* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Introduction This book will teach you all you need to know about the
Star of Bethlehem wikipedia , lookup
Planets beyond Neptune wikipedia , lookup
Geocentric model wikipedia , lookup
Dyson sphere wikipedia , lookup
Cygnus (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Nebular hypothesis wikipedia , lookup
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wikipedia , lookup
Exoplanetology wikipedia , lookup
Comparative planetary science wikipedia , lookup
IAU definition of planet wikipedia , lookup
Astrobiology wikipedia , lookup
Formation and evolution of the Solar System wikipedia , lookup
Aquarius (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses wikipedia , lookup
Rare Earth hypothesis wikipedia , lookup
Star formation wikipedia , lookup
Definition of planet wikipedia , lookup
Late Heavy Bombardment wikipedia , lookup
Corvus (constellation) wikipedia , lookup
Type II supernova wikipedia , lookup
Extraterrestrial life wikipedia , lookup
Stellar evolution wikipedia , lookup
Introduction This book will teach you all you need to know about the earth and physical science; the whole way through. This book will teach you in a fun and easy way so that you can learn more about the planet in which you live and everything around it. From beginning to end it will be an enjoyable and exciting ride, so let’s get going! Section 1: Particles of an atom, and more. The first thing we are going to begin with is a particle. A particle is a tiny piece of anything. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:particle&sa=X&oi=glossary_defin ition&ct=title 11-15-07). This means that anything and everything are made up of particles. The next definition that is on the list is an atom. An atom is the smallest component of an element. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=defi ne:atom&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title 11-1507). An atom also makes up the properties that make that element. Now that we know what a particles is and what an atom is we are going to now talk about what particles make up an atom? There are three particles that make up an atom. The first is an electron. An electron is a negatively charged atomic particle that moves around the nucleus of an atom. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=defi ne:Electron&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title 11- The second is a neutron. A neutron is a basic particle that is in the nucleus of an atom. A neutron has no charge. The third and final particle that makes up an atom is a proton. A proton is a basic particle in the nucleus of atom. It has a positive charge. 15-07). (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:proton&sa=X&oi=glossary_defini tion&ct=title 11-16-07). We know that things are made up of particles and atoms, but things are also made up of different elements. We use elements everyday because everything is made up of elements. An example of an element that we use is Sodium Chloride. Sodium Chloride is broken down and made into salt which we put on our food and eat. Scientists have a list of all the elements in a table. This table is known as the periodic table of elements. On this table each element has its own atomic number. An elements atomic number is the number of protons found in that atom’s nucleus of that element. Along with an element’s atomic number they also have an atomic mass. An atomic mass is the total number of protons, neutrons, and electrons in an atom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_element 11-16-07) Above it the periodic table of elements. The big number in the top right hand corner of each elements box is the elements atom number. The numbers on the bottom of each of the boxes is the elements atomic mass. Each element has its own name and initials. For example the initial for gold is Au. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Periodic+Table+of+Elements&sa =X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title 11-16-07) The last thing we are going to discuss in this section is an isotope. Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons, but different numbers of neutrons. (http://education.jlab.org/glossary/isoto pe.gif 11-19-07) Section 2: Fission and Fusion. Now, (because of this book), you are super smart and know what an atom is and the elements, which means we can move onto fission. Fission is the splitting of atoms, which results in the release of large amounts of energy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission Fission, 11-19-07). Fission occurs when an atom's nucleus is bothered by neutrons. Uranium and plutonium are the most common fissionable elements. When one fission reaction occurs it sets off several other fission reaction, which then those set off other fission reactions and it jus keeps going like that. Below is an example of fission. The next on the list is to talk about fusion. Fusion is when many or multiple atomic particles bond together to form a heavier nucleus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion 11-19-07). Fusion releases much more energy that that of fission. Fusion can be broken down into three steps: 1.) Two hydrogen nuclei smash together at very high speeds. 2.) The hydrogen nuclei fuse together to make a larger nucleus. 