Solar System

ORIGIN
EVOLUTION
The Milky Way
The Milky Way
 The Solar System
Overview
 The solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy----a huge disc- and spiral-
shaped aggregation of about at least 100 billion stars and other bodies;
 Its spiral arms rotate around a globular cluster or bulge of many, many stars,
at the center of which lies a supermassive black hole;
 This galaxy is about 100 million light years across (1 light year = 9.4607 × 1012
km;
 The solar system revolves around the galactic center once in about 240
million years;
 The Milky Way is part of the so-called Local Group of galaxies, which in turn is
part of the Virgo supercluster of galaxies;
 Based on the assumption that they are remnants of the materials from which
they were formed, radioactive dating of meteorites, suggests that the Earth
and solar system are 4.6 billion years old.
 Large Scale Features of the Solar System
 Much of the mass of the Solar System is concentrated at the center (Sun)
while angular momentum is held by the outer planets.
 Orbits of the planets elliptical and are on the same plane.
 All planets revolve around the sun.
 The periods of revolution of the planets increase with increasing distance
from the Sun; the innermost planet moves fastest, the outermost, the
slowest;
 All planets are located at regular intervals from the Sun.
 Small scale features of the Solar System
 1. Most planets rotate prograde. (counterclockwise)
 2. Inner terrestrial planets are made of materials with high melting
points such as silicates, iron , and nickel. They rotate slower, have
thin or no atmosphere, higher densities, and lower contents of
volatiles - hydrogen, helium, and noble gases.
 3. The outer four planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are
called "gas giants" because of the dominance of gases and their
larger size. They rotate faster, have thick atmosphere, lower
densities, and fluid interiors rich in hydrogen, helium and ices (water,
ammonia, methane).
Origin of the Solar System…
 Any acceptable scientific thought on the
origin of the solar system has to be consistent
with and supported by information about it
(e.g. large and small scale features,
composition). There will be a need to revise
currently accepted ideas should data no
longer support them.
Rival Theories
Nebular Theory (hypothesis)
 In the 1700s Emanuel
Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant,
and Pierre-Simon Laplace
independently thought of a
rotating gaseous cloud and
dust, which is called the nebula,
that cools and contracts in the
middle to form the sun and the
rest into a disc that become the
planets. However, this nebular
theory failed to account for the
distribution of angular
momentum in the solar system.
 Nebular Theory (hypothesis)
 The spinning cloud flattens into a pancake-shaped object with a bulge
at the center. As the nebula collapse further, local regions contract on
their own due to gravity. These local regions became the sun and the
planets.
 It is in fact very attractive but it had a major flaw, it assumed that the
total angular momentum of the system was in the sun, which is not the
case. Only 0.5% of the total angular momentum was contained in the
sun’s spin. The remainder was in the planetary orbit. There have been
attempts to explain the major flaw but these were unsuccessful.
Encounter Hypotheses
 Buffon’s Collision Theory
 Eighteenth century French naturalist George-Loius Leclerc, Comte de
Buffon proposed that the planets were formed by the collision of the sun
with giant comet. The resulting debris formed into planets that rotate in the
same direction as they revolved around the sun.
 Descartes’ Vortex Theory
 French mathematician and
physicist, Rene Descartes was one
of the first proponents of model
on the origin of the Solar System.
 According to his model, the Solar
System was formed into bodies
with nearly circular orbits because
of the whirlpool-like motion in the
pre-solar materials.
 He explained the orbits of the
planets are the primary whirlpool
motion and the satellites the
secondary whirlpool motion.
 Solar Nebular Theory
 The main concern of the solar nebular theory (SNT) is to solve the original
problems of Kant and Leplace’s nebular hypothesis about angular
momentum of the sun.
 According to SNT, the formation of the planets involves different stages, in
contrast to the single process of nebular theory.
 The first stage is the accretion of grain-sized particles to form centimeter-
sized particles which would later grow to several kilometers in diameter.
The objects formed are called planetesimals.
 The second stage involves the formation of more massive objects from
coalescing planetesimals. The massive objects are referred to as
protoplanets. These would later become the planets.
 Activity

In a ½ piece of crosswise, answer the following questions:

 Explain the basic assumption of the following theories:
 Descartes’ vortex theory
 Buffon’s collision theory
 Compare and contrast Kant-Laplace’s nebular theory and solar nebular theory.
 Other matters found in the Solar System
 Asteroids are made up of rocks and are sometimes referred to as minor
planets in many ways. There are atmosphere-free and they orbit the sun.
They tend to congregate in what is known as main asteroid belt.
 Main belt asteroids are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They
are thought of as remnants of the early stages of the Solar System’s formation.
They were never formed as planets because of Jupiter’s high gravitational
force.
 The first known asteroid, is named Ceres.
 There are asteroids that can be perturbed out of their main belt and may
specially come close to Earth. They are called near-Earth asteroids (NEAs).
 Other matters found in the Solar System
 Comets are composed mainly of ice (frozen water and gas) and
nonvolatile dust (silicate minerals and carbon grains). They only become
active when their orbits take them near the sun.
 Comets originate from two regions of the outer Solar System. The Kuiper
belt is often called the Solar System's “final frontier” because it is at the
outermost region of the Solar System.
 Short period comets like Halley’s comet come from Kuiper Belt. Short period
comets orbit the sun in less than 200 years.
 The Oort cloud is located farther than the Kuiper belt and, therefore,
remained unexplored.
 Long period comets are thought to originate from the Oort Cloud. Long period
comets have orbits ranging from 200 years up to million of years. Any object
orbiting beyond Neptune is called a trans-Neptunian object (TNO).
 Classification of planets
 The planets are grouped into two categories based on the composition:
terrestrial and Jovian.
 Terrestrial planets are Earth-like planets, which include Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars. They are sometimes referred to as inner planets. They are
composed mostly of dense, rocky, and metallic materials.
 Jovian planets are Jupiter-like planets which include Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune. They are referred to as gas planets and are made
up ostly of hydrogen and helium.
 Frost line is the distance of the solar nebula from the protostar.
BUT WHY IS PLUTO NOT
MENTIONED?????
 What constitutes a planet?
 The International Astronomical Union (IAU), an organization responsible for
the naming and nomenclature of planetary bodies and their satellites,
define planet as:
 a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun.
 It should have sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces
so that it assumes a nearly-round shape.
 Lastly, it should dominate its neighborhood by clearing the neighborhood
around it,
 What constitutes a planet?
 Pluto does not dominate its neighborhood. It also does not “sweep up”
asteroids, comets, and other debris to clear path along the orbits. In fact,
Pluto’s orbit is considered “untidy.” Thus, Pluto is formally reclassified from a
planet to a dwarf planet in August 24, 2006 by the IAU.
 A dwarf planet is a celestial body that has the following characteristics:
 Is in orbit around the sun.
 Has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes
nearly-round shape.
 Has not cleared the neighborhood around it.
 Is not a satellite.
 There are five celestial bodies that have been categorized as dwarf planet
by the IAU. These are Eris, Ceres, Makemake, Pluto, and Haumea.