The Milky Way Galaxy

The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral system consisting of several billion stars, one of which is the Sun. It takes its name from the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band of stars and gas clouds that stretches across the sky. Although the Earth lies well within the Galaxy, astronomers do not have as clear an understanding of its nature as they do of some external star systems. A thick layer of interstellar dust obscures much of the Galaxy from scrutiny by optical telescopes, and astronomers can determine its large-scale structure only with the aid of radio and infrared telescopes, which can detect the forms of radiation that penetrate the obscuring matter.

The Milky Way

The Solar System

As the sun rushes through space at a speed of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per second, it takes many smaller bodies along with it. The sun and its smaller companions together are known as the solar system. Together, these bodies are making a revolution around the Milky Way that takes 225 million years. These other members of the solar system range in size from the giant planet Jupiter to microscopic particles called micrometeorites and even smaller particlesatoms and molecules of the interplanetary gas. Earth is one of the larger bodies of the solar system, though it is quite small when compared with the sun or Jupiter.

The inner solar system contains the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars:

The main asteroid belt (not shown) lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto:

Astronomers do not know exactly how far out the solar system extends. When it is at its farthest point from the sun, some 4.5 billion miles (7.2 billion kilometers)a point called the aphelionPluto is the most distant known planet. Many comets, however, have orbits that take them even farther out, upto several hundred times the distance of Pluto. Even at that distance the sun's gravitational force can pull the comet back. Some hundred billion comets form a tenuous halo in the outer parts of the solar system. Each is like a giant snowball, 1,000 to 10,000 feet (300 to 3,000 meters) in diameter. The solar system centers on the sun, one of a huge group of stars swirling around in a huge pinwheel-shaped mass called the Milky Way galaxy. There are more than 100 billion stars in the galaxy. Astronomical distances are so huge that astronomers often use the light-year as the unit of distance. One light-year is equal to the distance light travels in a year, or 5,880,000,000,000miles (9,463,000,000,000 kilometers). The galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across. The solar system's nearest neighbor in the galaxy is the triple star system Alpha and Proxima Centauri, which is 4.3 light-years away from our sun. Outside the Milky Way there are billions more galaxies stretching out through space. Evidence suggests that there are also at least two planets orbiting a pulsar outside the solar system and more than 50 planets orbiting extra solar stars.

Astronomers cannot see to the end of the universe, which is the vast space that contains the galaxies and all other matter and energy that anyone knows to exist. However, galaxies and other objects have been detected that are thought to be between 5 billion and 15 billion light-years away from the sun. Compared with such distances, our solar system occupies a very tiny amount of space.

Parts of the Solar System

Even though the solar system is tiny compared with the distances to galaxies or even to nearby stars, it is enormous when compared with distances on Earth. It is also diverse, with conditions ranging from the hot, gaseous sun to the cold darkness of Pluto.

The Sun.
The sun is the central member of the solar system. Its gravitational force holds the other members in orbit and governs their motions. It far outweighs all other components of the solar system combined. In fact, the sun contains more than 99 percent of the mass of the entire solar system.

The sun is, however, only an average-sized star. If it were as far away from Earth as most stars are, it would look no larger or brighter than its neighbors. But since it is by far the nearest star and the only star whose surface details may be observed, it is also one of the major sources of information that scientists have about how stars behave (see Star). The sun provides nearly all the heat and light and other forms of energy necessary for life on Earth.In fact, the sun provides virtually all the energy of the solar system. Its gravitational attraction governs the motions (or kinetic energy) of the planets and other bodies. Radiation from its surface bathes the planets in all the electromagnetic radiation they receive, with some minor exceptions. These exceptions include the faint light from stars, the disintegration of radioactive materials on the planets, emissions of long-wave radiation by the planet Jupiter, and the radio waves and X rays from remote space.

The Sun's satellites

There are nine planets and a large number of smaller objects orbiting the Sun. (Exactly which bodies should be classified as planets and which as "smaller objects" has been the source of some controversy, but in the end it is really only a matter of definition.)
Planet --------Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Distance (000 km) --------57,910 108,200 149,600 227,940 778,330 1,426,940 2,870,990 4,497,070 5,913,520 Radius (km) -----2439 6052 6378 3397 71492 60268 25559 24764 1160 Mass (kg) ------3.30e23 4.87e24 5.98e24 6.42e23 1.90e27 5.69e26 8.69e25 1.02e26 1.31e22 Discoverer ---------Date -----

Herschel Galle Tombaugh

1781 1846 1930

The Planets.
The largest and most massive members of the solar system, after thesun, are the nine known planets. Even so, their combined mass is less than 0.2 percent of the total mass of the solar system. The planets travel around the sun in regular orbits that are nearly circular in shape. Mercury's orbit lies nearest the sun. Next is Venus, then Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and finally Pluto. Pluto's orbit is the most elliptical of any of the planets. When Pluto is nearest to the sun (at perihelion), it is nearer to the sun than is Neptune.

