Astronomy Ch 4: Formation of the Solar System & Other Planetary Systems – Flashcards
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Astronomers believed that the universe formed about 13.75 billion years ago
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Big Bang
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Hydrogen, helium, and a tiny amount of lithium
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What were the first elements that came into existence as gases?
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It formed some 9 billion years after the universe came into existence
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When did the solar system form?
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The outer layers of stats that are expelled at different rates
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Stellar Winds/Planetary Nebulae
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Gravity compresses the matter in its central core. Hydrogen--->Helium
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Fusion
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Spectacular detonations; powerful events that fusion occurs during the explosion
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Supernovae
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All of the elements in the universe other than hydrogen and helium
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Metals
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When a fragment of a gas & dust cloud is forced to collapse under the influence of its own gravitational attraction
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When do stars form?
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Vast, rotating cloud of gas and dust; initially had a diameter of at least 1000 AU (1000 times the average distance from Earth to the Sun)
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Solar nebula
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Gravity/ Jeans Stability?
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What force ensured that on the solar nebula began collapsing, it continued to do so?
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Hydrogen and helium
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What two elements compromise most of Saturn's outer layers?
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Greater than; closer to the sun the faster the orbital period
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Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the Sun once. Are the orbital periods of the plutinos greater than, less than, or equal to 248 years? Why?
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Hydrogen and Helium
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Which elements on Earth may have been unchanged since the universe began?
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Average distance b/w Earth and the Sun
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AU
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Terrestrial: Solid surfaces: Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth Giant (Gas): Jupiter, Saturn
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Which planets are terrestrial and which are giant?
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1. Direct Imaging 2. Pulsar timing 3. Gravitational Microlensing 3. Transit 4. Radio Velocity (Wobble Technique)
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Describe 4 methods for discovering exoplanets:
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Jupiter
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Which giant planet formed first?
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They were pushed out of the way by the gas planets from leftover debris
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According to the Nice theory, where did the Kuiper belt objects and Oort cloud objects come from?
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Late heavy bombardment (97)
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What created most of the craters in the solar system? What else could create craters?
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Flattening out the solar system
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Jeans instability is responsible for what event in the life of the solar system?
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(Gaspra) pg 97 older body, too small to become a sphere
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Name and briefly describe one small solar system body
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Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris
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Name one dwarf planet (other than Pluto)
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SSSBs small solar system bodies
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Asteroids, meteroids, and comets are classified as what (one) kind of object today?
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The boundary beyond which these gases and ices of water, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia persist
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Snow line
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The coming together of smaller pieces of matter to form larger ones; Gravitational gathering of material
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Accretion
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Billions of boulders reaching dimensions of a kilometer large enough for their mutual gravitational attractions to enhance the rate at which they collide Pieces of debris that grew larger and larger
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Planetesmials
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300 Earth masses of hydrogen and helium + several Earth masses of water and other simple molecules
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Jupiter
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10 Earth masses. It has 80 Earth masses of hydrogen and helium.
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Saturn
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1. Believed to have formed substantially closer to Saturn 2. Became rich in water along with carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia 3. Ice Giants
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Neptune + Uranus
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Gas Giants
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Jupiter + Saturn
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1. Winds from nearby stars compress gas and dust in the cloud. 2. The explosive force of a nearby supernova can compress regions of gas and dust. 3. Pairs of clouds collide and compress each other Each fragment is called a dense core or solar nebula
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Jeans Instability
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Europa + Ganymede
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Mars + Jupiter's moons
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Titan
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Saturn's moon
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As planets move farther from the Sun, the periods of their orbits lengthen
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Kepler's 3rd law
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The periods of 2 orbits are related by whole numbers
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Resonance
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Larger than about 10 m, primarily composed of rock + metal
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Asteroid
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Smaller bodies, primarily composed of rock + metal
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Meteroids
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Debris that is a roughly equal mix of ice + rock
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Comets
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A celestial body that: 1. orbits the sun 2. has enough mass so that its own gravitational attraction causes it to be spherical rather than being a large, irregular rock in space 3. has enough gravitational attraction to clear its neighborhood of other orbiting debris
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Planet
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-Indirect observational evidence for the existence of planets outside the solar system -The atmospheres of other exoplanets include carbon dioxide and water vapor -Has much more high-density material in their cores than giant planets
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Exoplanets/Extrasolar Planets
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Shows that matter warps its surrounding space, causing, among other effects, passing light to change direction
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General Relativity (Albert Einstein's theory)
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Light can be focused by gravity
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Microlensing
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An electron orbiting a proton
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Hydrogen +
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Protons + Electrons - Neutrons o
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Sea of matter
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10-100 million years with force of gravity
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Solar system formation
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As they get denser, their temperature increases
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Snowball effect
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All planets orbit the sun in a disk (solar system)
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Pizza Dough Effect
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Separation Ex: Early Earth has had a differentiation
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Differentiation
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No, but you can make star-like planets
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Can you make Earth-like planets?
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10-100 million years, with force of gravity
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Solar System Formation
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Gravitational gathering of material
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Accretion
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Gaseous planets, further from the sun: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
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Jovian Planets
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Rocky planets, lives off of Earth, solid: Mars, Venus, EM
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Terrestrial Planets
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Water, rock, iron
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What falls from the sky?
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5500
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What is the average density of the Earth?