3.) Enormous amounts of energy are released. Fusion only occurs in: the sun, star, fusion bombs, and special laboratories. Section 3: The Life of a Low and High mass Star. To start off this section we will first need to briefly understand what gravitational force is. Gravitational force is when all Objects with mass attract each other. That means all the objects with mass (because of gravitational force) are attracted to each other and want to pull near each other. Each star starts out as a nebula; don’t worry don’t worry Brad Pitt or Jessica Simpson didn’t start out as nebulas or come from space, although some people do speculate where she came from. Picture: http://net.metadynamics.com/image/nebul a.jpg T The picture on the previous page is a picture of a nebula. The picture to the left is a protostar. You can still see the rings of gases surrounding it. A nebula is the first stage in the life cycle of a star. A nebula is a large cloud of dust, gas hydrogen gas, and plasma. Over long periods of time the gas and dust do to gravitational force pull towards each other and clump together. Eventually there will be enough matter that is pulled together to form a star. To pass through that nebula would take many light years. A light year is what scientist use to measure distance in space. They use the term year because of how big space is and the distance objects are from each other in miles would be unfathomable for the human mind to comprehend. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. (http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladv entures/universe/itsawesome/lightyears/index.h tml a light year, 11-19-07). After the clumps form into what could be a star it turns into a protostar. The protostar faze is still the early stage of a stars life. A protostar is when after all the hydrogen and helium gases from the nebula come together and they slowly heat up and the core will become more, and more dense. It is a protostar because it is not yet hot enough to begin fusion. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:protostar&sa=X&oi=glossary_defi nition&ct=title protostar 11-20-07). The next stage of a stars life could be a main sequence star, but there life could take a turn and they could become a brown dwarf. A brown dwarf is a “star” that is to small an object in size and does not have enough energy to produce fusion. Because it cannot start fusion it cannot produce energy therefore a brown dwarf has no shine. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Brown+Dwarf&sa=X&oi=glossar y_definition&ct=title brown dwarf 11-20-07). The picture to the left of the page is a picture of a brown dwarf. (http://www.space-art.co.uk/images/artwork/stars-I/BrownDwarf-II.jpg brown dwarf 11-20-07). If the protostar does gain enough mass and heat it will begin hydrogen fusion. All stars fuse hydrogen. The protostar has to get up to at least 10,000 degrees before it can begin fusing hydrogen. Once the star starts to fuse hydrogen it will become a main sequence star. A main sequence star is where the star will spend a immense amount of its active life. It is also the longest stage of a stars life. As it fuses hydrogen it becomes a space battle between gravity and the star. The pressure from gravity wants to crush the star but the star will fight back using its energy from the hydrogen fusion. (http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/bmendez/ay10/20 00/cycle/ms.html main sequence star 11-20-07). To the right and above is a picture of a main sequence star. The third stage of a stars life is a red giant. A red giant is when a when the small to medium size main sequence star runs out of hydrogen to fuse and gravity slowly makes the star collapse. As the star is collapsing the helium particles are getting closer to each other which heats up the star. Once the star reaches 100 million degrees in temperature the star begins to fuse helium. The fusing of helium makes the star grow and push gravity back thus making the star bigger and then it cools off a bit causing the red glow. ( Life cycle of a star notes earth science 11-20-07). After the star has finished becoming a red giant (because by now the star is probably tired and no one likes to be big and red) becomes a planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is when a red giant completely stops fusing helium and gravity once again pushes on the star and the star just explodes and the outer layer of the star are thrown into space. (Life cycle of a star notes earth science 11-2007). The picture to the left is a planetary nebula. (Picture: http://howardbloom.net/planetary_nebula.jpg 11-20-07). Moving on to dwarfs. Like all the dwarfs, in snow white, you have grumpy, happy, and white dwarf, and more. Not really, but white dwarfs really do exists. A white dwarf is the next stage in the life cycle of a star. A white dwarf is the left over core after the star explodes and its outer layers are thrust into space. A white dwarf may only be the size of the earth, but it has a mass the is equal to half of our sun. That is really dense! Because of the explosion and because it is so dense a white dwarf is white because in the explosion it had produced energy which makes it shine. (Life cycle of a star notes earth science 11-20-07). The last and final stage of the life cycle of a star is a black dwarf. A black dwarf is when a white dwarf cools off over millions of years and it no longer emits light so it is simple now just a black floating object in space. We are now moving onto the life cycle of a high mass star. Just like the low mass star the high mass star starts out as a nebula. The nebula comes together to form a protostar. In the life of a high mass star there is no brown dwarf because it is already do big that it wont have to worry about not starting hydrogen fusion. It then becomes a massive main sequence star where it will fuse hydrogen. It