EARTH SCIENCE (Grade

11)
Prepared by: Sura J. Amilbahar

THE UNIVERSE AND

SOLAR SYSTEM

CLASSICAL
ASTRONOMY

PLATO
Great Philosopher of his time.
Wrote things about:
moral responsibility
ethics
nature of reality, and
ideals of civil government.

suggested the theory of UNIFORM CIRCUAR

MOTION.
believed that all heavenly bodies are perfect and
therefore move in perfect circular motion as well.

ARISTOTLE
student of Plato and wrote about almost every area of
knowledge.
known as the most famous Philosopher in ancient
world.
suggested the theory of GEOCENTRIC UNIVERSE.
believed that Earth is the center of the universe and
all other heavenly bodies such as Sun and Moon
revolve around it.
Ancient philosophers and astronomers accepted that
Earth is at the center and everything moved in
uniform circular motion.

CLADIUS PTOLEMY
introduced epicycle to explain the motion of the planets
mathematically.
created a mathematical model of Aristotelian universe in which
the planet followed a small circle called the epicycle that slid
around a larger circle called the deferent.
Ptolemy's great book Mathematical Syntaxis contained the
details of his model. Islamic astronomers preserved and studied
the book through Middle Ages and they call it Al Magisti. When
the books was found and translated from Arabic to Latin in the
12th century, it became known as Almagest.
in the middle of the 13th century, a team of astronomers studies
Almagest supported by King Alfonso X and their result was called
Alfonsine tables.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS
introduced the HELIOCENTRIC UNIVERSE in which
the Sun is the center of the universe.
proposed Earth rotates on its axis and revolves around
the sun.
however, all his suggestions are merely theoretical
and he did not include obervational data nor
calculations.
this theory solved the position of Earth in the
universe, however, it did not tell anything about the
planetary motion.

TYCHO BRAHE (1546-1601)

saw Saturn and Jupiter passed very near each other, almost
merging into a single point, one night of August 24th.
In 1572, a new star (now called Tycho's supernova) appeared
in the sky, shining more brightly than Venus.
observed heavenly bodies movement and saw a lot of evidences
of parallax.
created a model where Earth is the immobile center and the
Sun, Moon and other planets revolve around it.
his true legacy was his instruments, highly accurate observations
of the positions of the stars, Sun, Moon and planets.
worked in Hveen, financed by Danish King Frederick II, to create
an observatory and observe planetary motion in depth.

JOHANNES KEPLER
published the Forerunner of Dissertation on the Universe,
containing the Mystery of the Universe (Mysterium
Cosmographicum)
suggested using five regular solids in explaining the planetary
motions: Cube, Tetrahedron, Icosahedron, Dodecahedron, and
Octahedron.
theorized that there can only be six planets: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
completed the Rudolphine Tables.
released a book in 1609 called Astronomia Nova, containing
his calculations in Hveen using Brahe's observations.
observed that planets move faster when close to the Sun and
slower when farther.
suggested that the radii of the planetary orbits are related to the
planet's orbital periods.

KEPLER'S THREE LAWS OF

PLANETARY MOTION
The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the
Sun at one focus.
A line from a planet to the Sun sweeps over
equal areas in equal intervals of time.
A planet's orbital period squared is
proportional to its average distance from the
Sun cubed:
Py2 = aAU2

GALILEO GALILEI
Born in 1564 in Pisa, Italy.
Did not publicly supported the Copernican
model, it was the telescope that finally drove
Galileo to publicly defend the heliocentric
model.
Telescope was not invented by Galileo.
Telescope was invented around 1608 by lens
makers in Holland.
Galileo was the first person to apply telescopic
observations to theoretical problems.

 Galileo published Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry

Messenger) and reported three major discoveries:
The moon was NOT perfect.
Milky Way was made up of myriad stars too faint to see with
the unaided eyes.
Found four new planets circling Jupiter.

In 1616, Galileo visited Rome and was interviewed by Cardinal

Bellarvine, privately, ordering him to cease debate.

