Lecture 11: Solar System

Question 1

Nebular Hypothesis

Answer 1

• explosion made waves in space, forming solar nebula
• center of Nebula grew hot forming the sun
• outer edges cooled, forming clumps and then planets

Question 2

Solar Nebula

Answer 2

Flattened cloud of dust and gas

Question 3

Galaxy

Answer 3

Cluster of billions of stars

Question 4

Star

Answer 4

hot glowing ball of gas that generates energyby converting H -> He

Question 5

Photosphere

Answer 5

outer part of sun, 6000 deg C

Question 6

Solar System

Answer 6

Order of Planets: M V E M J S U N, asteroid belt exists between Mars and Jupiter
-4.6 billion years old

Question 7

Bolides

Answer 7

Extraterrestrial bodies that travel rapidly through space

Question 8

Asteroid

Answer 8

Rocky.metallic material 10m-1000km in diameter in space, from asteroid belt

Question 9

Meteroid

Answer 9

material in space smaller than 10 m in diameter

Question 10

Meteor

Answer 10

Meteroid entering the Earth’s atmosphere

Question 11

Meteorite

Answer 11

meteor that strikes Earth’s surface

Question 12

Comet

Answer 12

-has glowing tail of gas/dust
-formed in Kuiper Belt, which is outside the solar system
Halley’s Comet: visible with baked eye from Earth every 75 years

Question 13

Air Burst

Answer 13

Bollides that explode at altitude 12-50 km

Question 14

Tunguska Airburst

Answer 14

25-50m in diamater meteor that destroyed 2500 km of forest in Russia
-no crater found so assumed to be airburst

Question 15

Chelyabinsk Airburst

Answer 15

-meteor exploded over the city, 1500 people injured from broken glass

Question 16

Simple Craters

Answer 16

less than few km in diameter, flat center

Question 17

Complex Crater

Answer 17

rim collapses because of extreme faulting, center floor rises after impact, generally larger than 6km in diameter

Question 18

Manicougan

Answer 18

214 mya

• 100km in diameter in central quebec
• rim collapse, the rock eroded causing a ring lake to form

Question 19

Chesapeake Crater

Answer 19

35. 5 mya
    - discovered with subsurface imaging/drilling
    - overlain with sediment and sea water

Question 20

Moon Craters

Answer 20

• more common and deep than on Earth because:
  1) Earth impacts usually happen over the ocean
  2) impacts erode on Earth and are more subtle
  3) disintegrate on Earth’s atmosphere

Question 21

Shoemaker-Levy Comet

Answer 21

1996

-high amounts of energy released as comet enters Jupiters atmosphere, 21 fragments of comet collided with Jupiter

Question 22

Chicxulub Crater

Answer 22

65 mya

-180 km in diameter crater in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Question 23

K-T Boundary Mass Extintion

Answer 23

65 mya

• seperates the Cretaceous and Tert. periods
• abrupt cooling from asteroid impact
• extinction of dinosaurs; top of foodchain for past 100 million years
• proof with large amounts of Iridium dating to 65 mya (rare on Earth but common in asteroids)

Question 24

Linkages of Impacts to Other Hazards

Answer 24

Bolide -> tsunamis, wildfires, EQ, landslides, climate change

Question 25

Risk from Bollide impacts

Answer 25

• asteroids in asteroid belt collide and disturb orbital path
• this is when they cause collisions