Why is Earth called the “Pale Blue Dot”?

● Scientific cosmology: Universe = matter (mass) + energy

Motion of the Stars

● There’s order in the movement of celestial objects
● When viewed over a whole night, stars in the northern hemisphere appear to revolve around
Polaris ➞ North Star
● Certain objects in the night sky appear to move relative to the backdrop of stars
○ These “wanderers” are planets
○ The numbers gives dates (month/day) when the planet shown was at a given
location

How to Explain the Motion of Stars and Planets?

● Geocentric
○ Ptolemy Model ➞ Earth at the center
● Heliocentric
○ Copernicus Model ➞ Sun at the center

Geocentric Perspective
● Proposed by Aristotle
● Challenged by Aristarchus
● Geocentric universe deeply entrenched in church doctrine
● Copernicus ➞ Galilei ➞ Kepler ➞ Heliocentrism
● Simple spheres containing the planets and the sun revolving around Earth didn’t explain
the retrograde motion of planets
● Ptolemy
○ Proposed that planets also follow a smaller circular orbit (epicycles)
○ Predictable periods of retrograde motion

Retrograde Motion
● Copernicus
○ Suggested that because Mars has the larger retrograde motion is the closest to
Earth while Saturn, having the smallest retrograde motion is the furthest from the
Earth
○ Proposed that the Earth spins on its axis leading to sunrise and sunset

Kepler
1. Law of ellipses
a. Orbit of each planet is an ellipse with a sun at one focus
2. Law of Orbital harmony
a. For any planet, the square of the orbital period in years is proportional to the
cube of the planet’s average distance from the sun
3. Law of Equal Areas
a. A line drawn from a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal time
 b. The orbital velocity changes

Solar System
● Consists of our star, the sun, the planets, their satellites, and asteroids
● Located on the arm of a very large spiral galaxy
● Within the milky way galaxy (system of stars held together by gravity)

Definition of a Planet
● Orbit a star
● Roughly spherical
● Clear its neighborhood of other objects
● Why is Pluto not a planet? Because it doesn’t have a strong enough pull to clear its
neighbourhood

Size of the Earth

● Eratosthenes correctly calculated the circumference of the Earth by measuring the
shadow at the bottom of 2 wells 800km apart at the same time

Mercury
● 0 satellites
● 70% metallic and 30% silicate composition (internally layered)
● Largest temp. Range (-170 to 425 C)

Venus
● 0 satellites
● Earth’s twin; ancient volcanoes (tectonics?), few impact craters
● Thick (deadly) atmosphere (inhibits telescope observation)

Moon
● Moon: orbits the Earth
○ Composed of rock and hosts craters and large maria
● Io: orbits Jupiter
○ Composed of rock and remains volcanically active
● Ganymede: orbits Jupiter
○ Consists of both rock and ice
● Enceladus: orbits Saturn
○ Consists of ice and features erupting geysers
● Delmos: orbits Mars
○ Composed of roch and is non-spherical

Impact Theory: formation during initial spiralling of nebula

Moon - Highlands
● 90% plagioclase feldspar
 ● “Foam” on magma ocean

Mara: Food basalts

Moon Evolution
● Formation of crust
● Lunar highlands
● Maria basins
● Rayed craters

Mars
● 2 satellites
● Ancient volcanoes and tectonics; internally layered; crust: basalt
● Lowest density
● Evidence of water?
○ If you have water, then you have a hydrosphere, and if you have a hydrosphere
& tectonics, then you have an atmosphere

Jupiter
● Core region is surrounded by dense metallic hydrogen, which extends outward to ~78%
of the radius of the planet
● Large red eye ➞ storm
● Hydrogen + helium = making up structure

Io, one of the 4 Galilean satellites

● Currently volcanically active
● Melting is from tidal energy
● Volcanic Plumes
○ Fountains of lava gushing 160km in height

Saturn
● Core similar to Earth surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate
layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium and an outer gaseous layer; magnetic field
● Rings are made of ice

Titan (moon)
● (Liquid methane) lakes and seas + atmosphere, sinkholes and karst landscape