- In Ptolemys model, if Venus moved in an epicycle

centered on the Earth-Sun line, it would always appear as a
crescent. However, Galileos telescope observations showed
that Venus goes through a full set of phases proving that it

ISAAC NEWTON
The birth of modern astronomy and science date from
99 years between the deaths of Copernicus and
Galileo.
Renaissance is commonly the period between 1300
and 1600.
Newton was born in Woolsthorpe, England, Dec
25,1642.
From his study of the work of Galileo, Kepler and
others, Newton extracted three laws that relate the
motion of the body and the forces acting on it.
Using these laws, you can predict how a body would
move if the Forces acting on it were known.

 He realized that some Force must pull the moon

toward Earths center.
GRAVITY
Gravitation must be mutual.
Gravity must be universal.

All masses must attract all other masses in the

universe.
The force between two bodies depends on the masses
of the bodies and the distance between them.

MASS is a measure of the amount of matter

in the object.

WEIGHT is the force that Earths gravity

exerts on the object.

In addition to mass, the distance between two objects affects the

gravitational attraction between them.
Force of gravity decreases as the square of distance between the
objects increases. This is the inverse square relation.

THE GREAT
CHAIN OF
ORIGINS

The Big Bang Theory

Protons, neutrons, electrons began forming.
Early universe was about 75% H and 25% He.
Within few hundred million years, matter began to collect
to form galaxies containing billions of stars.
Generation after generation of stars fused atoms together
creating different atoms such as C, N and O.
Massive stars produce Fe in their cores, but much of it is
destroyed when the core collapses and the star explodes as
supernova.
Heavier atoms such as Au, Ag and Iodine are created by
rapid nuclear reactions that can occur only during
supernova explosions.

Solar System Formation

1. CATASTROPHIC HYPOTHESES planets
formed from some improbable event such
as the collision of the sun and another star.

2. EVOLUTIONARY HYPOTHESES planets

formed gradually and naturally as the sun
formed.

The Solar Nebula Theory

Supposes that planets form in
the rotating disks of gas and
dust around young stars.

When the sun became

luminous enough, the
remaining gas and dust were
blown away into space, leaving
the planets orbiting the sun.

Revolution
& Rotation

Planets revolve around the Sun in orbits that lie close to a

common plane.
The rotation of the Sun and planets on their axes also
seems related to the rotation of the disk.
Sun rotates with its equator inclined only 7.2 degrees to
Earths orbit.
Most of other planets equator are tipped less than 30
degrees.
Venus rotates backward compared to others and
Uranus rotates on its side, equator almost
perpendicular to its orbit.

Two Kinds of Planets

1. TERRESTRIAL PLANETS small, dense, rocky
worlds with little to no atmosphere.

2. JOVIAN PLANETS large, low-density with thick

atmospheres and liquid or ice interiors.

Note: planets are distinguished by location, craters,

number of moons or presence/absence of rings.

Terrestrial Planets

Jovian Planets

Cosmic Debris

Asteroids considered as minor planets, small rocky worlds most of

which orbit the sun in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

 Kuiper Belt named after Gerard Kuiper who predicted its

existence in 1950s.
Small, dark, icy bodies orbiting in the outer fringes of the
solar system beyond Neptune.

 Comet bright and can be seen by the naked eye. It becomes

visible when the Suns heat vaporizes its ices and pushes the gas
and dust into a tail.

Meteors also known as shooting stars. Unlike comet, meteor is like

a flash across the sky in momentary streak of light.

Meteoroid before it plunges into Earths atmosphere.

Meteorite any part that survives the fiery descent into Earths
surface.

Age of Solar System

According to Solar Nebula Theory (SNT), the planets should be about the
same age as the sun.

In order to test this, we can analyze the radioactive elements found in

rocks to date them.

When rock solidifies, it incorporates known percentages of chemical

elements.

Some elements have differing forms which we call isotopes.

Isotope - each of two or more forms of the same element

that contain equal numbers of protons but different
numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. Therefore, they have
different atomic masses but identical chemical properties.

Some are radioactive and decay into other isotopes like our example
below.

