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Formation of Our Solar System. By the Lunar and Planetary Institute For Use in Teacher Workshops. Image: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=178. Some data to explain: 1. Planets isolated 2. Orbits ~circular / in ~same plane
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Formation of Our Solar System By the Lunar and Planetary InstituteFor Use in Teacher Workshops Image: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=178
Some data to explain: 1. Planets isolated 2. Orbits ~circular / in ~same plane 3. Planets (and moons) travel along orbits in same direction…. same direction as Sun rotates (counter-clockwise viewed from above) Lunar and Planetary Institute image at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=175
Some more data to explain: 4. Most planets rotate in this same direction Mercury 0° Venus 177° Earth 23° Mars 25° Jupiter 3° Saturn 27° Uranus 98° Neptune 30° NASA images edited by LPI
And some more data to explain: 5. Solar System highly differentiated: Terrestrial Planets (rocky, dense with density ~4-5 g/cm3) Jovian Planets (light, gassy, H, He, density 0.7-2) Images: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=178
How Did We Get a Solar System? Image: LPI Huge cloud of cold, thinly dispersed interstellar gas and dust – threaded with magnetic fields that resist collapse Hubble image at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/emission/2006/41/image/a/
How Did We Get a Solar System? Image: LPI Concentrations of dust and gas in the cloud; material starts to collect (gravity > magnetic forces) Hubble image at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/emission/2005/35/image/a/
How Did We Get a Solar System? Gravity concentrates most stuff near center Heat and pressure increase Collapses – central proto-sun rotates faster (probably got initial rotation from the cloud) Image: LPI http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_1.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Rotating, flattening, contracting disk - solar nebula! • Equatorial Plane • Orbit Direction NASA artwork at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ra4-protoplanetary-disk.jpg
How Did We Get a Solar System? • After ~10 million years, material in center of nebula hot enough to fuse H • “...here comes the sun…” NASA/JPL-Caltech Image at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/spitzer-20060724.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Metallic elements (Mg, Si, Fe) condense into solids at high temps. Combined with O to make tiny grains • Lower temp (H, He, CH4, H2O, N2, ice) - outer edges • Planetary Compositions Hubble photo at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/star/protoplanetary-disk/2005/10/image/a/layout/thumb/
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Inner Planets: • Hot – Silicate minerals, metals, no light elements, ice • Begin to stick together with dust clumps Image: LPI http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_3.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Accretion - particles collide and stick together … or break apart … gravity not involved if small pieces • Form planetesimals, up to a few km across Image: LPI http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_3.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Gravitational accretion: planetesimals attract stuff • Large protoplanets dominate, grow rapidly, clean up area ( takes ~10 to 25 My) Image: LPI http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_4.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? • Outer Solar System • Cold – ices, gases – 10x more particles than inner • May have formed icy center, then captured lighter gases (Jupiter and Saturn first? Took H and He?) Image: LPI http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/timeline/gallery/slide_5.html
How Did We Get a Solar System? The Asteroid Belt ? Should have been a planet instead of a debris belt? Jupiter kept it from forming Eros image at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery.cfm?Category=Planets&Object=Asteroids&Page=1
How Did We Get a Solar System? Beyond the Gas Giants - Pluto, Charon and the Kuiper Belt objects Chunks of ice and rock material Little time / debris available to make a planet – slower!!
Early in the Life of Planets • Planetesimals swept up debris • Accretion + Impacts = HEAT • Eventually begin to melt materials • Iron, silica melt at different temperatures • Iron sank – density layering Image from LPI: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=168
Pause to recall the Play Doh accretion activity But wait, there’s more …. We can differentiate!
When did Our Solar System Form … How do We Know? Image: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=178
When Did the Solar System Form? • 4.56 billion years ago • How do we know? (evidence for formation) • Lunar samples - 4.5 to 4.6 Ga • Meteorites - 4.56 Ga • Earth – 3.9 (or 4.4 Ga) Lunar meteorite at http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/stones/mac88105.htm Meteorite photo by Carl Allen at http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/Education/Activities/ExpMetMys/..%5C..%5CSlideSets/ExpMetMys/Slides1-9.htm
Solar System SamplesMeteorites Image: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=2093 And http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-asteroids.html
Earliest history of Solar System - chemical and physical info about formation and building blocks of planets (rest of stuff was pulled into the Sun or other planets….) Sample Return 1/15/2006 • Stardust Passed through Comet Wild 2 Coma 1/2004 Stardust image at http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news97.html Info and images at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
We Can Also Look Around …. Close-up of "Proplyds" in Orion Thanks Hubble! Hubble images at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/emission/1994/24/image/a/ and http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/nebula/emission/1994/24/image/b/
Comets • Dirty snowballs - small objects of ice, gas, dust, tiny traces of organic material Image from: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000805.html
Comet Parts Image from http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/52/image/a/ Image credit: K. Jobse, P. Jenniskens and NASA Ames Research Center http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=903 Nucleus, Coma Dust tail – white, “smoke,” reflects sun. 600,000 to 6 million miles long Ion tail – Solar UV breaks down CO gas, making them glow blue. 10’s of millions of miles
Naming Comets NASA/ JPL image of Comet Halley at http://www.solarviews.com/cap/comet/haldet.htm
What’s in a Tail? Image credit: K. Jobse, P. Jenniskens and NASA Ames Research Center http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=903
Comet – Planet Interactions Image from http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/image3.html