as the earth’s orbit around
the sun - tilted slightly
• orbiting moon is usually above or below the plane
of the earth’s orbit
• twice a month the moon crosses the plane of
the earth’s orbit
• sun, the moon, and the earth are arranged in a
straight line
 Solar Eclipse
Two conditions
• moon must be at or very near the perigee
so that the darkest part of its shadow
will touch the earth
 Solar Eclipse
Shadow of the moon and the earth two
parts
• Umbra - cone shaped completely dark
inner part
• Penumbra - outer part, light is only
partially blocked off
 Solar Eclipse
Shadow of the moon and the earth two
parts
• Umbra - cone shaped completely dark
inner part
• Penumbra - outer part, light is only
partially blocked off
 Solar Eclipse
• moon’s umbra may be too short to reach
the earth when the moon is in position
to produce an eclipse
• umbra does fall to reach the earth, sun is
still eclipsed, but not completely
• annular (ring) eclipse may be seen
 Solar Eclipse
Types of Solar Eclipses
• Total Solar Eclipses -
umbra of the Moon's shadow
touches a region on the
surface of the Earth
 Solar Eclipse
Types of Solar Eclipses
• Partial Solar Eclipses -
penumbra of the Moon's
shadow passes over a region
on the Earth's surface
 Solar Eclipse
Types of Solar Eclipses
• Annular Solar Eclipses -
region on the Earth's
surface is in line with the
umbra; distances are such
that the tip of the umbra
does not reach the Earth's
surface
 Seasons
• brought about by the earth’s
revolution the sun and its tilt on
its axis
• earth completes its revolution, it
passes through four distinct
cycles
 Seasons in Ph
• seasons are not pronounced
• near the equator
• receive almost equal amount of
sunlight throughout the year
Time
Time