will fuse hydrogen much faster than a low mass star because it has a bigger mass so it uses its fuel faster. Once it stops fusing hydrogen it will fuse helium and become a super red giant. Because it is so big it will also fuse carbon dioxide and oxygen and other gases. It will then stop fusing those gases and just like a low mass star it will explode, but it will turn into a supernova. A super nova is when a star collapses and there is a huge explosion due to the pressure of gravity. After it becomes a super nova it will become a neutron star. A neutron star is the super dense core of the left over star. It is only 5 to 10 miles wide but has the mass up to 2 times the suns! The other option other than the neutron star is a black hole. A black hole is when the star has the mass up to 25 to 50 times that of the sun and is so dense that it sucks everything in around it and it is so dense that not even light itself cannot escape. Section 4: Planets We are now going to talk about the planets. We have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn Neptune, and Uranus. Each planet comes from a planetary disc. A planetary disc is a large region of gases. The planets came from this disc. Because of gravity the gas turned to clumps and slowly they got bigger and turned into planet. They all aligned and they all circle around the sun. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula 11-20-07 ). The next thing we will discuss is the difference between terrestrial planets and gas giants. A terrestrial planet are planet that have a rocky surface or are the most “ Earth” like planets are the four most inner planets. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:terrestrial+planet&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title planets 11-20-07). Gas giants are planets on the outer most parts of the solar system. These planets are mostly made up of frozen gases and ice. These planets are typically larger than the inner and terrestrial planets. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Gas+giant&sa=X&oi=glossary_ definition&ct=title planets 11-20-07). These planets are different because some are made up of gas while others are composed of rock. They are also different because some are large and some are small. Those are the basic differences between the two types of planets. There are three characteristic that make a planet a planet. The first characteristic is that a planet must have enough mass to make itself round. The second is that it must orbit the sun. The third and final characteristic is that it must clear its neighborhood of everything. That means that when asteroids hit earth or other planets that is the planets way of clearing it neighborhood. All of the eight planets have done those three things, which is why they are planets, although there is still some debate. Scientists have come up with a new category for other astronomical object that have some of the characteristics to be a planet but not all. They are called dwarf planets. A dwarf planet is has not fulfilled all its duties to become a planet. (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:DWARF+PLANET&sa=X&oi=gl ossary_definition&ct=title dwarf planets 11-20-07). Section 5: Gravity We are now going to sore are way through gravity. Gravity is the force that attracts all objects with mass in the universe together. We know that gravity is a big thing but what factors increase and decrease gravitational force. What changes gravity is the mass of the object. The more mass an object has the harder gravity will act on it or the more gravity will increase. The lighter an object is the less gravity will act on it because there is less matter for gravity to push on. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity gravity 11-20-07). Gravity also plays a role in how satellites can orbit the earth. The satellites orbit earth because it is launched off at such a speed that once it goes into space it is captured by earth’s orbit. So with the speed it is going and because of gravity in earth’s orbit it just keeps going around and around earth. (http://science.howstuffworks.com/question378.htm 11-20-07). Another things people often wonder is why astronauts feel so weightless while in space. The reason why the astronauts feel weightless is even though there is gravity in earth, while they are in space they are all falling toward earth which makes them feel weightless. http://education.jlab.org/qa/gravity_01.html. Section 6: Moon Many people wonder how the moon formed. There have been many theories. Now there is one major one that is wildly accepted by many astronomers and people. It is called the giant impact theory. This theory suggest that I the early stages of earth’s life when it was still in a magma state there was another object near the sun assumed to be a planet. It was almost the size of mars. The moved toward the earth and soon it crashed to the top part of the earth and that sent pieces of the earth and other object into space another chuck of rock from the explosion wrapped around and hit the earth once more. The rock from the explosion formed together to create our moon. (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0108/15mooncreate/ 11-2007). Picture: http://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/oconnell/astr121/im/moonform-impact.jpg . Section 7: Late Heavy Bombardment The late heavy bombardment was when Neptune got to close to Saturn and Jupiter’s orbit and was thrust into the kiuper belt which made asteroid and rock hit the earth and other planets. That is also why the moon has so many craters in