Solar Ststem Flashcards
Orion Arm
The branch of the Milkey Way Galaxy that our solar system is in
Universe age
13.7 billion years old
Edwin Hubble
Big bang theory
Big Crunch
Reverse of big bang
Sun generation
Several generations of suns had to live and die for all of the material that makes up earth to exist
Our Sun is gen 3
Doppler effect
Waves are pushed together when they travel towards you and stretched apart as they travel away
By measuring the distance of light waves Hubble was able to determine the universe is expanding
Requirement to be a planet
Clear orbit
Orbit star
Enough mass to spin itself round
Moon
Broke off of earth 4.6 BYO
Gravity, Tides, 24 hr day
Created earths 23.5 degree tilt
Sun
Yellow dwarf star
Fusion
Hydrogen (element 1) fuses with hydrogen to create helium (element 2)
( once the star runs out of hydrogen it works it’s way through the elements until it hits Iron & Nickel (26) it instantly collapses)
Photons
Take 1 million years to travel from the core to the surface
8 minutes to travel from the surface to earth
Supernovas
When a star is big enough to explode after hitting 26.
Every element after 27 was created by an exploded star
Carrington event
Strongest geometric storm ever recorded in 1859.
Caused global auora
X class flares
Most powerful solar flares
Coronal Mass Ejections
Gigantic magnetic eruptions of heat plasma bleached into space
Solar super storm
Enormous electromagnetic outbursts that sent billions of tons of charged particles hurling towards earth
Solar storm
Sun emits strong pulse of energy in all directions
(Developed from sun’s electromagnetic field)
Sun spots
Areas where the magnetic field is 2,500x stronger than earths
Magnetic pressure increases + atmospheric pressure decreases
Life cycle (11 years)
Pluto
Brown dwarf
Andromeda
Closest galaxy to us
Seasons
When the earth got its tilt it created the season cycle we know today
Perihelion
Closest point to the sun
Aphelion
Furthest point from the sun
Distance/Seasons
The northern hemisphere is further in the summer and closer in the winter
Eclipses
Moon blocks sun’s light over the earth
Size vs distance (eclipse)
Moon is exactly 400x smaller than sun and 400x times closer
Total eclipse
Entirely blocks light
Annular eclipses
Almost blocks all the light, but misses the edges
Mars
Moons: Phobos (falling) & Deimos
Largest volcano in universe (Olympus Mons)
Valles Marineris is a canyon the size of USA
Atmosphere: 95.3% carbon dioxide
1/3 the gravity of earth
Mercury
Smallest + closet to the sun
Most creators in the universe
Ice in the permanent shadows on surface
THIN ATMOSPHERE
Venus
Day (243 days) longer than year (225 days)
Hotter than Mercury (lot of carbon dioxide in atmosphere)
Spins clockwise on axis (only planet that does)
^because planet is upside down
Earth
Only planet with tectonic plates and life
Jupiter
Biggest plant in the solar system
80 moons + faint ring system
Gas giant
Convective flow produces the belts (stripes) in atmosphere
Saturn
62 moons + ring system
2x as far from the sun as Jupiter
Would float in the ocean (light)
Moon Enceladus could have life (ocean under ice)
Uranus
Rotates East to west (only backwards planet)
27 moons + ring system
Neptune
14 moons + ring system
Most extreme wind + temp in the universe
Kuiper Belt
Outside the orbit of Neptune
Contains asteroids and space debris
Oort Cloud
Theorized by Jan Oort
Bubble around the universe that’s contains the left overs from the formation
Astronomical units
93 million miles
Distance between earth and sun
