9/24/2013

If you look for Nature in books, you will not find her.
Louis Agassiz

How did the solar system form?

The nebular theory suggests that a large interstellar dust cloud was compressed (possibly due to a nearby supernovae) and flattened causing hydrogen to ignite in the early Sun. Heavier elements dispersed as dust clumped together to form planets, planetesimals, moons, and asteroids.

What is the nebular theory?

According to the nebular theory, the Solar System was created out of interstellar dust particles and gas (primarily hydrogen) that originated from the explosion of early stars.

Condensation and gravitational attraction of the swirling dust and gas formed an initial cloud of interstellar matter.

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What is the nebular theory?

This rotating cloud of interstellar matter began to flatten, and the center collapsed inward, forming the Sun. The condensation of matter caused the Sun to heat up leading to the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, the primary source of the Suns radiant energy.

What is the nebular theory?

The planets were formed by condensation from the spinning gas cloud and accretion of the condensed particles. The primordial atmospheres on all the terrestrial and jovian planets may have been enormous.

However, during an early energetic T-Tauri phase of the Sun, the solar wind likely blew away most of the inner planets primordial atmospheres. The Jovian gas giants probably retained their early atmospheres because they were far enough away to have been largely unaffected.

What is the nebular theory?

Today the planets all orbit the Sun in the same direction, following the initial momentum of the condensing primordial gas cloud. The atmospheres of the inner planets must have evolved after the T-Tauri phase by planetary outgassing, elemental cycling, and biological activities.

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What is in our solar system?

terrestrial planets

jovian planets

asteroids

The solar system includes the Sun, four terrestrial planets, four jovian gas giants, and an oddball. The terrestrial planets are relatively small, have high density, and are mostly rock with only a thin atmosphere. In contrast, the jovian planets have low density, but overall larger masses with very thick atmospheres over small rocky cores.

How do we learn about the origin of the solar system?

Meteorites are messengers from space that carry information about conditions during the formation of the solar system.

Widmansttten pattern in an iron meteorite

Segregation of iron and silicate minerals in a pallasite meteorite

Melt chondrules in an enstatite meteorite

Melt chondrules in a carbonaceous meteorite

Do meteorites tell us about life on Mars?

12 different meteorites have been found on Earth that are believed to have originated from Mars, including the infamous ALH84001.

Scientists are confident that these object come from Mars as they have the same gas composition as directly measured by the Viking lander that touched down on the surface of the red planet in 1976.

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Are there primitive fossils in ALH84001?

Circumstantial evidence for primitive life on Mars come from three key observations.

1) Poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or soot.

2) Carbonate globules with rod shaped features similar to some bacteria.

3) Strings of magnetite (iron oxide) beads that resemble those produced by some bacteria.

What makes the Earth unique?

The Earth is unusual because it is rich in water (over 70%) and its crust includes rocks other than basalt. Active plate tectonics causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but also recycles oxygen and other elements on our home planet.

During the period of early melting the rocky inner planets, including Earth, differentiated into three layers of different chemical and physical composition, the core, mantle, and crust.

How did the Earth separate into layers?

The accretion of the Earth likely occurred during the first few million years of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago. The intense bombardment of large extraterrestrial objects played a main role in the construction, leaving a pockmarked planet of more or less uniform composition. The primordial atmosphere was likely rich in hydrogen, helium, and inert gases.

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How did the Earth separate into layers?

In the next tens of millions of years temperatures in the Earth rose due to radioactive heating and continued bombardment. These processes may have melted large portions of the planetary interior. Denser materials, like iron and nickel, sank gravitationally to form the core, while lighter ones rose to form the mantle and crust. The primordial atmosphere was lost during an intense phase of solar activity, and was replaced with water, methane, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide supplied by volcanic eruptions.

How did the Earth separate into layers?

Within the next billion years the ocean basins formed and began to fill. The first continents also emerged as the nascent process of plate tectonics initiated seafloor spreading and mountain building. As the Earths exposed crust cooled and thickened, it began to weather and erode, ultimately delivering nutrients to the sea. At the same time the the atmosphere evolved through the photosynthetic production of oxygen by bacteria.

How did the Earth separate into layers?

Modern plate tectonics probably began as early as two billion years after the formation of the Earth. By that time, large scale movements of lithospheric plates, driven by the interior heat of the planet, reorganized the continents and ocean basins. Through their effect on weathering and sedimentation, these tectonic movements may have initiated a series of global ice ages. The atmosphere and surface environments were in a state of constant modification resulting from the biological evolution of eukaryotes.

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Should we worry about lethal projectiles from space?

Impacts of projectiles from space have been a force of landscape modification, as well as biological evolution. The photograph shows Manicouagan crater in northern Quebec, the site of an impact 210 million years ago. The original crater, which is now filled with a ring lake, was originally 75-100 kilometers across.