Download Solar System Formation: Chapter 21

Solar System Formation
Solar System
• Comprised of a star and the planets that
orbit the star
• Binary – Two stars at center of system
– Eclipsing is when one star orbits the other
• Tertiary – Three stars at center
• What is the name of our star?
• Sun
Solar Nebulas
• Interstellar clouds made up of gas and dust
• Building blocks of the solar system
• Each solar system is recycled from older
solar systems
Solar Nebula
• Gravity pulls the mass of the cloud together
• Pressure pushes the particles away from
each other
• If these forces balance out, nebula will not
form solar system
• Gravity must condense cloud for solar
nebula formation
Solar System
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How does gravity overcome pressure?
Nebulas crash into each other
Star explodes
Compression of the cloud
Solar Nebula
• 3 Things happen as Nebula Collapses
• Heating
– Temp of Nebula Increases as more collisions occur
• Spinning
– Objects closer to center rotate faster
• Flattening
– Collisions allow disk to flatten
Solar Nebula
• Accretion
– Process of growth by colliding and sticking
• Planetesimals
– Small pieces of planets
• Collisions form planets and capture gases
• Residual dust forms asteroids, ice forms comets
– Asteroid Belt (Mars), Moons, Pluto?, Kuiper Belt
Solar Nebula
• Based upon Density
– Heavier objects are near the center of the solar
system
– Less dense objects are further away
• Where are the rock planets located? Gas
Planets?
Star Clusters
• Arrangement of stars in space
–Open cluster = younger
–Globular = older
Galaxies
• A huge group of stars, clusters,
systems, dust and gas
– Spiral = extending arms w/ young
stars
– Elliptical = round of flattened ball,
old stars
– Irregular = young stars
– Quasars = active young galaxies
Andromeda = nearest galaxy
Ages of Space
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Universe
14 Billion years old
Solar System
4.6 Billion years old
Earth
4.55 Billion years old