SOLAR SYSTEM

 Age – 4.56 billion years.

 Mass – 1.0014 solar mass (1 solar mass = 2*10 to the power 30).
 Shape – Flat & elliptical shape.
 Nearest star other than the SUN – the Proxima century & Alpha century
and nearest known planetary system – alpha century system.

 Solar system is the family member of SUN (star) including 8 – planets (

MERCURY, VENUS, EARTH, MARS, JUPITER, SATURN, URANUS, NEPTUNE),
dwarf planets, natural satellite, Asteroid, meteoroites, meteor & comet
etc.
 Stars – is a astronomical sphere of gas held together by its own gravity and its
luminous. Ex. SUN, Alpha century.

 Planet – is an astronomical body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive

enough to be rounded by its own gravity. EX. Earth , Mars

 Dwarf planets – is a planetary object i.e. neither a planet nor natural satellite.
And these size smaller than the 8-planets, with different orbital plane from the
orbital plane of other 8 planets.

 Natural satellite – small body, small mass of heavily bodies which has no own
light and revolving around the planets in an elliptical orbit.

 Asteroid – a large no. of small chunks of mass which is moving in b/w mars &
Jupiter around the SUN. they don’t have fixed orbit. Mostly composed of rock
forming mineral such a silicates, meals etc.
 Meteor & Meteorites – if the chunks of celestial bodies burn by the earths
atmosphere then they are called meteor. And if they fall on earths
surface ( on surface of the planets, satellite etc.) then they called
meteorites and if the move around the Sun known as Comets also known
as Burning stars.
Asteroid belt
EARTH
 Size – equatorial radius (a) = 6378.2km
Polar radius (c) = 6356.8 km
Mean radius (r) = 6371 km
 Shape – oblate spheroid
 Density – 5.5 gm/cc
 Mass – 5.97*10 to the power 24 kg
 Some points about the Earth –
 1. P & T at the center of the core is 360 Gpa & 6000 K
 2. Density at earth center > 7000 kg/m cube & probably in the range
10000 to 12000 kg/m cube.
 3. Spin axis tilted – 23.5 degree.
 4. Reovlution and rotation is prograde.
 AGE AND ORIGIN OF THE EARTH
 In recent years, the Earth has been considered a complex planetary
system that evolved over 4.6 billion years of time.

 Earth age determine by the radiometric dating of meteorites. Meteorites

are a pieces of solid matter from space that penetrate the earth
atmosphere at a hyper sonic speed typically 10 – 20 km/s.

 Atmospheric friction i.e. interaction with atmosphere causes it to become

incandescent ( red-hot burning). Out side the earth atmosphere it is
known as meteoroid, any part that survive after passage through
atmosphere & reaches the earth surface is called meteoroite.
  METEORITES

Iron meteorites Stony meteorites Iron stony meteorites

Consist of alloy Mixture of both
Consist of silicate mineral
of iron and nikal

Condroite Acondroite
Consist of small Made up of essentially
spherules of high temp. of single minerals like
silicate & constitute the olivine to rock
largest fraction (>85%) resembling basaltic lava
of recovered meteorites

:- Chondroite, acondroite and iron meteorites costatly yield age of around 4.45 – 4.50 Ga.
The high U/Pb ratio of the attende inclusion gave precious 207 Pb/ 206 Pb dates – 4.56 + or
– 0.002 Ga. ( current past estimate of the age of solar system and Earth)
 EVOLUTION
 Evolutionary Theories. The theories which suggest that planets are formed
during the evolution of the sun, are called "evolutionary theories". Nebular
hypothesis is an example of these theories.