The Twins (ice dominating over gases) = Ice Giants

● Rocky center, an icy mantle and an outer gaseous hydrogen/helium envelope; ice:
water, ammonia and methane
 ● Ice isn’t necessarily made of h2o
● Uranus
○ 27 satellites
● Neptune
○ 13 satellites; Triton contains cryovolcanism

Pluto (DEMOTED)
● Largest member of a distinct population of rock, metals, and ices called the Kuiper belt
(dwarf planets, moons, planetesimals)

Terrestrial vs. Jovian

Terrestrial Jovian

Hard silicate rocky surfaces Very large outer planets

Close to the Sun Turbulent

Larger ones have atmospheres Composed of gases: H, He, NH3

Few satellites Many satellites

Dense metallic cores Very low density

Exoplanets - Outside the Solar System

● The Kepler Telescope has found over 2,000 exoplanet candidates
● The Milky Way may contain 14 million Earth-sized exoplanets

Other Solar System Objects: Moons, asteroids, dwarf planets, and comets

Meteors: Small piece of cometary or asteroidal material that enters the atmosphere at high
speed and burns up in the atmosphere (shooting stars)

Meteoroid: Meteor before it hits the atmosphere (while in space)

Meteorite: Meteor that doesn’t burn up and hits Earth’s surface

Fire balls: very bright meteors

Meteor showers: When Earth’s orbit passes through a belt of cosmic dust and rock

**know the difference between an asteroid and a meteorite

Meteorites
● Stones: Resemble rocks found on Earth; most common type of meteorite
○ Chondrite: Most common, Fe-, Mg-, and Ni-bearing minerals, magnetic
composed of small round spheres (chondrules); 4.6 Ga
 ○ Achondrites: Same composition, but lack the chondrules
● Irons: composed of Fe-Ni alloy (high density); likely candidate that resembles Earth’s
core
● Stony Irons: mix of stony silicate material and iron

Most meteorites appear to be fragments of larger bodies: parent bodies (small planets, larger
asteroids, etc)
● The Asteroid Belt
○ Between Mars and Jupiter, a swarm of 100,000 objects (asteroids)
○ Likely produces Near Earth Objects,150 NEOs with 1-8km diameters; 1700 NEO
are potentially hazardous

Comets
● Body that orbits around the Sun with eccentric orbit
● Ice + rock
● Solar radiation generates gases from evaporation of comet’s surface, giving it a tail
● ~10-20% of comets are in Earth-crossing orbits
● 700 long-period comets (T>200 yrs)
● 25 short-period comets (T⋦ 200 yrs)
○ 95% have lost their tails = “stealth comets”
● First warning ➞ initial entry into Earth’s atmosphere

Impactors (meteors, bolides, fireballs)

● < 10m diameter - burnup in atmosphere
● Larger ones…?

1908 Tunguska, Russia

● 2000 km^2 of fallen trees, blast witnessed from 300km away, and heard from 1000km
away
● Meteor was 60-190m in size
● Largest impact in historical record

Impacts
● Atmospherical frictional heat may raise surface temp. to 3000 C, creating tail to fireball
● At 115km above ground, atmosphere is dense enough to heat meteoroids until glowing
● Meteoroids typically visible 100km above ground, vapourized before reaching 60km
above ground
● Violently compressed air ➞ mini-sonic boom
● 1994: Impacted Jupiter’s atmosphere at up to 60km/s
○ Initial flash at collision
○ Superheated has fireball, thousands of kilometers above clouds
○ Radiation as plume crashed back down at high speed
○ Largest (1km) fragment G ➞ impact scar larger than Earth
Frequency of Large Impacts
● Determined by examination of Moon’s maria ➞ 1 major impact every 110 million years
● Extrapolated to Earth’s (80x) larger SA: 2400 impacts leaving craters bigger than 25km
diameter (720 on land)
● More than 160 craters discovered so far, most smaller than 25km diameter
○ Remainder probably buried or destroyed
● Extremely small odds that Earth will be hit by large asteroid during human lifetime
● Meteoroids greater than 350 tons in weight not slowed down by the atmosphere
○ Hit ground at nearly original speed, explode and excavate craters
● Craters are erased by erosion, destroyed by plate tectonics and buried under sediments
● 164 known impact craters, including 57 in US and Canada

