Unit 1 - AOS2 - Solar System

Question 1

What follows after a change in the environment

Answer 1

It causes the biosphere to change to suit the environment ( constant environmental change)

Question 2

Intense stresses endured on earth before include :

Answer 2

• Ice ages
• Warming episodes
• High and low oxygen levels
• Mass extinctions
• Large volcanic eruptions
• Meteorite impacts

Question 3

The age of earth

Answer 3

Approx 4.5 billion years old

Found through radioactive dating ( oldest rock found is 4.5 billion years old )

Question 4

When did prokaryotes first appear on earth?

Answer 4

3.8 billion years ago

Question 5

When did eukaryotes first appear in earth ?

Answer 5

2 billion years ago

Question 6

Solar nebula

Answer 6

‘Vast’ gas cloud
- consists on mainly hydrogen and helium
- what the solar system formed from
- four light years across ( distance-> size )

Question 7

How did the solar system form ?

Answer 7

98% of the matter in the solar nebular fell to the centre ( gravity) - formed the sun through nuclear fusion as temp rose (sun began to shine and was high temp)

2% remaining condensed into proto-planets

Question 8

Nuclear fusion

Answer 8

Protons in atoms began to fuse together

Question 9

Proto planets **##

Question 10

Earths formation / formation of planets

Answer 10

Planets formed the next 400 million years after the sun
- proto-planets (smaller planets) collided together —> increasing size

• formed hot mole ten spheres of rock, while clearing their orbits of debris

Question 11

What did early solar winds cause in the solar system ?

Answer 11

• it caused planets close to the sun to lose most of their lighter elements in their atmospheres
• while planets further away kept theirs

Question 12

Jovian planets characteristics and examples

Answer 12

• ice or gas giants
• multiple moons
• support ring system
• no solid surface
• gas giants = Jupiter , Saturn
• ice giants = Neptune, Uranus

Question 13

Terrestrial Planets characteristics and examples

Answer 13

• rocky material
• surfaces are solid
• don’t have rings
• few moons
• relatively small
• mercury, Venus , earth, mars

Question 14

Sun

Answer 14

• primary source of energy
• solar energy : is created through nuclear fusion
• earth is in the ‘ goldilocks zone ‘
• hydrogen gas (72%) and helium gas (28%)

Question 15

Solar cycle definition

Answer 15

Is the activity level of the magnetic field —> created from nuclear fusion ( when gas moves)

• solar cycles last approx 11 years

Question 16

Magnetic field definition

Answer 16

Movement of gases ( nuclear fusion )

Question 17

Solar minimum in the sun characteristics

Answer 17

• low amounts of solar activity
• less dark sun spots

Question 18

Solar maximum of the sun characteristics

Answer 18

• high amounts of solar activity
• more dark sun spots

Question 19

Do the solar cycles impact the climate on earth?

Answer 19

it has no impact
- due to the solar max and minimum being less than one percent.

Question 20

Photon

Answer 20

is the smallest unit of light, carrying electromagnetic radiation at speeds of 300,000km per second.
- travel in straight lines through space and waves when hit earth

Question 21

define the terms wavelength and frequency in terms of electromagnetic radiation

Answer 21

Wavelength - is the length of one wave of radiation.
Frequency - is the frequency of the number of waves passing by per second (measured in hertz ‘Hz’)

Question 22

Relationship between the wavelength and frequency and the energy of a photon

Answer 22

There is a linear relationship between the wavelength and frequency of electromagnetic radiation. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency which increases the energy of the photons.

Question 23

the four ways photons interact with objects

Answer 23

R.R.A.T
Reflect - if the surface has a surface that cannot penetrate through
Refract - Transmitted but bent (is like reflect but transmitted)
Absorbed - is when the object is opaque
Transmitted - is without the bending of the electromagnetic waves if transparent and passes through.