UNIT 7: THE UNIVERSE

Index

1. The Universe
2. Galaxies and stars
3. The Solar System
4. The Earth and the Moon
5. The Earth’s movements
6. Eclipses and tides
1. THE UNIVERSE

UNIVERSE : Is all the matter, energy, space and time in existence

▪ What does it look like?

• Ancient astronomers (observation) →

- flat and covered by a dome
- Stars were holes

• Then, old theories →

- Geocentric model
- Heliocentric model
-Ptolemy (ancient Greek) -Copernicus (16th century)
-Earth at the centre of the Universe -Sun at the centre of the Universe
-everything revolved around it -everything revolved around it

www.anayaeducacion.es “The story of Galileo”

• What do we know nowadays? →
- Mainly empty space with very little matter
- It is spreading
- Most of the matter concentrated into groups of galaxies (clusters)

More than 100 thousand million galaxies!

Each containing thousands of millions of stars!

Galaxies from Hubble

-size (100.000 million ly)

LIGHT-YEAR (ly) → Distances between stars and galaxies

=distance that light travels in one year at 300.000 km/second

(aprox 10.000.000 million km)

ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (AU) → Distances between planets

= distance between Earth and the Sun = 150 000 000 km

-origin (13.7 billion years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmUiCweDic4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdPzOWlLrbE
2.- GALAXIES AND STARS

▪ GALAXIES : enormous collections of stars + other celestial bodies

+ gas + cosmic dust, spinning in space

• Our cluster galaxies is LOCAL GROUP

• Our Galaxy is the MILKY WAY
• Our SYSTEM is the SOLAR
SYSTEM
• Our PLANET is the EARTH
• Our STAR is the SUN
All the stars that you can see
in the sky belong to the Milky
Way!!!
▪ STAR : spherical celestial bodies formed of huge quantitites of
incandescent gas that emit their own light

-made of hydrogen and helium

-the closer, the brighter

-color depending on the Tª on the Surface:

blue (25000ºC) > White (10000ºC) > yellow (6000ºC) > red (<6000ºC)

Youngest oldest
Hydrogen particle 4 helium
particles + energy (nuclear
fusión)

Natgeogr stars 101

 The Sun is our star

▪ The SUN is in the centre of the Solar System

▪ It’s a small, yellow star (Tª on surface 6000ºC (around 15 000 000 ºC in the nucleus )
▪ Made of 75% hydrogen + 25% helium + small % oxygen, carbon, iron…
▪ Light emited by the sun, takes 8,4 minutes to reach the Earth
▪ Rotates on its axis, in an anticlockwise direction (once every 25 days aprox.)
▪ Orbis the centre of the Milky way (once every 200 million years)

▪ https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/sun1.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA
COMPARING STARS SIZE
3.- THE SOLAR SYSTEM

▪ SOLAR SYSTEM : planetary system formed of 8 planets + other celestial

bodies, orbiting the Sun

Inner and outer planets

Dwarf planets,
Satellites,
asteroids,
comets
 PLANETS

▪ PLANETS: spherical bodies orbiting the Sun, without light, that reflect Sunlight

-orbit in the same plane (ecliptic)

-also rotate on themselves in an anticlockwise

direction
exception: Venus and Uranus

https://twitter.com/physicsJ/status/1079061451845890048
 INNER OUTER
SIZE Small Large
FORMED MAINLY OF Rock Gases
LOCATED Near the Sun Farther from the Sun
SATELLITES None or Few Many
RINGS No Yes
SPIN Slowly Quickly
NAMES Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptun
Mars
OTHER CELESTIAL BODIES

▪ DWARF PLANETS: smaller spherical bodies orbiting the Sun, that reflect
Sunlight and haven’t cleared their orbits
▪ SATELLITES: bodies orbiting planets, that reflect Sunlight

▪ ASTEROIDS: small rocky bodies orbiting the Sun,

found mainly in the Asteroid belt. When escape
from their orbit → meteorites

▪ COMETS: small bodies made up of rock + ice +gas

+ dust, with elliptical orbit around the Sun; found
mainly in Kuiper belt. When approach to the Sun,
evaporates → tail
 5.- THE EARTH AND THE MOON

-Geoid (spherical but flattened at the poles

-Imaginary plane (equator) divides it into 2 hemispheres

-Axis tilted 23º

-Most abundant elements: Fe, O2, Si, Mg

-Layer of gases surrounding it (atmosphere)
-Layer of water (hydrosphere)

-The only with known life

-2 movements:
-rotation, on its axis → days and nights
-revolution, around the Sun → seasons
Anayaeducacion the Origin of the Earth
 THE EARTH AND THE MOON

-Reflects sunlight

-Craters (meteorite impacts)

-2 movements:

-rotation on its axis (28 days)

-orbit the Earth (28 days)

We always see the same side of the Moon (synchronous rotation)

 MOON PHASES (lunar phases)

Waxing
Gibbous

Waning Crescent
 ECLIPSES AND TIDES
Both are consequences of the Moon’s effects on our planet

▪ ECLIPSE: when one celestial body obscures another celestial body (totally or partially)

y !!
o d
n b
de
hid
the
of
e
nam
the
ke
Ta

Sun Moon Earth Sun Earth Moon

Shadow = Umbra (aprox 200 km radius) Visible from any región of the Earth
Anayaeducacion How to watch a solar eclypse
facing the Moon (Moon reddish)
▪ TIDES: regular rise and fall of the sea level due to the gravitational pull of the Moon
mainly (but also due to the gravitational pull of the Sun), on the Earth’s water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RdkXs8BibE
 SPRING TIDES NEAP TIDES
Variations in sea More extreme Less extreme
level (loow and high
tide)
Position Moon &Sun Aligned 90º
Sun action Add up to the Moon’s one Weakens the Moon’s
effect