Meteorite Flux
● 10^7 - 10^9 kg/year
● 1mm diameter objects hit the Earth every 30 seconds
● Meteoroids 1 gram or more pass through the atmosphere to Earth’s surface
● Speeds of 11-30km/s ➞ atmosphere behaves like solid
● Frictional resistance of atmosphere melts away exterior, protecting interior ➞ glazed, blackened
crust

Summary of Effects of Impacts

● Massive earthquakes
● Dust and ash released into the atmosphere, blocking solar radiation ➞ cool
● Widespread wildfires (more dust and ash) ➞ cool
● If impact into ocean, large amount of water vapour/steam would be released
○ H2O + CO2 scatters solar radiation and has long residence in atmosphere ➞ warm
● Shock would produce nitrogen oxides; combined with water = nitric acid ➞ acid rain
● If impact into ocean = tsunami

The Doppler Effect

● Ex. As a train approaches, the noise has a higher pitch than it’s moving away
● Light Waves
○ When light is moving toward observer ➞ compressed (blue-shifted)
○ When moving away ➞ expanded (red-shifted)
○ Moving star displays Doppler-shifted light
■ Approaching star ➞ blue-shifted
■ Receding star ➞ red-shifted
○ “Moving away” = expanding
■ Can be applied to the Universe too

The Big Bang

● Theory proposes that all matter and energy in the Universe started out as a single
infinitesimally small point
● Exploded and has been expanding since
 ● Hydrogen atoms formed within seconds
○ After 3min, light nuclei (He, Li, Be) were created by Big Bang nucleosynthesis

*** Which elements formed during the Big Bang?****

The First Stars

● With expansion and cooling, atoms began to bond
● Hydrogen molecules (H2) were formed
● Gravity collected matter, the material heated and began the process of making a star
● Denser parts of nebulae grew mass via gravity
● Mass compacted and the material began to rotate in a flattened disk
● Central ball started to glow: protostar
● With continued addition of matter, the center of the nebular disk increased in temp.
● Past 10million degrees C, H2 fused to He ➞ making a star

Stellar Nucleosynthesis
● Big Bang nucleosynthesis formed the lightest elements
● Stellar nucleosynthesis formed elements up to Fe (atomic # = 26)

Death of a Star = Supernova

● Very heavy elements form during supernova explosions

Formation of the Solar System

● Nebular Theory for planet formation
● Nebular cloud of gas and debris coalesced ~4.6 Ga from older stars
● Nebula condenses into a protoplanetary disk
● Center of the nebular disk glows with heat and ignites into nuclear fusion
● Dust in the rings coalesces to form planetesimals
● Dust particles and stony debris are the materials that coalesced to create the
planetesimals that amassed together to form Earth
● Planetesimals accumulate to create a lumpy planetoid
○ Interior heats up to the point of melting, the body becomes spherical and
differentiates into core and mantle

Formation of the Moon

● After differentiation, a Mars-sized planetoid collided with Earth blasting out a large part of
its mantle
○ Debris from the collision coalesces to form the Moon

Formation of Earth’s Atmosphere

● Atmosphere accumulates from volcanic outgassing
● When the Earth is cool enough for water vapour to condense, the oceans formed
Solar Nebular Theory
● Solar nebula, cloud of He, H, some heavier dust
● 4.6-4.4 Ga ago, gravitational contraction, cloud initiations rotation
● Gravitational collapse, increase temp., light elements driven towards outer edges of disk
● Planets result from accretion of dust, planetesimals
● Sun originates from concentration of mass at the centre

Age of the Solar System

● Meteorites 4.53 to 4.58 Ga
● Moon rocks 4.4 to 4.5 ga
● Oldest rock on earth, Acasta gneiss in NWT is 4.03* Ga (but Earth is tectonically active,
rocks keep getting recycled..)
● Oldest mineral on Earth zircon in Australia is 4.4 Ga