Module 5 Lesson 1 Flashcards
How did the sun help form the solar system?
The sun formed like any other star, which was from a big cloud of dust and gas.
the collapse was triggered by a huge supernova explosion
that supernova explosion seeded a cloud of new materials. as the cloud of the sun collapsed it began to spin. as it spun it flattened out to form a disk. This disk is called a protoplanetary disk or proplyd.
as the proplyd began to collapse. The center got hotter until fusion began and the sun was born. 99.9% of all the materials in the prolyd went into the sun. that leaves 0.1% for the rest of the solar system. that small remainder formed the rest of the solar system
how did the outer gassy planets form?
The intense heat of the sun drove the gassy materials away from inner PARTS of the solar system and brought them to the outer parts of the solar system
the gassy material gathered further out in the solar system so the suns winds would not blow the gas away. soon it condensed to form gassy giants.
how did the terrestrial/ inner planets form?
near the inner parts of the solar system was little dust motes
The dust motes gathered together through collisions to form little rocks.
The particles of ice and rocks eventually form things like meteorites or asteroids which get bigger and collide with each other. In each orbit there are finally large objects that sweep up everything else in the orbit. eventually in each orbit is a rocky planet
this process is called accretion
what is accretion?
when materials gather together eventually forming planets. (this is very violent)
summarize the formation of the solar system (complex version)
the particles near the forming protostar become attracted to it and start spinning around. as the cloud collapsed it spins faster and it started to form the sun the lighter gasses (hydrogen and helium) were pushed away to the outer parts of the solar system. which eventually form the gas giants. the heavier solid matter collided in the inner solar system and formed the terrestrial planets
give an example of accrection
The moon is an example of accrection.
The moon was created when an object around the size of mars collided with the earth and scraped out huge chunks of the earth. the small chunks orbited around the earth and slowly accreted and formed the moon
(accreted: the rocks orbiting earth became attached by accretion or the rocks combined together to form the moon)
why is pluto not a planet? provide evedience.
Pluto does not count as a planet. It is smaller than Earth’s Moon. It orbits way out in a belt of asteroids beyond Neptune, and does not have enough gravity to clear the neighborhood around its path. Therefore, it was downgraded to a “dwarf planet,”
what is a extrasolar planet or exoplanet
an exoplanet is a planet beyond our Solar System orbiting an ordinary star.
what is a planetesimals
any small celestial bodies that may have existed at an early stage of the development of the solar system.
what are celetial bodies
they are objects in space such as the sun, moon, planets, and stars. They form a part of the vast universe we live in and are usually very far from us.
how would the term “goldilocks condition” be used to describe the conditions on earth?
earth is not too hot or too cold, not too big or too little, not too near the Sun or too far away, but just right for life to devlelop.
Describe why some planets are called the “inner planets” and why others are called the “outer
planets”.
this is because the inner planets are closer to the sun and are smaller and rockier.
the outer planers are further away from the sun and are larger and made up of gas
Compare and contrast comets, moons, asteroids and meteors. (find the similarties and differences)
Differences:
Asteroids: These are the rocky and airless leftovers from the formation of planets in our solar system.
Comets: Theese are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ices.
Metroids: theese are tiny asteroids or the broken-off crumbs of comets
simiaerities:
(they all revolve around the sun)
reminder: the solar system was formed from a massive cloud of dust (solar nebula)
the solar system was formed from a massive cloud of dust (solar nebula)
what is a protostar?
it is the early stage in the formation of a star