it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_heavy_bombardment 11-20-07 ). Section 8: Earth The earth has four layers. The first layer is the crust. The crust makes only one percent of the entire earth. The crust is filled with the animal, planet life and the water and other things on which life need to thrive. The crust is about 5 to 30 miles deep. There are two types of crust. The first is continental. The continental crust is a thicker than the oceanic crust and it is the least dense layer in the earth. The second is oceanic crust. This crust is thinner than continental crust and it is slightly denser. No one has ever drilled through the crust. The second layer of the earth is the mantle. The mantle is made up of heavier material than the crust. It is slightly liquid; you could compare it to sill putty. It is the largest layer in the earth. In the mantle is the asthenosphere. This is the layer of the mantle just beneath the crust. It is more fluid than the rest of the mantle. The third layer if the earth is the outer core. The outer core is located 3,200 miles beneath the surface. It is made up of liquid iron and nickel. It also creates the earth’s magnetic field. The fourth layer is the inner core. The inner core is located 1,800 miles beneath the surface. It is made up of solid iron and nickel. It is hot but stays solid because the entire earth is pushing on it. Notes on layers of the earth 11-20-07). You can tell how old rocks are by different types of dating. The first is radioactive dating. Before we go into that lets talk about stratification or bedding. This is how the rocks are layered. This says that oldest rocks are on the bottom and the youngest are on the top. The law of horizontal says that all of the rocks are also all horizontal. Rocks also have relationships. No, I don’t mean girl rock likes boy rock. There is a relationship called intrusive relationship. This is when an igneous rock enters the sedimentary rock or magma is forced through the rock. The intruders are always younger than the rocks they intrude. There is also a relationship called igneous contacts. This is when the igneous rock intrudes other rocks and the extreme heat changes and the rocks touch. There is also faults and faulting. Faults often cut across layers of rock. Faults are younger than the rocks they cut. And last but not least erosion. Erosion occurs when rock is carried away from its original location. (Radioactive Dating Notes 11-20-07). The next thing we will discuss is a radiometric half-life. A half-life measures how fast isotopes decay. Each elements decay at a different rate. For example aluminum-28 has a half life of 2 minutes while uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years. As the isotope decays it turns into another isotope you could say. So for aluminum 28 as it decays it turns into silicon so an easy way to remember what is turning into what is that aluminum is the parent isotope while silicon is the daughter isotope. Another type of dating is radiometric or carbon-14 dating. This dating is created by cosmic rays. There is a certain percentage of carbon in every living thing. If you measure how much carbon is in the rock you can see how old it is. You can only use carbon-14 dating less than 60,000 years because any more than that there would not be enough carbon to measure. The last type of dating is uranium lead dating. This dating uses how much lead and uranium are in a rock. The uranium is the parent isotope the lead is the daughter. Section 9: Hadean eon and mass extinction This is when the earth had just formed out of the proto-planetary disc. The earth’s surface was covered in molten lava. The sun was only 73% warm as it is today. This eon was called the age of meteorites. The first life said to be on the earth was the extremophiles. They were called this because they could live under very extreme conditions such as boiling hot or freezing cold. And they didn’t need oxygen to live. It is believed they were the first life because while the earth was young there was little oxygen poisonous gas in the air and not soil or plants or animals which meant that nothing but them could have survived. (Hadean eon Notes 11-20-07). A mass extinction is the disappearance of almost all life on earth. There are many things that could cause mass extinction: global warming, pollution, poisonous gas etc. There have been several mass extinctions, such as during the archeaon eon the extinction of all life on earth and the extinction of all the dinosaurs. We have also had ice ages which cut the population of the earth. Section 10: Nuclear Radiation Now we will briefly discuss the different types of nuclear radiation. The first is alpha decay. It happens when the nucleus of an atom decays and when it does so it releases alpha particle, which is made up of 2 protons and 2 neutrons. It is use in smoke detectors and can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Another type is beta decay. This is when the neutron breaks down in a nucleus and if breaks into an electron and a proton which is called beta particle. It has a negative one charge and is stopped by a 10mm of wood. The third is a gamma ray. It is released when a nucleus decays. It is a high energy wave and has no mass. It is stopped by a 7 cm of lead. The fourth type is a neutron emission. This occurs when a nucleus decays. It releases a neutron and it has no charge. It is stopped by a 15 cm of lead. The last but not least is nuclear radiation. This occurs when the nucleus breaks down and it releases energy and a particle. Hope you learned a lot and had fun reading this book!