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Solar System Flashcards

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1
Q

Explain the nebula hypothesis

A

Sates that the sun and the planets developed out of the same cloud of gas and dust

1) A nebula began to collapse under its own gravity- gravity increased assisted nearby supernova or other force
2) Spins faster- angular momentum (“ice skater effect”)
3) Flattens out into disk shape with most mass in center (“pizza dough effect”)
4) Energy from collisions and pressure from gravity- nebula become hotter from increase in density
5) When temp in core reaches 10 million degrees Celsius, thermonuclear fusion begins (converting hydrogen to helium)

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2
Q

What are the basic components of the solar system?

A
  • The sun
  • The planets
  • Asteroids
  • Kuiper Belt
  • Oort Cloud
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3
Q

How were the planets created from dust and gas? (What is the origin of dust and gas)?

A
  • Dust: produced in the cores of stars
  • Gas: left over from Big Bang
  • Planets form by the progressive collision of dust particles to form larger and larger objects
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4
Q

What is the order of the planets starting from the sun?

A

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

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5
Q

How were the inner planets created?

A
  • Formed closer to the sun
  • These planets lost their dense gases because at the temperature of the gases, gravity was not strong enough to hold the gases
  • Other lighter elements may have been blown or boiled away (from sun radiation)
  • Denser material sank to center of planets, layers formed
  • Less dense material stayed on outer part of planet
  • Small/rocky, made of heavy elements (ex. iron, nickel)
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6
Q

How were the outer planets created?

A
  • Formed farther from the sun (in cold region)
  • Cold- did not lose their light elements (helium, hydrogen) or ices
  • At first, thick layers of ice surrounded small cores of heavy elements
  • However, due to intense heat/pressure in planets’ interiors, ices melted to form layers of liquids/gases
  • Low density, huge planets, made mostly of gas
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7
Q

What are the 2 most common elements in the solar system, the universe, the sun, and the gas giants?

A

Hydrogen and helium

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8
Q

What is Kepler’s first law and what is its significance?

A

Law of ellipses- anything orbiting anything has an orbit which is the shape of an ellipse

The planets are not the same distance from the sun at every point in their orbit

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9
Q

What is Kepler’s second law and what is its significance?

A

Law of equal areas- objects move faster in their orbit when they are closer to the sun

A line between the sun and the planet sweeps equal areas in equal time

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10
Q

What is Kepler’s third law and what is its significance?

A

Law of harmonics- there is a mathematical relationship between a planet’s distance from the sun and how long it takes that planet to orbit the sun

Scientists can find out how far away the planets are from the sun by using this law

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11
Q

What is the age of the Earth? How do we know?*

A
  1. 6 billion years old
    - Analyses of radioactive elements and daughter products in meteorites that were formed at the exact same time as Earth
    - Radioactive decay: a method of determining the absolute age of an object by comparing the relative percentages of a radioactive (parent) isotope and a stable (daughter) isotope
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12
Q

As you look down onto the North Pole of the Earth, in what direction is the Earth :

  1. rotating
  2. revolving
A
  1. counterclockwise

2. counterclockwise

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13
Q

Perihelion (when is the Earth’s)

A

The point in the orbit of a planet at which the planet is closest to the sun
Earth’s perihelion: January 4

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14
Q

Aphelion (when is the Earth’s)

A

The point in the orbit of a planet at which the planet is furthest to the sun
Earth’s aphelion: July 4

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15
Q

Asteroid

A
  • Rocky object orbiting the sun

- Most orbit between Mars and Jupiter (asteroid belt)

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16
Q

Comet

A
  • Small body of ice, rock, and cosmic dust that follows a highly elliptical orbit around the sun
  • Gives off gas/dust in the form of a tail as it passes close to the sun
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17
Q

Gas giant

A
  • Composed mainly of gases
  • Rocky cores which resemble a terrestrial planet
  • Dozens of moons
  • All have rings
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18
Q

Geocentric universe

A

The sun, the stars, and the planets revolve around Earth

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19
Q

Heliocentric universe

A

The planets revolve around the sun in the same direction but at different speeds and distances from the sun

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20
Q

Hurricane

A

A severe storm that develops over tropical oceans and whose strong winds of more than 120 km/h spiral in toward the intensely low-pressure storm center

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21
Q

Hypothesis

A

An idea of explanation that is based on observations and that can be tested

22
Q

Who is Kepler?

A
  • German
  • After Tycho Brahe’s (Danish) death (made detailed observations of the solar system), one of his assistants, Kepler, discovered patterns in Tycho’s observations
  • These patterns led Kepler to develop three laws that explained planetary motion
23
Q

What is the Kuiper Belt?

A
  • Flat ring of objects
  • Just beyond Neptune’s orbit
  • Contains small bodies mostly of ice (including Pluto)
24
Q

Nebula

A
  • irregularly shaped cloud of gas and dust (mainly gas)
  • light years in diameter
  • located within galaxies
25
Q

Oblate spheroid

A
  • Slightly flattened sphere
  • Earth is an oblate spheroid
  • Spinning on its axis makes polar regions flatten and the equatorial zone bulge
26
Q

Oort Cloud

A
  • Spherical cloud of gas and dust and ice that surrounds the solar system
  • Extends from just beyond Pluto’s orbit to almost halfway to the nearest star
  • Contains billions of comets
  • Matter in Oort Cloud leftover from formation of solar system
27
Q

Planetesimal

A

A small body from which a planet originated in the early stages of development of the star system

28
Q

What is the definition of a planet?

