Formation of Our Solar System Quiz

RED waves are the...

longest wavelengths!

Light is emitted as?

photons!

Planetesimals

the early stages of a planet; formed by the collision of small gas particles that are condensed. -planetesimals combine with one another until they become large enough to be planetary sized.

Frequency

the number of crests that pass a given point in a given time. (meters per second)

Sun and Light Emission?

the sun emits all the colors on the visible light spectrum because with its large variety in elements, it is able to continuously emit all colors without breaks.

equation of the speed of light?

velocity = wavelength x frequency

Light

when matter has enough energy, it emits light. -the visible light spectrum, separates each color by their wavelengths. -each element glows, emits, and absorbs different wavelengths because of its chemical makeup and electrons arrangement. no two elements are the same in that sense. -all colors together emit as white light.

Light Waves?

-light is described as a wave; these waves are characterized by a frequency and a wavelength.

Where do Elements Come From?

-Nuclear Fusion causes not only stars to shine, but also was behind the creation of elements. -In a star, the starting element is Hydrogen. The Hydrogen atoms fuse together creating Helium, the star's energy. -Helium is slightly heavier than Hydrogen, sinking to the center of the star. -As the Helium atoms fuse together and create more energy, they eventually form Carbon, a vital building block of every living thing. -This repeats itself over and over and the star obtains layers, with the center having the heaviest elements, like Neon, Oxygen and Iron. -Iron doesn't produce energy so eventually as more Iron is produced, the heat and fire in the center dies out. -Gravity comes in and compresses the star to the point where there is so much pressure and energy that it dies and explodes. -It forces some of the iron to fuse into heavier elements like gold, platinum, lead.

History of the Earth?

-Originally Earth was a molten ball of lava that released gases like H, Carbon Mono, Carbon Dio, Helium, water vapor, etc., forming the original atmosphere. -Earth's Interior solidified, creating the layers and volcanoes began to form on the surface of the earth, which continued to release all these gases into the air. -No Oxygen is in the atmosphere yet, but the water vapor in the atmosphere condensed and created the oceans. -The first living organisms, blue and green algae, formed 1 bil. years ago in the oceans. -By consuming CO2 and releasing O2, the algae brought Oxygen into the Earth's atmosphere, which allowed other species to form. (plants came and significantly increased the amount of Oxygen in the Earth) -Some Oxygen turned into the Ozone Layer that would block the Earth from the more harmful UV rays.

Waves?

-P-waves: Primary Waves, can travel through any medium type. -S-waves: Secondary Waves, can only travel through solids. -Seismographs measure seismic waves. -S-wave shadows allow us to measure S-waves at specific degrees from the point of an Earthquake. -Seismic waves move slower in liquids. P-waves refract when they change medium types.

Differentiation of the Earth? (layers)

-as materials were combining with the Earth, it heated up and became partially molten. ~heavier, denser material sank to the center, while lighter material began to rise. ~explains why the moon has a small molten iron core because it is believed to formed from the earth after a collision, and why moon rocks and earth rocks are similar based on outer layers.

Nebular Theory (100m-1b)

-the current believed explanation for the origin of the solar system. ~started with a nebula that began to collapse due to its gravitational attraction to itself. ~the nebula spins faster as it collapses. the gravitational attraction wants to pull the nebula's content into a ball, but the spin of the nebula resists at a point, causing it to turn into a spinning disk with a central bulge. ~the central bulge, with its more mass and greater gravitational pull caused the surrounding material to combine with the central bulge, eventually becoming hot and dense enough to form the protostar that is our sun. ~the gas further away from the central disk, condenses into smaller particles that group together into small bodies that eventually become planetesimals. ~the larger planets with their greater gravitational pull, pull the remaining material towards them and then the solar system forms.

Moon Facts? (all info is taken from poster)

-the moon gets hit frequently by objects like meteorites and asteroids, explaining the many craters on its surface. -------------------------- ~ Craters form when meteorites crash into the moon's surface. These are called impact craters. ~ The moon has so many craters in comparison to the earth, because: -The Earth's plate tectonics move and interact with Earth's surface plates, recycling the plates with the craters and also erode and smooth the craters as well. -The Moon doesn't have active plate tectonics. -The Earth's atmosphere also causes craters, especially small craters to combust and decrease in size, maybe even to the point of total disintegration. -The Moon doesn't have an atmosphere.

