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Lecture 5. Origin of the Solar System, Formation of the Earth

Lecture 5. Origin of the Solar System, Formation of the Earth. reading: Chapter 4. Early Observations of Saturn. Galileo’s 1616 sketch:. Galileo first observed Saturn’s rings in 1610 with his new telescope. But they were fuzzy - couldn’t identify them - “ears”. “Ears” changed shape.

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Lecture 5. Origin of the Solar System, Formation of the Earth

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  1. Lecture 5. Origin of the Solar System, Formation of the Earth reading: Chapter 4

  2. Early Observations of Saturn Galileo’s 1616 sketch: Galileo first observed Saturn’s rings in 1610 with his new telescope. But they were fuzzy - couldn’t identify them - “ears”. “Ears” changed shape. 1655 Christiaan Huygens, used a better telescope. Discovered rings. 1675 Giovanni Domenico Cassini saw there were multiple rings with gaps between them. (Cassini Division) Many rings? Rings solid?

  3. Nebular Hypothesis French mathematician & astronomer Pierre Simon Laplace1785 Used math to study Saturn’s rings. Realized if solid, gravity would disrupt it. Calculated Saturn must be a rotating sphere of gas. If mass in the center, periphery rotates rapidly, outer part distends outward to form disk If spinning faster, would form a ring. If gravitational interactions in the ring, get several rings. Then reasoned that if the center part is not a planet but a star, the disk or ring could form planets - Nebular Hypothesis. Idea also described by Immanual Kant in 1775.

  4. Modern Nebular Hypothesis New stars in Milky Way: 98% H and He 2% heavy elements Start out with an interplanetary cloud of gas and dust The Solar Nebula. Only way to collapse the cloud: gravitational perturbation - start cloud spinning - gravity will pull matter together - most mass will concentrate in center - cloud will spin faster - cloud forms a disk, 1000 AU - protoplanetary disk Process of accretion - gas and dust denser - particles collide (bounce, stick, or break up) - if stick, can stick to more particles

  5. Accretion • Process of accretion not very well understood. • Disk made of same stuff as the interplanetary cloud: • - mostly H and He • - ices H2O, CH4 (methane), NH3 (ammonia) • - rock silicates • - evenly distributed in the disk • Particles for planetesimals = little planets • when 1 km across, gravity attracts more particles • few 100 km across, is planetesimal • - get thousands of planetesimals • Sun gets more massive, enters T Tauri phase. • Planetesimals impact each other and grow into planets. • Thermonuclear reactions begin.

  6. T- Tauri Phase • Early Sun: • lasts 100 million years • H burning not yet begun • - heated as they contract and grow • - intense X-rays, radio waves, intense solar wind • loses ~50% of its mass early on • - solar wind blows away residual gases & volatiles • - large radii • - about half have disks

  7. Heating the Solar Nebula M M J V S U E Sun heats up the disk: - inner part hot - outer part cold What happens when you heat: - H and He (gets warmer) - ices (melt or vaporize into gas) - rock (gets warmer)

  8. Inner Solar System Mercury H and He get heated, pushed out. Ices vaporize, pushed out. Rock left. Get Terrestrial Planets. Venus Venera 14 lander images of Venus

  9. Gas Giants Cassini spacecraft image during Jupiter flyby, 2003, Not rocky, not icy. Started to grow as large rocky/icy bodies. Gravity started to suck in H and He from the disk. Runaway gravitational attraction of gas. Occurred before T Tauri phase. Gas giants formed early. Composition of solar nebula & early Sun. Jupiter is 5.2 AU Saturn is 9.5 AU

  10. More Gas Giants Uranus, taken by Keck telescope, 2004 Uranus & Neptune have both abundant gas and ices. More enriched in C and N than Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus: 19.2 AU 83% H 15% He 2% CH4 Neptune: 30.1 AU 85% H 13% He 2% CH4 Neptune, taken by Voyager 2

  11. Outer Solar System Bodies formed more slowly, far apart. Pluto: 40 AU, Surface T -235 to -210˚C 70% rock and 30% water ice other ices: methane, ethane, carbon monoxide Kuiper Belt: disk shaped region 30-50 AU many small icy bodies source of short period comets Oort Cloud: much further out; spherical cloud significant fraction of mass of solar system (Jupiter mass) extends out 3 light years! source of long period comets Pluto and Charon (its moon) taken by Hubble Space Telescope

  12. Evidence See halos of dust and gas around other stars. Similar dimensions and our solar system. Also finding abundant gas giant planets around other stars. Young stars (T Tauri) have jets of matter from intense solar wind. Disks and planet formation may be common in the universe! • Primitive meteorites: • - age of the solar system. • early accreting bodies • composed of.

  13. How Long Did it Take? • To form disk: 50,000 - 100,000 years • Initial accretion: 10 million years. • Disk destroyed by T Tauri star: by 25 myrs. • Lots of left over planetesimals and dust. • Slowly will impact other surfaces, • until most are gone. • Accretion is still occurring! • But most was finished by 3.8 Ga. • Evidence: craters on the Moon • know age of Moon surface from Moon • rocks returned by astronauts • - observe craters sizes and abundance.

  14. The Very Young Earth • Molten at the surface - very hot. • Sources of heat: • Impact heating melts rock violent surface • Radioactive decay - unstable isotopes decay into more stable daughter elements - heat released - lots of radioactive elements early on - most long decayed • Core formation Earth is very large - takes a long time for it to cool.

  15. Differentiation of the Earth We know interior of the Earth has a different composition from the surface. Crust - basalt and granite Mantle - Mg and Si rich rock (plastic - 67% of Earth’s mass) Outer core - molten S, Fe, Ni Inner core - solid S, Fe, Ni } 32% of Earth’s mass

  16. Differentiation of the Earth, cont. Process not well understood. Heated planetesimals (silicate rock, volatiles, C). Melting occurs. Dense elements sink (Fe, Ni), others float (Si, Al, O). Releases additional heat (gravitational potential energy).

  17. Titius-Bode Law 1772 J. E. Bode 1776 J. D. Titus Noted a progression of sizes of the orbits of the planets. Distance derived by adding 4 to the series of numbers: 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96. Only something was missing! 1801 Giuseppe Piazzi of Sicily - creating a star catalogue - found a star-like body - had retrograde motion Mathematician calculated orbit at 2.77 AU 1802 others found star-like points there “aster-oid” total mass < 10% of the moon.

  18. Lecture 6. Formation of the Moon, Absolute Ages, Radiometric Dating reading: Chapter 4

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