PHY2390 Astronomy Fall 2020 Liang Chen: Planet Formation and Exoplanets

PHY2390 Astronomy
Fall 2020
Liang Chen
12
Planet Formation
and Exoplanets
12–1
Chapter 12
The Goals of This Chapter

• To understand our place in the universe, in this
chapter we will explore the origins of our solar system
and find answers to four important questions:
– What are the observed properties of our solar system
as a whole?
– How did our solar system form? M ilky Way
G F A C T: The the
– How do planets form? STIN e of
INTERE axy is only on laxies
Gal lio n s of ga
– What do astronomers know il
many b in the sky.
visible
about other planetary systems?
12–2 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12.1 The Great Chain of Origins
The History of the Atoms

in Your Body
• The matter in our solar system formed in the
big bang.
• Atoms heavier than helium formed in successive
generations of stars.
• Our solar system may exist because of a
supernova explosion that occurred about
4.6 billion years ago:dust cloud was shocked into
`condensation’ by explosion wind.

The Origin of the Solar System

• Solar nebula theory – A theory of formation of
the solar system consistent with our current
observations that describes how a rotating cloud
of gas and dust gravitationally collapsed and
flattened into a disk around the Sun forming at
the centre, and the planets forming around it.
• Earth and the other planets of our solar system
formed billions of years ago as the Sun
condensed from the interstellar medium.

Planets: Clearing the

neighbourhood, i.e.
sweeping and/or absorbing
everything on their orbit

12.2 A Survey of the Planets
Revolution and Rotation

Two Kinds of Planets

• The two kinds of planets are distinguished by
their location. The four inner (Terrestrial) planets
are quite different from the four outer (Jovian)
planets.
• Almost every solid surface in the solar system is
covered with craters.
• The two groups of planets are also distinguished
by properties such as composition, rings, and
moons. Any theory of the origin of planets needs
to explain these properties.







The Terrestrial Planets, definition and facts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuoGsea9mPY
The Jovian Planets: introduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Q2hCdnxtE
Document on Mercury & Venus ~ 47 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziSBRqGu_VE

12.3 Space Debris: Asteroids, Comets, and Meteoroids
Asteroids Small, rocky worlds.

• Generally irregular in shape and battered by impact
cratering.
• Most orbit between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid
belt, located about 3 AU from the Sun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS9vmGQxS_M
• The asteroid belt represents debris left behind
by a failed planet formation (Jupiter prevented
planetesimals to coalesce into a planet). Orbital
resonance: Jupiter’s orbit is 11.86 years at about 5.2
AU. The 4:1 resonance at about 2 AU is considered
inner limit of belt (P2 = R3). 2:1 resonance is at about
3.3 AU, outer limit.
12–16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGw0kQufhgM
Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.
Asteroid Mathilda
A Basalt meteorite
Asteroid Vesta

Comets
Small, icy bodies that orbit the Sun and produce tails
of gas and dust when they approach the Sun.
• Comet nuclei contain ices of water and other volatile

(easily vaporized) compounds.
• Short period comets originate from the Kuiper belt
beyond Neptune’s orbit, where thousands of small,
icy objects exist.
• Long period comets originate from the Oort Cloud,
a roughly spherical region located about 1 ly from
the Sun.
Gas tail are ionized gas pushed by solar wind (pointy&straight)

Dust tail are larger particles pushed by solar wind (diffuse&curve)
Gas (ion) tail
g fac t on e
in
Interest anti-tail
e
could se
es
sometim
https://ww
w.youtube.
com/watch
?v=R8L_JcX
12–20 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc. JO4c
Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites

• Meteoroid – A rock in space before it enters
Earth’s atmosphere.
• Meteor – A streak of light produced by a small
bit of rock as it propagates through Earth’s
atmosphere.
• Meteorite – A meteoroid that survives the
passage through the atmosphere and reaches
Earth’s surface.

Meteorites
• Iron meteorites – Solid chunks of iron and nickel.
• Stony meteorites – Silicate masses that resemble
Earth rocks.
• Carbonaceous chondrite – A stony meteorite that
contains small, glassy spheres (chondrules) and
volatiles.
• Stony-iron meteorites – Mixtures of iron and stone.