Inner Planets?

4 Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. ~made up of rock/metal w/ relatively high density. ~the sun's solar wind blew a lot of the gas and dust away from these planets and towards the gas giants. ~too warm for massive amounts of matter to condense into solid particles around them. ~less massive and lack the gravitational pull to hold onto light gases.

Outer Gas Giants?

4 Outer Gas Giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. ~larger than the inner planets w/ thick atmospheres of mostly hydrogen + helium. ~the gas blown away from the inner planets by the solar winds are pushed into these planets, allowing them to have more gas and to be larger as well. ~all have rings and many moons.

Creation of the Moon?

4 main hypotheses: 1. Simultaneous Formation- the moon and earth formed from the solar nebula separately but near each other and almost immediately the moon began to orbit the earth. ~doesn't explain why the moon has so little iron 2. Capture- the moon formed somewhere else where there was little iron content and after its formation, it drifted near the earth and the earth's gravitational pull captured the moon. ~doesn't explain the similarity between moon and earth rocks. ~doesn't reasonably explain where all the kinetic energy would have to come from in order for this to happen. 3. Fission- originally there was no moon, but the earth was spinning so fast that a large chunk of it fissioned from the main body, eventually cooled and became the moon. ~the law of physics doesn't agree with this and speed and angular momentum contradict the hypothesis. 4. Giant Impact-a large body of mass (2x the size of mars) slams into the earth shortly after its formation, causing a large part of it to fission. it soon begins to orbit the earth and coalesced with other materials to form the moon. ~no cons or contradictions!

Supernova

A gigantic explosion in which a star collapses and throws its outer layers into space; the death of a star.

Solar Winds

An outward flow of particles (mostly electrons and protons) from the sun

The Layers?

Crust - granite rocks: ~Continental Crust: 10-70km, rigid granite rock. ~Oceanic Crust: 5-10km, rigid granite rock. Mantle - 2900km: ~Lithosphere: iron, silicates, magnesium, 10-200km thick, cool, rigid, solid (contains the crust as well) ~Asthenosphere: mag, iron, alumn, oxy, sil, semi-solid, 440km thick ~Mesosphere: silicates, 2000km thick, rigid solid rock, lots of pressure Core: ~Outer Core: liquid iron, 2200km, metals ~Inner Core: solid nickel w/ iron, 1300km

Age of Earth?

Earth is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old. ~Earliest crystals are 4.2 byo. ~Moon is 4.4 byo. ~Meteorites are 4.5 byo. ~Oldest Earth rocks are 4 byo.

Evidence for the Nebular Theory?

Hubble Telescope (HST): ~takes pictures of nebulae where within the gas globules, protostars are forming. ~has taken pictures of gas disks similar to the one in the nebular theory, spinning around stars in the Orion Nebula. Sun's Nuclear Fusion: ~It is believed the Nebular Theory developed the solar system around 5.6 bya. ~The Sun probably began nuclear fusion about 4.6 bya, while the planets 4.5 bya. ~Consistent with the length of the Nebular Theory process.

Electromagnetic Radiation

Light is a type of EMR. (left to right, blue to red order) gamma rays x-rays UV light visible light infra-red radiation microwaves radiowaves

Doppler Effect?

The change in frequency due to the movement of a source of noise. Frequency increases as the object approaches, decreases as the object moves away. -when moving towards the observer, the sound waves coming directly from the front get compressed, increasing the frequency/pitch, while when moving away they are stretching in order to reach the observer, lowering in frequency.

Wavelengths vs Frequency?

The shorter the wavelengths, the higher the frequency. The longer the wavelengths, the shorter the frequency.

Accretion

a growth in size; an increase in amount.

Nebula

a large cloud of dust and gas in space.

Nuclear Fusion

a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy.

Visible Light Spectrum

falls between 380nm-760nm goes from red to violet (longest wavelengths to shortest)

Light & the Doppler Effect?

same thing, except when something is emitting light, there is a change in color of that light. -when moving towards the observer, the light waves also get compressed, and are more blue-shifted, when moving away, the light gets stretched out, and is more red-shifted.

VIOLET waves are the...

shortest wavelengths!

Wavelength

the distance between two crests or troughs. -measured in meters or nanometers.

Protostar

the earliest stage of a star's life; a baby star. -when it becomes hot enough and big enough for nuclear fusion to ignite, then it can become a full-grown star.