ESC111

Lecture 1:
The Earth in the Universe

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 Earth in the Universe
Universe:

• Whole cosmic system of matter and energy

of which Earth is a part
• Main constituents are the galaxies, within
which are stars and stellar groupings and
nebulae
• Earth's Sun is one star among the billions of
stars in the Milky Way Galaxy

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 Origin of the Universe

• Numerous theories have been proposed for the origin and structure of
the universe:
• The big bang theory
• Cosmology is the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a
whole. Use scientific method to understand the origin, evolution and the fate of
the entire Universe
• The expanding universe
• The large-scale structure of the Universe is made up of voids and filaments, that can be
broken down into super clusters, clusters, galaxy groups, and subsequently into
galaxies
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 Stars
• A star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma
• Stars shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing
energy (nuclear fusion results in the formation of chemical elements)
• Stars group together to form galaxies, and they dominate the visible universe.
• The nearest star is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth.

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 Galaxies

• Gravitation binds individual stars into

galaxies and also acts to hold clusters of
galaxies together
• Many large galaxies have smaller galaxies,
called satellite galaxies, in close proximity
• The galaxies nearest the Milky Way form a
cluster called the Local Group

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 What are light years?

• Unit of measurement of astronomical distance

• The distance light travels in 1 sidereal year (time required for one complete
revolution of the earth about the sun)
• Light travels at a speed of 300,000 km / sec, so this distance is equal to 9.46 x
10^12km
• The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, typically disk-shaped, with greater
concentration of stars near the centre
• 100,000 light years in diameter
• 10,000 light years thick
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 The Solar System
• Sun and the bodies moving
in orbit around it
• Most massive body in the
solar system is the Sun, a
typical single star that is
itself in orbit about the centre
of the Milky Way Galaxy
• Other bodies in the solar
system—the terrestrial
planets, outer planets,
asteroids, and comets—
revolve in orbits about the
Sun- 2024
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 Terrestrial & Jovian Planets
• Terrestrial
• Closest to the sun
• Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
• Composed primarily of silicate
rock (mantles) and iron (cores)
• Earth is the largest terrestrial
planet, Mercury is the smallest
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• Jovian Gas Giants
• Outer Planets
• Jupiter, Saturn
• Composed primarily of hydrogen
and helium gas, like the Sun, but
with rock and ices, such as frozen
water, methane, and ammonia,
concentrated in their cores
 Terrestrial & Jovian Planets
Jovian Gas Giants

Ice Giants Planets

Uranus, Neptune
Rock and ice cores surrounded by
Terrestrial envelopes with smaller amounts of
hydrogen and helium
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 Sun

• Without the Sun there would be no Solar System

• The Sun does not just provide the energy required for life,
but also provides the gravitational force to hold the planets
in their orbits
• The Sun orbits the centre of our galaxy
• The Sun's orbital period is about 240 million years
• The Sun rotates with an average period of 27 days.
• The rotation period varies with latitude - equatorial regions have a rotational
period of 25 days, whereas polar regions are slower and take 34 days to complete
one rotation.
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 Physical properties of the Sun

• Most massive body in the Solar System, containing 98% of the mass of the Solar System
• More than 330,000 times more massive than the Earth
• Diameter of 1,391,900km
• The Sun is layered and can be divided into three regions:
• Core
• Radiative zone
• Convective zone
• The "surface" of the Sun that we see is the photosphere, above which lies the
chromosphere and the outlying corona

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 Physical properties of the Sun

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 The Moon

• The Moon orbits the Earth at

a distance of 384,400km
• Greatest distance between the
Earth and Moon is 405,503km
• The Moon rotates once on its
axis in 27.3216 days - this is
the same as its orbital period
and therefore the Moon
always keeps the same face
presented to the Earth
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Doppler Effect
• Shows whether Earth Red Shift
and another celestial If source of the
wave (light) is
body are approaching
moving away -
or leaving one light appears redder
another

• Amount of shift
allows us to calculate
the rate at which the Blue Shift
relative movement If the source of
occurs the wave (light)
is approaching
• Therefore, Large – light waves
shifts indicate Higher shift towards
velocities, whereas blue
Small shifts indicate
Lower
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 Meteor
Meteorites

• Meteoroids are small rocks in orbit around the Sun.

Far smaller than asteroids, they make their presence
known to us when they enter Earth's atmosphere and
burn up
• As the meteoroid burns when it comes into contact
with our atmosphere, it creates a bright trail across
the sky - at this point it is called a meteor. If a meteor
hits the surface of the earth it is termed a meteorite Meteoroid

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 Meteorite Classification
• Classified according to composition into 3 groups:
• Irons (mostly Fe with 5-20% Ni)
• Stony (Silicate minerals with other minerals)
• Stony-irons (combination of the two)
• A few large meteorites have produced craters on the earth’s surface
Click icon to add picture

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Barringer Crater in Arizona
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 Asteroids
• Asteroids are rocky bodies in space
• Most asteroids lie between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter
• Smaller than planets, the largest is about 1000km
in diameter, but most are approximately 1km in
diameter
• Asteroids have a variety of chemical
compositions that match meteorites found on
Earth
• Suspected to be fragments of broken up planet
that may have been between Mars and Jupiter,
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though it has very little mass compared to earth.
 Comets
• Usually comets are very small bodies in space
consisting of frozen gases and grains of dust
and rock
• When comets approach the inner Solar System
and become subjected to the Sun's heat, they
develop a “tail” millions of kilometres long
• Comets have very elliptical orbits They come
very close to the Sun, and then travel to the
outer Solar System Short-period comets have
periods of less than 200 years
• Long-period comets can take up to a million
years to complete just one orbit of the Sun thus
indicating different source
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Earth

• Started to form, along with the other planets,

from material rotating around the young Sun
about 4 thousand million years ago (4000 Ma
years or 4 Ga)
• Solid material came together in a process called
planetary accretion
• During the this process, small solid objects are drawn
together by gravity, producing a larger object
• Estimated age of the Earth is 4.6 Ga
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The Earth
• Soon after the Earth formed, unique processes occurred
known as differentiation which caused division into:
• metallic core
• silicate mantle
• crust
• Along with surface water, made it different from the other planets in our Solar
System
• The Earth can be divided into two main parts:
• atmosphere: measured from the surface of the Earth upwards to 150 km (anything above
this is called space)
• solid Earth: measured from the surface of the Earth downwards to the core
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 Solid Earth subdivisions/ geospheres

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 Solid Earth subdivisions/ geospheres
• Atmosphere • Biosphere
• An envelope of gas surrounding the earth
• Consists of :
• Composed of all living
• 78% Nitrogen
organisms
• 21% Oxygen • Plants, animals, and one-celled
• With minor amounts of:
organisms are all part of the
• Argon
• Carbon dioxide
biosphere
• Neon, Methane, Ozone,
• Carbon monoxide,
• Sulphur dioxide
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 Solid Earth subdivisions/ geospheres

• Hydrosphere • Lithosphere
• Composed of all of the water on
or near the earth
• The lithosphere is the solid,
rocky crust covering entire
• This includes the oceans, rivers,
lakes, and even the moisture in
planet
the air • This crust is inorganic and is
• 97% percent of the earth's water composed of minerals
is in the oceans
• The remaining 3% is fresh water;
• It covers the entire surface
three-quarters of the fresh water of the earth
is solid and exists in ice sheets
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