 Catastrophic Theories. "Catastrophic theories" are those which imagine

that planets are formed by some special accident or catastrophe, such
as the close approach of two stars or by collision of two stars. However, as
the stars are so far apart in the galaxy, the possibility of such a
catastrophe is extremely rare. The examples of catastrophic theories are
the planetesimal and gaseous tidal hypo-thesis.
 The best known hypothesis for the origin of the earth and other planets of
the solar system are as follows.
 1. Nebular hypothesis
 2. Planetesimal hypothesis
 3. Gaseous tidal hypothesis
 4. Binary star hypothesis
 5. Gas dust cloud hypothesis
 NEBULA HYPOTHESIS
 The nebular hypothesis was put forward by Kant, the German philosopher in 1755
and Laplace, the French mathematician in 1796. this hypothesis suggests that
the sun and planets, including the earth have formed from a disc-shaped
rotating nebula. A vast cloud of hot gas is called "nebula". The nebular
hypothesis may be. summarized as follows.
1. Originally there was a large, hot, gaseous nebula which rotated along its axis.
2. As the gas lost energy by radiation, it became cooler. As a result the nebula
contracted inward and its speed of rotation about its axis increased to conserve
angular momentum. Due to this the centrifugal force in the equitorial zone also
increased thereby causing the nebula to bulge out in the equitorial zone.
3. The cooling and contraction of the nebula continued and ultimately a stage came
when the centrifugal force became greater than the gravitational attraction
acting inward. As a result a gaseous ring was separated out
4. The above process was repeated and successive rings of gaseous
material were thrown off from the central mass.
5. In the final stages the rings condensed into planets. Planetoids were
formed when one such ring broke into many small fragments.
6. The central mass of the nebula continued to shrink and finally formed
the sun.
 The nebular hypothesis was not favourad because it had the following
defects.
 This hypothesis could not explain the energy distribution within the solar
system. The sun which possesses most of the mass (about 99.9%) of the
solar system, should have gathered maximum angular momentum.
However, 98% of the angular momentum is concentrated in the planets
and the remaining 2% is present in the sun.
 PLANETESIMAL HYPOTHESIS
 The planetesimal hypothesis was proposed by Chamberlin and Moulton
in 1904. The main points of this hypothesis are as follows.
 The sun existed before the formation of planets. A large passing star
approached very close to the sun.
 Due to the disruptive forces of the sun and the strong gravitational pull of
the passing star, giant masses of gas were torn from the surface of the
pre-existing sun.
 The giant masses of gas broke into a large number of small chunks which
on cooling gave rise to solid particles, called "planetesimals".
 The planetesimals started flying as cold bodies into orbits around the sun
in the plane of the passing star. By collision and gravitational attraction,
the larger planetesimals swept up the smaller pieces• and thus planets
were formed.
 The main flaws in the planetesimal hypothesis are as follows. Most of the material which
was ejected by the explosive action of the sun would come from the interior. It would
be so hot that the gasses would disperse in the space rather than condense into
planets.
 Although the angular momentum imparted to the planets by a passing star would be
greater than that produced the rotation of a nebula, the amount is still less than that
observed.
 The space is vast and therefore the probability of a close approach of two stars is
extremely unlikely.
INTERIOR OF EARTH

Mohorovic discontinuity 33 km
Reptti discontinuity 660 km

Guttenburg discontinuity 2900 km

Lehman discontinuity 5150 km

 Earths layer  Density  Pressure in Gpa  Temp. in 0 centigrade

 Continantal crust  2.7 – 3.0  3  200 - 400

 Oceanic cruat  3.0 – 3.3  --  200 - 400

 Avg.  2.9 – 3.3  3  200 - 400

 Lithosphere  3.0 – 3.3  --  300 – 500

 Ashthenosphere  3.0 – 3.5  --  1300

 Mantle  3.3 – 3.5  --  1000 – 3700

 Avg.  4.6  136  2900 – 3000

 Outer core  9.9 – 12.2  135-330  4500 – 5000

 Inner core  12.6 – 13.0  360  6000

 Crust
 < % earths volume & 0.4 % of its mass.

 Thickness – Avg. 30 – 35 km.

 Thickness at oceanic basin – 5 – 10 km.

 Composition – granodiorite to basaltic.

 Lithosphearic plate – basaltic.

 Continantal crust composition – granite to granodiorite.

 Oceanic crust composition – basaltic.

 MANTLE
 Composition – peridotite (mostly ultrabasic composition).

 Its cover the 83 % earths volume & 69 % earths mass.

 Division of mantle :-

 30 -410 km up. mantle.

 Comp. olivine, ortho-pyroxene, granite & spinale (silicate minerals mainly).

 410 – 660 km transition zone.

 Rate of increase of seismic wave in this zone will be maximum here spinel
changes into pervoskite.

 660 – 2885 km silicate mineral like Mg-silicate, Pervoskite, Stisovite etc.

 CORE

 17 % of the earth volume & 34 % earth mass.

 Compo. Fe, Ni, & high dense mantle like gold which are present in alloy
form.
 Outer core present in liquid state.
 Inner core alloys are present in the solid satate.