OW ER
O R SH rs th at
E
MET of meteo one
d i splay ome from tood
A to c ; unders
e a r
ap p th e sky
y d e bris.
in ar
point e comet
to b

12.4 The Story of Planet Formation
The Age of the Solar System

• Radioactive dating can be used to determine the age of
a rocky body.
• The half-life of a radioactive element is the time
it takes for half of the radioactive atoms to decay into
daughter elements, in exponential fashion. N.B. half life
is t1/2, not 𝑡 !/# !!
• Some of the oldest meteorites are 4.6 billion years old
® this is accepted as the age
of the solar system. oldest kn ow n ro ck on
The a s fo u n d in
et w
the plan Te rri tories.
w e st
the North



Chemical Composition of the

Solar Nebula
• The solar nebula was a fragment of an interstellar
gas cloud (hydrogen, helium, heavier elements).
• The composition of Jupiter and the other Jovian
planets resembles the composition of the Sun.
• The remaining heavier elements are present in the
composition of Earth, the other Terrestrial planets,
and meteorites.

Condensation of Solids
• Uncompressed density – The density a planet would
have if its gravity did not compress it.
• Condensation sequence – The sequence in which
different materials condense from the solar nebula,
depending on their distance from the Sun.
• The inner nebula was hot, and only metals and
rock could condense there; the outer nebula was cold,
and so lots of ices could also form.
• Ice line – A boundary beyond which water vapour could
freeze to form ice.

Ice Line

Formation of Planetesimals
• Planetesimal – One of the small bodies that
formed from the solar nebula and eventually
grew into a protoplanet.
• Condensation – The growth of a particle by
addition of material from surrounding gas, atom
by atom.
• Accretion – The sticking together of solid
particles to produce a larger particle.

Growth of Protoplanets
• Protoplanets grew via gentle planetesimal
collisions.
• If planetesimals collided at orbital velocities, it is
unlikely that they would have stuck together.
• Once a protoplanet approached a mass of
15 Earth masses or so it could begin to grow by
gravitational collapse, the rapid accumulation
from the nebula of large amounts of infalling gas.

Growth of Protoplanets (cont’d)

• The Terrestrial planets may have
formed slowly. ION
IAT
E RENT on of
• The Jovian planets may have F
DIF eparati rial
s
The ary mate
formed more rapidly. et et
plan e a plan sity.
insid g to den
rd in
• The creation of a planetary ac co
atmosphere from a planet’s interior

is called outgassing.

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=sCkhEu3lYNc

Bombardment of the Planets

• Heavy bombardment –
The intense cratering that
occurred sometime during
the first 0.5 billion years
in the history of the solar
system. T)
H O B JEC
A R -E ART b od y
N E te m t
NEO ( ll solar sys ith an orbi
A sma r comet) w at it poses
A 5 km rock did ste ro id o Eart h th llision.
(a to co
this 214 M-y ago... e n o ugh eventual
n ea r at of
th re
some
A large impact in the Yucatan region of Mexico may

have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=HgT7zvvLYjs
A 10 km rock did
this 66 M-y ago...
Gravity map indicates local

12–38
mass density variations
https://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=HXgq3Iq4wOk

Explaining the Characteristics of the

Solar System
• The Sun and planets revolve and rotate in the
same direction, because they formed from the
same rotating gas cloud.
• Evolutionary theory – An explanation of a
phenomenon involving slow, steady processes
of the sort seen happening in the present day.
Lots of time...

Explaining the Characteristics of

the Solar System (1)
• Catastrophic theory – An explanation of a
phenomenon involving special, sudden, perhaps
violent, events.
• Some peculiarities in the solar system could be
explained by the catastrophic theory.
• Uranus – rotates on its side. Was hit?
• Venus – rotates backward. “I’m different!”
• The unusually large Moon. Earth was likely hit by rock.


• The Terrestrial planets formed in the inner solar
nebula:
• the temperature was high, so only compounds such as
metals and silicates could condense to form solid particles.
• The Jovian planets formed in the outer solar nebula:
• the lower temperature allowed the gas to condense into
large amounts of ices.
• the planets grew rapidly and became massive.


• All four Jovian worlds have ring systems and
numerous moons.
• A large mass makes it easier for a planet to hold
on to orbiting ring particles.
• Due to the large distance from the Sun, the ring
particles are not as easily swept away by the
pressure of sunlight and the solar wind.


