Formation of the Solar System Flashcards
What is Astronomy?
The study of space, the original science.
In the beginning, how did people see the Earth?
Because of religion, people believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe?
What is Heliocentrism?
A model of the Solar System in which the Sun is in the center.
What did Newton contribute to Astronomy?
The discovery of gravity, which keeps us on earth and the planets orbiting the sun.
What is a Solar Nebula?
A large cloud of dust and gas in space where stars are born or where they have died.
What is the Nebular Model?
The model for the formation of the Solar System in which the sun and planets condense from a nebula.
How is it explained that Nebulas form stars?
It is said that the cloud collapses into a flat rotating ‘disk’ where material becomes denser and hotter at the middle. This center part becomes a star.
How do planets grow in size?
Planetesimals collide with one another to form a larger on.
What is a Planetesimal?
Particles that become planets.
What is Accretion?
The colliding and combining of small particles.
Where do Satellites come from?
Planetesimals collidie to form a larger body that eventually gets caught in a planet’s atmosphere.
What is a Comet?
A small body of ice, rock, and dust loosely packed together that follow an elliptical orbit and gives off a ‘tail’ made of gas and dust.
Where do Comets come from?
From the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
A disk shaped region outside of the orbit of Neptune.
What is the Oort Clous?
A large spherical cloud outside of the orbit of Pluto.
