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The Solar System:. A Family Portrait. Q.How did the solar system form? A. (possible) The Nebular Theory . Nebular Cloud This massive loosely-bound cloud of dust, ice particles, and gases (primarily hydrogen and helium) had some small rate of rotation due to the method in which it was formed.
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The Solar System: A Family Portrait
Q.How did the solar system form?A. (possible) The Nebular Theory • Nebular Cloud • This massive loosely-bound cloud of dust, ice particles, and gases (primarily hydrogen and helium) had some small rate of rotation due to the method in which it was formed. • Over time, this nebular cloud began to collapse inward. The collapse may have itself been triggered by a supernova that sent shockwaves through the cloud causing it to compress. • As the cloud compressed on itself, the gravitational attraction of the matter within increased and pulled the material in even further. • The nebula continued to contract under the influence of gravity causing it to spin faster. The more the cloud contracted, the faster it rotated due to the conservation of angular momentum. • The rate of contraction was greatest near the center of the cloud where a dense central core began to form. • As the rate of rotation of the nebula continued to increase, centrifugal effects caused the spinning cloud to flatten into a disk with a bulge at its center.
Q.How did the solar system form?A. (possible) The Condensation with Accretion Model http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/astr121-2005/Notes/Chapter15.html
Basic Motion Vocabulary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkWyM-M8o0c
The Zodiac: Nothing to live by, but something to dance to! Definition: The set of constellations that the sun, moons, and major planets move across. Due to the fact that the planets revolve around the Sun’s center of gravity, the 8 major planets form a fairly flat disk, which from Earth is seen as a linear path in the sky, called the ecliptic. The background constellations for the ecliptic form the zodiac. Members of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud are less restricted to the ecliptic, due to the sun’s weaker gravity at that distance. So comets can be seen in almost any constellation.
How the Dance Works… http://www.astronomynotes.com/nakedeye/s5.htm
Zodiac, cont. The sun takes about a month to pass through each zodiacal constellation. Since the sun and moon both occupy about the same area in our sky (~ one degree, or one fingertip), eclipses can occur when the two are in the same constellation – hence the term, ecliptic.
Basic Overview of the Solar System • http://www.space.com/12288-solar-system-photo-tour-sun-planets-moons.html
Mercury • Smallest major planet • rotates three times in two of its years. • Very little atmosphere; looks very much like moon. • Inferior orbit to earth; goes through phases.
The Phases of Mercury http://www.aaa.org/month0901
♀ Venus Earth’s “twin” due to being close in size. Retrograde rotation. Extremely thick atmosphere of CO2 and H2SO4 makes for “Greenhouse Effect” run amock. Venus is hottest and most volcanic planet in Solar System.
Phases of Venus http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060110.html
Earth Only place in universe known to have… Water in liquid form Large amounts of O2 Life
Mars Tantalizing with its bright red color due to iron oxide surface, polar ice caps, and evidence of water having once flowed on its surface. A Martian day is almost the same as an Earth day. Largest volcano in Solar System – Olympus Mons (or Tharsis Rise?) Largest Canyon – Valles Marineris
Jupiter Largest planet Mostly composed of H2 Colorful bands actually mark global wind belts. “ Great Red Spot” – huge storm that continues to blow around the southern hemisphere for eternity(?) Has four major (“Galilean”) moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto – plus many, many more
Io Innermost of Jupiter’s moons First extraterrestrial object discovered to have active volcanoes; Extremely tectonically active due to tidal forces exerted by Jupiter
More on Io Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. http://www.astro.washington.edu/courses/labs/clearinghouse/labs/Io/volcanoes_io.html
Europa – an icy world Thought to be covered with water ice, which occasionally erupts out in geyser form
Callisto & Ganymede Callisto has pockmarked surface due to comet impacts
Ganymede Largest moon in Solar System
Fire from the heavens • http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ida.html
Saturn Most beautiful telescope object in solar system Planet is naked-eye; rings are not. Rings composed of ice and rock
Titan – Saturn’s unusual moon You “will find a tropical world where temperatures plunge to minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit, methane rains from the sky and dunes of ice or tar cover the planet's most arid regions.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002114345.htm
Uranus Blue due to CH4 in its upper atmosphere. Completely bizarre axis tilt – why? this planet is so tilted that it's poles are alternately facing the Sun. This means that while one pole is getting 42 years of continuous sunlight, the opposite pole gets 42 years of darkness. This would lead one to believe that the polar region facing the Sun would be the hottest point on the planet, but it isn't, the equator is hotter than any of the poles during their days in the Sun.
Uranian Moons Named after Shakespearian characters.
The Broken Moon - Miranda Was it shattered by a comet impact – then came back together?
Neptune Last of the major planets.
Largest of Neptune’s moons – Triton Contains ice volcanoes? Retrograde orbit is bringing it ever closer to Neptune.
Beyond the Planets: Kuiper Belt v. Oort Cloud
Kuiper Belt http://www.solstation.com/stars/kuiper.htm
Oort Cloud http://www.solstation.com/stars/oort.htm
Comets and Meteors – related? Comets – Kuiper & Oort objects that somehow get bumped out of their orbit and so begin making trips into the inner solar system, sublimating as they near the sun, thus forming beautiful tails. This tail material refreezes and remains suspended in space. Meteors – As Earth passes through these comet remains, our atmosphere catches them up like a vacuum cleaner and they disintegrate as a streak of light.
Current Positions for Planets http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar/action?sys=-Sf How old will you be when each of these planets RETURNS to its current place?