• The asteroids are the last remains of rocky
planetesimals, and the comets are the last of the
icy planetesimals.
• Some icy planetesimals formed in the outskirts of
the solar system (Kuiper belt).
• Some icy planetesimals were ejected
i nf l u e n ce of
into the Oort cloud. Th e g ravi tational
r preven
ted a
a ss i ve Jupite e e n M ars
m tw
t fo r m a tion be a n ce .
plane l re so n
J u p i te r: orbita
an d


• The solar nebula theory predicts that the planets
formed at the same time as the Sun, and they
should all have roughly the same age.
• Heat of formation (energy released by infalling
matter) is high for Jovian planets.
• Jovian planets are still cooling today.

12.5 Planet-Forming Disks Around Young Stars
Planet-Forming Disks Around Other Stars and Debris Disks
• Protoplanetary disks
– Dense disks of gas and dust surrounding stars in
the process of forming
• Debris disks
– Planets already formed
– Cold and low density
– Produced by dust from collisions among asteroids,
comets, and Kuiper belt objects.

Protoplanetary Disks

Debris Disks

12.6 Exoplanets: Planets Orbiting Other Stars
Exoplanets
• Planets orbiting a star other than the Sun.
• In 1988, Canadian astronomers discovered the first
exoplanet orbiting a binary star system (the discovery
was not confirmed until 2002).
• In 1995, the first planet orbiting a sunlike star
(51 Pegasi) was discovered.
• In 2007, astronomers discovered low-mass planets in
the habitable (“Goldilocks”) zone around a red dwarf
star named Gliese 581, about 20 light-years away.

Exoplanets (cont’d)
• NASA’s Kepler mission was in a quest to find Earth-like
planets in habitable zones around other stars.
• The Spitzer infrared telescope, prior to the Kepler
mission, discovered numerous large, hot, Jupiter-like
planets (“hot Jupiters”) around their stars.
• In 2007, the Spitzer telescope detected water on an
exoplanet.
• In 2008, the Hubble telescope found the first evidence
of organic molecules on an extrasolar planet.

Exoplanets (cont’d)
• As of 2020, more than 4000 exoplanets have been
confirmed.
• Over 700 of the known planets exist in multiplanetary
systems.
A R Y S Y STEM
LANET d
MULITIP taining a star an
con
A system n o n e p l a net
more tha

Techniques for Finding Exoplanets

• Transit method – Searching for the dimming of their
parent stars when the planet passes in front of the
star.
• Doppler method – Detecting the motion of a star in
response to the gravity of one or more unseen planets
in orbit around it.
• Direct imaging – Taking a picture of an exoplanet.

Transit Method

Doppler Method

Direct Imaging



Chapter 12
Summary
• The Great Chain of Origins
• A Survey of the Planets
• Space Debris: Asteroids, Comets, and
Meteoroids
• The Story of Planet Formation
• Planet-Forming Disks Around Young Stars
• Exoplanets: Planets Orbiting Other Stars

59
Kepler mission 6 min:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wxd3fDFmO4
Kepler mission catalogue 4 min:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDHoL9aJikA
Solar system history 12 min:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgVwzm3u3mc
The End
Earth 11mins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wM6cK4ZjUg&index=4
&list=PLmwTVwK6UFM3zFuSgBkaARltwI_Zu04yP
12–59 Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.

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PHY2390 Astronomy

The Goals of This Chapter

12–2 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

The History of the Atoms

12–3 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

The Origin of the Solar System

12–4 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Planets: Clearing the

12–6 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Revolution and Rotation

12–7 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Two Kinds of Planets

12–8 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–9 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–10 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–11 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–12 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–13 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–14 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

The Jovian Planets: introduction

Document on Mercury & Venus ~ 47 minutes:

12–15 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Asteroids Small, rocky worlds.

12–17 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

• Comet nuclei contain ices of water and other volatile

Gas tail are ionized gas pushed by solar wind (pointy&straight)

Gas (ion) tail

Meteoroids, Meteors, Meteorites

12–21 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–22 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–23 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–24 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–25 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

The Age of the Solar System

12–26 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–27 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–28 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Chemical Composition of the

12–29 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–30 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–31 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–32 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–33 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Growth of Protoplanets (cont’d)

atmosphere from a planet’s interior

12–34 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

12–35 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Bombardment of the Planets

A large impact in the Yucatan region of Mexico may

Gravity map indicates local

12–39 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of the

12–40 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of

12–41 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of

12–42 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of

12–43 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of

12–44 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.

Explaining the Characteristics of

12–45 Copyright © 2021 by Cengage Learning Canada, Inc.