LECTURE 1

Our Planet: a perspective from the Space

TOPICS TO BE COVERED:

• The Universe
• Where we are … now …
• Formation of the planets
• The Solar System
Source: https://iveybusinessjournal.com/the-big-bang-theory-of-disruption/
 The Universe:
• The universe is everything. It includes all of space, and all the matter and
energy that space contains. It even includes time itself and, of course, it
includes you.

• Earth and the Moon are part of the universe, as are the other planets and their
many dozens of moons. Along with asteroids and comets, the planets orbit the Sun.

• The Sun is one among hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and
most of those stars have their own planets, known as exoplanets.

• The Milky Way is but one of billions of

galaxies in the observable universe — all of
them, including our own, are thought to have
supermassive black holes at their centers.

• All the stars in all the galaxies and all the

other stuff that astronomers can’t even
observe are all part of the universe. It is,
Source: https://www.weekendpost.co.bw/28443/weekendlife/resurrection-of-miss-universe-botswana/
simply, everything.
 1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space
Where did the Universe come from?

European Space Agency – ESA

13.7 Gy ago

nucleosynthesis
(5 minutes)

Doppler Effect – Red shift

 The Observable Universe

Source: https://physicsworld.com/a/across-the-universe/

• Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in
the universe.

• Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which
means it does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation (like light) and is, therefore, difficult
to detect
 Galaxies (Star/Stellar System)
A galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas,
dust, and dark matter. The word is derived from the Greek galaxias, literally 'milky', a
reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System.
 The Milky Way Galaxy

ca. 100,000 light years

Formation of the Solar System
 Nebulae
• A nebula is a distinct luminescent part
of interstellar medium, which can
consist of ionized, neutral or molecular
hydrogen and also cosmic dust.

• Nebulae are often star-forming regions,

such as in the "Pillars of Creation" in
the Eagle Nebula.

• In these regions, the formations of gas,

dust, and other materials "clump"
together to form denser regions, which
attract further matter, and eventually
will become dense enough to form
stars.
The "Pillars of Creation" from the Eagle Nebula
• The remaining material is then believed
to form planets and other planetary
system objects.
1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space
How did they form?

NEBULA

Carina Nebula
http://www.nasa.gov/
 1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space
How did they form?

NEBULA

Protoplanetary disk

University of Colorado Boulder

 1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space

Protoplanetary disk

Vo l a t i l e m a te r i a l s

Refractory
materials

→Volatile materials = gas and “ice”

→Refractory materials = “dust”
1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space

PLANETESIMALS
PROTOPLANET

Gemini Observatory/AURA artwork by Lynette Cook

 DIFFERENTIATION
When planetesimals first formed, they had a fairly homogeneous distribution
of material throughout…

- RADIOACTIVE DECAY
…soon the core of largest
- COLLISIONS
body began to heat up…
- PRESSURE

…iron alloy sank toward the centre

of the Planet:
Our Solar System
Contents of the
Solar System
 The Solar System

Heliosphere: is the outer reach of the solar wind

(highly energetic electrons and protons released
from the upper atmosphere of the Sun).

10 billion of small objects including

comets (icy) and asteroids (metals
and rocks)
Not to scale
→ One AU, an astronomical unit, is the distance between Earth and the Sun, ~150 million km or ~ 93
million miles
 Cross Section of Solar System

the ecliptic

TERRESTRIAL GAS-GIANT OUTER ICE-GIANT

PLANETS PLANETS PLANETS

ASTEROIDS BELT

→ A planetesimal is an object formed from dust, rock, and other materials.

 Outer most Space
European Space Agency – ESA

Comet
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

• The Kuiper Belt is a "junkyard" of countless icy

bodies left over from the solar system's formation.

• The Oort Cloud is a vast shell of billions of comets.

Comets are icy planetesimals that orbit the Sun, mostly made of H2O, CO2, CH4, NH3
European Space Agency – ESA and other volatiles,
organic compounds (?) and dust
 The Sun (Helios/Letsatsi)

• The Sun is the star at the center of the

Solar System.

• It is a nearly perfect ball of hot

plasma, heated to incandescence by
nuclear fusion reactions in its core,
radiating the energy mainly as light,
ultraviolet, and infrared radiation.

• It is the most important source of

energy for life on Earth.

• Roughly three-quarters of the Sun's

mass consists of hydrogen (~73%);
the rest is mostly helium (~25%),
with much smaller quantities of
JPL - NASA heavier elements, including oxygen,
carbon, neon, and iron.
 Stellar nucleosynthesis
STEP 1 - 2 protons collide to produce The Sun's core is a huge
deuterium, a positron, and a neutrino nuclear reactor:
STEP 2 - a proton collides with the
deuterium to produce a helium-3 nucleus
and a gamma ray

STEP 3 - two helium-3s collide to produce

a normal helium-4 nucleus with the
release of two protons.

NASA
Planetary Science: closer to geology than astronomy
 Three Kinds of
Planets
• Rocky: inner Solar system, smaller, high
density, composed of heavier elements
– Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

• Gas giants: Outer Solar system, large,

massive, lower densities, lighter elements
are abundant
– Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

• Dwarf planets: Very Outer Solar

system, low mass, small, icy
– Pluto, Sedna, Eris, Makemake, Ceres, etc.
Mercury
Venus

Pioneer UV
 Earth

Source: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/what-is-an-exoplanet/what-is-the-universe/
Earth’s Moon
Late Heavy Bombardment
 Formation of Earth’s Moon (?)

4.53 Ga

• The giant-impact hypothesis,

sometimes called the Big
Splash, or the Theia Impact

NASA • Suggests that the Moon formed

from the ejecta of a collision
between the proto-Earth and a
Mars-sized planet,
approximately 4.5 billion years
ago.

• The colliding body is

sometimes called Theia
Mars
Jupiter
 Io Europa

Jupiter’s
Moons

Ganymede Calisto
Saturn
 Saturn’s
Moons
Enceladus

Titan
Uranus

Neptune
Pluto and the Dwarf Planets
 Asteroids: Leftover Rocky
Planetesimals
Gaspra by Galileo

Mathilda by NEAR

Eros by Vesta

Ida by Galileo
 Hartle 2
Comets: Leftover
Icy Planetesimals

Halley
When Did the Planets
Form? • Some isotopes decay
into other nuclei
• A half-life is the time
for half the nuclei in
a substance to decay
• Relative abundances
of these isotopes then
give us the age

• Radiometric dating
tells us that oldest
moon rocks are
4.4 billion years old
• Oldest meteorites are
4.55 billion years old
Planetary Atmospheres
 1. Our Planet: a perspective from the Space

CHAPTER 1 of the TEXTBOOK:

Cosmology and the Birth of Earth
pp. 12-33

CHAPTER 2 of the TEXTBOOK:

Journey to the center of the Earth
pp. 34-57

Lecture 1 - Our Planet: a perspective from the Space Fulvio Franchi, PhD