 Half-Life the time it takes for half of a

radioactive substance, the parent isotope
atoms, to decay into daughter isotope atoms.
The abundance of a radioactive element
gradually decreases as it decays, and the
abundance of daughter elements gradually
increases.
There are many radioactive substances we can use.
For example:
Potassium 40, half-life of 1.3 billion years.
Uranium 238 decays with a half-life of 4.5 billion years
decaying into lead 206.
Either of these radioactive substances, along with others like
Rubidium 87, can be used a radio active clock to date
mineral samples.

 To get radioactive age, you need to get

rock samples into a laboratory.
We have samples from Earth, the moon,
Mars, and meteorites.

http://
www.space.com/142
68-rare-mars-mete
orite-rocks-tissi
nt.html
. Rare Mars
Rocks Crashed to
Earth in July.

 The oldest Earth rocks discovered are tiny zircon

crystals from Australia.
They were formed 4.4 billion years ago.

This does not mean the Earth is 4.4 billion years old,
but that the last time the zircon crystals were
melted, when their radioactive clocks were reset to
zero, was 4.4 billion years ago.

Earth crust is active and rocks are constantly being

destroyed thus resetting their radioactive clocks.

The zircon crystals tell us that the Earth is at least 4.4

billion years old.
They give us only a lower limit to Earths age.

 Lunar rocks (brought to Earth by Apollo).

The moon, unlike Earth, is not geologically active.
Many of its rocks should have survived unaltered since the
beginning of the solar system.
In fact, the oldest
moon rocks date to
4.5 billion years ago
(thus moon is at least
4.5 billion years old).

Moon Rock (sample)

 Over a dozen meteorites found on Earth have been chemically

identified as having come from Mars.
Most have an age of only about a billion years but one is
approximately 4.5 billion years old.
Therefore, Mars must be at least that old.

Meteorites are our most important source for determining the

solar systems age.
Many meteorite samples have ages of 4.56 billion years old none
are older.
4.56 billion year old (often rounded to 4.6 billion years) is the
widely accepted age for the solar system.
The sun astronomers estimate the age of the sun at 5 billion
years.
This is not a radioactive date because you cannot get a sample from
the sun.
Sun-age-estimates come from helioseismological observations and
mathematical model of the suns interior.

THE STORY
OF PLANET
BUILDING

Condensation of Solids
An important clue to understanding how nebular gas is
converted into solid matter is the variation in density among
Solar System objects.

Uncompressed Density the density planets would

have if their gravity did not compress them. It is the
average densities of their original construction
materials.

In general, the closer a planet is to the sun, the higher its

uncompressed density.

According to SNT, the observed pattern of planet densities originated

when solid grains first formed from condensation.

Terrestrial planets evidently are composed of a mixture of metals, metal

oxides and silicates.

Condensation Sequence sequence in which different materials

condense from the gas as it move away from the Sun toward lower
temperature.

Ice Line between Mars and Jupiter. A boundary which water vapour
could freeze to form ice particles.

Formation of
Planetisimals
Solid bits of matter
metal, rock, ice fuse into
larger bodies called
planetisimals, which
eventually made the
planets.

3 Processes of Planet Formation:

1.Condensation particle grows by condensation
when it adds matter, one atom or molecule at a time
from surrounding gas.
2.Accretion sticking together of solid particles.
3.Coalesce due to spiral motion and constant
disturbance, waves form and helped planetisimals to
coalesce into bigger objects.

Growth of Protoplanets
Protoplanets massive objects destined to become
planets.
Planetisimals rubbed shoulders with other planetisimals
and with their gravitational field, attracted additional
material.
Gravitational Collapse rapid accumulation of large
amounts of infalling gas from the nebula.
Heat of Formation released energy from violent impacts
of infalling particles.

Differentiation separation of material according

to density. It depends partly on short-lived
radioactive elements whose rapid decay released
enough heat to melt the interior of the planets.

Sources:

Earth Science by G. Tyler Miller, Jr., Scott Spoolman, et. Al. p. 4-38

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