Our Solar System and Its Origin

What does the solar system look like?

Recall scale of solar system

Planets are very tiny compared to

distances between them.

6.2 Clues to the Formation of Our Solar Sytem

Our Goals for Learning

• What features of our solar system provide clues to how it formed?

• What theory best explains the features of our solar system?

What features of our solar system provide clues to how it formed?

The Sun, planets, and large moons orbit and rotate in an organized way

Counterclockwise seen from above the north pole)

Terrestrial planets are small, rocky, and close to the Sun. Jovian planets are large, gas-rich, and far from the Sun.(What about Pluto?)

What theory best explains the features of our solar system?

According to the nebular theory our solar system formed from a giant cloud of interstellar gas

(nebula = cloud)

What have we learned?• What features of our solar system

provide clues to how it formed?• Four major features

provide clues: (1) The Sun, planets, and large moons generally rotate and orbit in a very organized way. (2) With the exception of Pluto, the planets divide clearly into two groups: terrestrial and jovian. (3) The solar system contains huge numbers of asteroids and comets. (4) There are some notable exceptions to these general patterns.

• What theory best explains the features of our solar system?

• The nebular theory, which holds that the solar system formed from the gravitational collapse of a great cloud of gas.

Where did the solar system come from?

The cloud of gas that gave birth to our solar system resulted from the recycling of gas through many generations of stars within our galaxy.

What caused the orderly patterns of motion in our solar system?

Solar System Formation:

1- gravity forced the cloud to become smaller, it began to spin faster and faster

2- Collisions flatten the cloud into a disk.

6.4 The Formation of Planets

Our Goals for Learning• Why are there two types of planets?• Where did asteroids and comets come

from?• How do we explain the existence of our

Moon and other “exceptions to the rules”?

• When did the planets form?

Four Unexplained Features of our Solar System

√ Why do large bodies in our solar system have orderly motions?

--> 2) Why are there two types of planets?

3) Where did the comets and asteroids come from?

4) How can we explain the exceptions the the ‘rules’ above?

Why are there two types of planet, when all planets formed from the same nebula?

Inside the frost line: too hot for hydrogen compounds to form ices.

Outside the frost line: cold enough for ices to form.

Fig 9.5

Tiny solid particles stick to form planetesimals.

Gravity draws planetesimals together to form planets

This process of assembly is called accretion

Why are there two types of planets?

1. Jovian planets form from because cooler temperatures allow H, He, and ice to condense forming a gas giant.

2. Terrestrial Planets form because the warmer temperatures only allowing metal and rock to condense

Review of nebular theory

Fig 6.27

When did the planets form?

We cannot find the age of a planet, but we can find the ages of the rocks that make it up

We can determine the age of a rock through careful analysis of the proportions of various atoms and isotopes within it

The decay of radioactive elements into other elements is a key tool in finding the ages of rocks

Age dating of meteorites that are unchanged since they condensed and accreted tell us that the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old.