A
  • Orbits the sun
  • Needs enough mass to be spherical
  • Needs to have cleared out its orbit of other objects
29
Q

What is thermonuclear fusion?

A
  • The nuclei of hydrogen atoms combine to form larger nuclei of helium
  • Releases energy
  • Nuclei of hydrogen atoms are the primary fuel for the sun’s fusion
30
Q

Who is James Ussher?

A
  • Published a book proposing the Earth was created at nightfall on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE
  • Counting bible generations from Adam and Eve onward, calculated the age of the Earth to be 6022 years old
31
Q

What is zenith?

A

-The highest point in an arc traveled by a star or a planet –The sun reaches its zenith when it is as high in the sky as it is going to go on that day

32
Q

How do you calculate orbital velocity? (given distance from sun and number of Earth years)

A

distance from sun x 2 x π
————————————- = ____ km/sec
Earth years x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.24

33
Q

How do you calculate how many Earth years it takes for a planet to orbit the sun? (given distance from sun)

A

distance from sun
—————————– = _____ AU
149,597,871 km (1 AU)

square root of [number of AU] cubed = ______ Earth years

34
Q

How do you calculate a planet’s distance from the sun? (given number of Earth years to orbit sun)

A

cubed root of (number of Earth years) squared = ____ AU

[number of AU] x 149,597,871 (1 AU) = ____ km

35
Q

How do you calculate orbital velocity? (given distance from sun)

A

distance from sun
—————————– = _____ AU
149,597,871 km (1 AU)

square root of [number of AU] cubed = ______ Earth years

distance from sun x 2 x π
————————————————— = ____ km/sec
Earth years x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365.24

36
Q

How do you calculate a scale model?

A

model object a model object b
———————- = ———————–
actual object a actual object b

37
Q

How do you calculate a date of the year in the solar system?

A

number of years ago
—————————— = ___ days
12,602,739.73 years

365 - (number of days) = _____ days

subtract each month from 365 until number is less than the number of days in that month

38
Q

How do you calculate the number of light years? (given the time and velocity)

A

velocity x time
——————– = ____ light years
299,792
(make sure time is in years)

39
Q

How do you calculate the velocity of something traveling in light years? (given the time it takes to travel a certain amount of light years)

A

light years x 299,792
—————————— = ___ km/s
time
(make sure time is in years)

40
Q

How long does it take a radio signal to reach a planet? (given the distance)

A

299,792 x 60 (x 60 for minutes, x 60 for hours)

multiply decimal times 60 to get seconds/minutes

41
Q

What is dust made of?

A
  • Microscopic particles made of silicate minerals, metal, and ice
  • Composed of heavy metals (not hydrogen or helium)
  • Produced in the cores of stars by thermonuclear fusion and spread through space when stars blew up
42
Q

What is gas made of?

A
  • Mainly hydrogen + helium (lightest elements), also methane, ammonia,
  • Elements left over from Big Bang
43
Q

3 problems/solutions to the heliocentric universe?

A

1) Problem: ran counter to everyday experience
Solution:
2) Problem: why could we not feel the motion?
Solution: everything else – including Earth’s oceans
and atmosphere – are spinning along with the Earth at
the same constant speed
3) Problem: could not explain why object fell to the center
of Earth and not the center of the sun
Solution: the objects are closer to Earth

44
Q

Terrestrial planet

A
  • Composed of rock (silicate minerals/metal)
  • Rocky crust/mantle
  • Iron/nickel core
45
Q

Why are the inner and outer planets different in composition and size?

A
  • When the sun was created, dust and gas was pushed out into the solar system
  • The gas close to the sun was either blown away or vaporized from the sun’s radiation
  • Inner planets- not enough mass/gravity to hold gases
  • Sun’s gravity pulled the denser materials closer to the sun- more dust
  • Intense radiation from our Sun blasted much of the hydrogen and helium into the outer reaches of our Solar System, while heavier elements remained closer.
46
Q

Why is the nebula hypothesis model so successful?

A
  • Explains why all planets orbit the sun in the same plane
  • Explains why planets (+ asteroids, etc) revolve in the same direction (except Venus and Uranus)
  • Explains the differences between the inner and outer planets
47
Q

Inner vs outer planet composition

A

Inner:

  • Rocky (silicate minerals), solid surface
  • Metal core
  • Thin atmosphere
  • Dense
  • Small

Outer:

  • Gaseous (hydrogen, helium)
  • Small rocky core
  • Thick atmosphere
  • Less dense
  • Large
48
Q

Order of solar system objects we would encounter going to the sun?

A

1) Oort Cloud objects
2) Kuiper belt objects
3) Gas giant planets
4) Asteroids
5) Terrestrial planets

49
Q

What was the first half billion years of Earth’s history like?

A

A period of colossal impacts of large objects from space

50
Q

When does the Earth move fastest/slowest around the sun?

A

Fastest: January 4
Slowest: July 4
Slowing down: July 4 - January 4
Speeding up: January 4 - July 4

Earth Science (16 decks)

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