Lesson 2: The Universe and The Solar System

Lesson 2: The Universe and the Solar System
Solar System
Overview
o The solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy - a huge disc - and spiral-shaped aggregation of about at
least 100 billion stars and other bodies;
o Its spiral arms rotate around a globular cluster or bulge of many, many stars, at the center of which lies a
supermassive blackhole;
o This galaxy is about 100 million light years across (1 light year = 9.4607 × 1012 km;
o The solar system revolves around the galactic center once in about 240 million years;
o The Milky Way is part of the so-called Local Group of galaxies, which in turn is part of the Virgo supercluster
of galaxies;
o Based on the assumption that they are remnants of the materials from which they were formed, radioactive
dating of meteorites, suggests that the Earth and solar system are 4.6 billion years old
A. Large Scale Features of the Solar System
o Much of the mass of the Solar System is concentrated at the center (Sun) while angular momentum is held
by the outer planets.
o Orbits of the planets elliptical and are on the same plane.
o All planets revolve around the sun.
o The periods of revolution of the planets increase with increasing distance from the Sun; the innermost planet
moves fastest, the outermost, the slowest;
o All planets are located at regular intervals from the Sun.
B. Small scale features of the Solar System
o Most planets rotate prograde
o Inner terrestrial planets are made of materials with high melting points such as silicates, iron, and nickel.
 They rotate slower, have thin or no atmosphere, higher densities, and lower contents of volatiles -
hydrogen, helium, and noble gases.
o The outer four planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called "gas giants" because of the
dominance of gases and their larger size.
 They rotate faster, have thick atmosphere, lower densities, and fluid interiors rich in hydrogen,
helium and ices (water, ammonia, methane).
Origin of the System
Any acceptable scientific thought on the origin of the solar system has to be consistent with and supported by
information about it (e.g. Large and small scale features, composition).
There will be a need to revise currently accepted ideas should data no longer support them.
Rival Theories
Many theories have been proposed since about four centuries ago. Each has weaknesses in explaining all
characteristics of the solar system.
1. Nebular Hypothesis
o In the 1700s Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace independently thought of a
rotating gaseous cloud that cools and contracts in the middle to form the sun and the rest into a disc that
become the planets.
o This nebular theory failed to account for the distribution of angular momentum in the solar system
2. Encounter Hypotheses:
o Buffon’s (1749) Sun-comet encounter that sent matter to form planet;
o James Jeans’ (1917) sun-star encounter that would have drawn from the sun matter that would condense to
planets,
o T.C. Chamberlain and F. R. Moulton’s (1904) planetesimal hypothesis involving a star much bigger than the
Sun passing by the Sun and draws gaseous filaments from both out which planetisimals were formed;
o Ray Lyttleton’s (1940) sun’s companion star colliding with another to form a proto-planet that breaks up to
form Jupiter and Saturn.
o Otto Schmidt’s accretion theory proposed that the Sun passed through a dense interstellar cloud and
emerged with a dusty, gaseous envelope that eventually became the planets. However, it cannot explain
how the planets and satellites were formed. The time required to form the planets exceeds the age of the
solar system.
o M.M. Woolfson’s capture theory is a variation of James Jeans’ near-collision hypothesis. In this scenario, the
Sun drags from a near proto-star a filament of material which becomes the planets. Collisions between
proto-planets close to the Sun produced the terrestrial planets; condensations in the filament produced the
giant planets and their satellites. Different ages for the Sun and planets is predicted by this theory.
o Nobel Prize winner Harold Urey’s compositional studies on meteorites in the 1950s and other scientists’
work on these objects led to the conclusion that meteorite constituents have changed very little since the
solar system’s early history and can give clues about their formation. The currently accepted theory on the
origin of the solar system relies much on information from meteorites.
The common theme of these hypotheses involves an unlikely encounter between the Sun and another celestial body
(e.g. comet, star, protoplanet, interstellar cloud); The two major flaws of this type of hypothesis include:
 fails to explain how planets are formed (hot gas from the sun/star expands and will not form planets);
 this type of encounters are extremely rare
3. Protoplanet Hypotheses - Current Hypothesis
o About 4.6 billion years ago, in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, a slowly-rotating gas and dust cloud
dominated by hydrogen and helium starts to contract due to gravity.
o As most of the mass move to the center to eventually become a proto-Sun, the remaining materials form a
disc that will eventually become the planets and momentum is transferred outwards.
o About 4.6 billion years ago, in the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, a slowly-rotating gas and dust cloud
dominated by hydrogen and helium starts to contract due to gravity.
o As most of the mass move to the center to eventually become a proto-Sun, the remaining materials form a
disc that will eventually become the planets and momentum is transferred outwards.
o Due to collisions, fragments of dust and solid matter begin sticking to each other to form larger and larger
bodies from meter to kilometer in size. These proto-planets are accretions of frozen water, ammonia,
methane, silicon, aluminum, iron, and other metals in rock and mineral grains enveloped in hydrogen and
helium.
o High-speed collisions with large objects destroys much of the mantle of Mercury, puts Venus in retrograde
rotation.
o Collision of the Earth with large object produces the moon. This is supported by the composition of the
moon very similar to the Earth's Mantle
o When the proto-Sun is established as a star, its solar wind blasts hydrogen, helium, and volatiles from the
inner planets to beyond Mars to form the gas giants leaving behind a system we know today.

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