Space Physics Notes

The Earth's Axis

• The Earth is a rocky planet that rotates in a near circular orbit around the Sun.
• It rotates on its axis, which is a line through the north and south pole and the axis is tilted at
an angle of approximately 23.4° from the vertical
• The Earth completes one full rotation (revolution) in approximately 24 hours (1day)
• This rotation creates:
o the apparent daily motion of the Sun rising and setting.
o day and night

The Earth's Orbit

• The Earth orbits the Sun once in approximately 365 days (1 year).
• The combination of the orbiting of the Earth around the Sun and the Earth’s tilt creates the
seasons

Phases of Moon
• The Moon is a satellite around the Earth.
• It travels around the Earth in roughly a circular orbit once a month (28 days).

Orbital Speed
2𝜋𝑟
• 𝑣= 𝑇
𝑣 = 𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑
𝑟 = 𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠
𝑇 = 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑, 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒 1 𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑡
The Solar System

Our solar system consists of:

• One star: the Sun;
• Eight planets, which orbit the Sun;
(Rocky)
1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
(Gaseous)
5. Jupiter
6. Saturn
7. Uranus
8. Neptune

• Dwarf planets, such as Pluto, which also orbit the Sun;

• Natural satellites: the moons that orbit some of the planets (including our moon);
• Other objects like asteroids (small rocky object) and comet (made of dust and ice)

Our solar system is a very small part of the Milky Way galaxy. Galaxies consist of millions of stars,
held together by their gravitational attraction to one another.

Accretion Model of the Solar System

• The Solar System then formed around 4.5 billion years ago.
• The planets were formed from the remnants of the disc cloud of matter left over from the
nebula that formed the Sun.
• Gravity collapsed the matter from the nebula in on itself causing it to spin around the Sun.
• The gravitational attraction between all the small particles caused them to join together and
grow in an accretion process.
• A rotating accretion disc is formed when the planets emerged.
• Where the inner planets were forming near the Sun, the temperature was too high for
molecules such as Hydrogen, Helium, water and Methane to exist in a solid state.
• Therefore, the inner planets are made of materials with high melting point
• Only 1% of the original nebula is composed of heavy elements, so the inner, rocky planets
could not grow much and stayed as a small size, solid and rocky.
• The cooler regions were further away from the Sun, and temperature was low enough for the light
molecules to exist in a solid state, The outer planets therefore could grow to a large size. These
planets are large, gaseous and cold

Light year

The distance travelled by light through space in one year. (9.5 × 1015 m)

Formation of a stable star

• hydrogen gas in stellar cloud (or Nebula) pulled together by gravity.
• temperature of hydrogen increases AND a protostar is formed.
• nuclear fusion begins and outward force from this reaction balances inward force of gravity.
Life Cycle of Stars

• A protostar is a dense region in a nebula, which is still gathering mass by pulling in material
from the nebula by its gravitational pull. So, at this stage, the star is still forming and has not
yet started nuclear fusion reactions.
• Main sequence star: the Sun is a main sequence star. During this stage of a star’s life
cycle, the star is stable in size because the forces acting towards the centre and the
outward forces caused by the nuclear fusion processes are in equilibrium.
• Red giant and red super giant stages:Stars finish their main sequence when the hydrogen
in the core runs out (it has all been fused to helium). This reduces the outward pressure, so
the star begins to collapse inwards due to gravity. In turn, this allows some of the hydrogen
outside the core (the layer of a star we actually see) to begin going through nuclear fusion,
and at a much more rapid rate than during the main sequence. This higher rate of nuclear
fusion produces a larger outward pressure, so the outer layer of the star expands by a great
deal.
• The red giant or red super giant stage ends as the fuel runs out. This causes a drop in
outward pressure, so gravity wins out and causes the collapse of the star. This is really
rapid, though, and causes a shock wave outward. In stars like the Sun, this is violent but
not crazy – the outer layers of the star are ejected relatively slowly out. However, in larger
stars this outwards shock wave is extremely violent, resulting in a supernova.
• The core of the Sun, and similar sized stars, will become a white dwarf. When it has totally
cooled off, it will be a black dwarf.
• The core of larger stars will be left as neutron stars, which are insanely dense objects.
• For a really massive star, the core will collapse to make a black hole
The Big Bang
• Around 14 billion years ago, the Universe began from a very small region thatwas
extremely hot and dense.
• Then there was a giant explosion, which is known as the Big Bang
• This caused the universe to expand from a single point, cooling as it does so, to form the
universe today
• Each point expands away from the others.This is seen from galaxies moving away from
each other, and the further away they are the faster they move.

Evidence for the Big Bang

1. Red Shift

• An increase in the observed wavelength of electromagnet radiation emitted from receding

stars and galaxies.

2. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)

• Microwave radiation is observed at all points in space around the Earth.
• Radiation was produced when the Universe was formed this radiation has expanded into
the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• The CMB map with areas of higher and lower temperature. Places with higher temperature
have a higher concentration of galaxies, Suns and planets
Hubble Constant
• The recessional velocity v of a galaxy is proportional to its distance from Earth.
𝑉
• 𝐻𝑜 = 𝑑
𝐻𝑜 = 𝐻𝑢𝑏𝑏𝑙𝑒 ′ 𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 2.2 × 10−18
𝑣 = recessional velocity of an object, the velocity of an object moving away
from an observer.
𝑑= distance between the object and the Earth

Age of the Universe

1
• 𝑇=𝐻
𝑜

• The gradient of the graph can be used to find the Age of the Universe
• When the distance equals zero, this represents all the matter in the Universe
• being at a single point
• This is the singularity that occurred at the moment of the Big Bang