The above composite shows the nine planets with approximately correct relative sizes The motions of the planets are similar in significant ways. All the planets orbit the sun in very nearly the same plane, which is the plane of the sun's equator. Pluto is the most divergent; its orbital plane makes an angle of about 17 to theplane of Earth's orbit

around the sun. Mercury is next, making a 7 angle to Earth's orbital plane. The planes of all the other planetary orbits lie within 3.5 of Earth's orbit. The planets may be grouped according to their nearness to the sun or according to their physical properties. For example, Mercury and Venus, whoseorbits lie between the sun and Earth, are called inferior planets. The planets whose orbits lie beyond Earth's orbit are the superior planets. Alternatively, theplanets may be divided by location into inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto). The reason for this division is that the four inner planets are similar in composition mostly silicate rock and iron in varying proportionswhile the four major outer planets, Jupiter to Neptune, are huge, not very dense, and have deep gaseous atmospheres. Since Jupiter is the outstanding representative of this group, these four planets are also known as the Jovian planets. These planetsare composed mostly of hydrogen and helium in liquid and gaseous form. Pluto is an exception. It is much smaller than the other planets and is composed mostly of nitrogen. Seven of the planets have smaller bodiestheir natural satellitescircling them. Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus have more than 20 moons each. Earth and Pluto each have one moon. These moons are so large with respect to the planets they orbit that each of the two planet-moon systems is sometimes considered a double planet system. Jupiter's Ganymede and Saturn's Titan are larger than the planet Mercury. The planetary rings around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are made up of innumerable tiny satellites.

The Earth.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest: orbit: 149,600,000 km (1.00 AU) from Sun diameter: 12,756.3 km mass: 5.972e24 kg

Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology. The name derives from Old English and Germanic. There are, of course, hundreds of other names for the planet in other languages. In Roman Mythology, the goddess of the Earth was Tellus - the fertile soil (Greek: Gaia, terra mater - Mother Earth). It was not until the time of Copernicus (the sixteenth century) that it was understood that the Earth is just another planet. Earth, of course, can be studied without the aid of spacecraft. Nevertheless it was not until the twentieth century that we had maps of the entire planet. Pictures of the planet taken from space are of considerable importance; for example, they are an enormous help in weather prediction and especially in tracking and predicting hurricanes. And they are extraordinarily beautiful. The Earth is divided into several layers which have distinct chemical and seismic properties (depths in km): 0- 40 Crust 40- 400 Upper mantle 400- 650 Transition region

650-2700 Lower mantle 2700-2890 D'' layer 2890-5150 Outer core 5150-6378 Inner core The crust varies considerably in thickness, it is thinner under the oceans, thicker under the continents. The inner core and crust are solid; the outer core and mantle layers are plastic or semi-fluid. The various layers are separated by discontinuities which are evident in seismic data; the best known of these is the Mohorovicic discontinuity between the crust and upper mantle. Most of the mass of the Earth is in the mantle, most of the rest in the core; the part we inhabit is a tiny fraction of the whole (values below x10^24 kilograms): atmosphere = 0.0000051 oceans = 0.0014 crust = 0.026 mantle = 4.043 outer core = 1.835 inner core = 0.09675 The core is probably composed mostly of iron (or nickel/iron) though it is possible that some lighter elements may be present, too. Temperatures at the center of the core may be as high as 7500 K, hotter than the surface of the Sun. The lower mantle is probably mostly silicon, magnesium and oxygen with some iron, calcium and aluminum. The upper mantle is mostly olivene and pyroxene (iron/magnesium silicates), calcium and aluminum. We know most of this only from seismic techniques; samples from the upper mantle arrive at the surface as lava from volcanoes but the majority of the Earth is inaccessible. The crust is primarily quartz (silicon dioxide) and other silicates like feldspar. Taken as a whole, the Earth's chemical composition (by mass) is: 34.6% Iron 29.5% Oxygen 15.2% Silicon 12.7% Magnesium 2.4% Nickel 1.9% Sulfur 0.05% Titanium The Earth is the densest major body in the solar system. The other terrestrial planets probably have similar structures and compositions with some differences: the Moon has at most a small core; Mercury has an extra large core (relative to its diameter); the mantles of Mars and the Moon are much thicker; the Moon and Mercury may not have chemically distinct crusts; Earth may be the only one with distinct

inner and outer cores. Note, however, that our knowledge of planetary interiors is mostly theoretical even for the Earth. Unlike the other terrestrial planets, Earth's crust is divided into several separate solid plates which float around independently on top of the hot mantle below. The theory that describes this is known as plate tectonics. It is characterized by two major processes: spreading and subduction. Spreading occurs when two plates move away from each other and new crust is created by upwelling magma from below. Subduction occurs when two plates collide and the edge of one dives beneath the other and ends up being destroyed in the mantle. There is also transverse motion at some plate boundaries (i.e. the San Andreas Fault in California) and collisions between continental plates (i.e. India/Eurasia). There are (at present) eight major plates: North American Plate - North America, western North Atlantic and Greenland South American Plate - South America and western South Atlantic Antarctic Plate - Antarctica and the "Southern Ocean" Eurasian Plate - eastern North Atlantic, Europe and Asia except for India African Plate - Africa, eastern South Atlantic and western Indian Ocean Indian-Australian Plate - India, Australia, New Zealand and most of Indian Ocean Nazca Plate - eastern Pacific Ocean adjacent to South America Pacific Plate - most of the Pacific Ocean (and the southern coast of California!)

There are also twenty or more small plates such as the Arabian, Cocos, and Philippine Plates. Earthquakes are much more common at the plate boundaries. Plotting their locations makes it easy to see the plate boundaries.

Earth's Plate Boundaries delineated by earthquake epicenters

The Earth's surface is very young. In the relatively short (by astronomical standards) period of 500,000,000 years or so erosion and tectonic processes destroy and recreate most of the Earth's surface and thereby eliminate almost all traces of earlier geologic surface history (such as impact craters). Thus the very early history of the Earth has mostly been erased. The Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest known rocks are about 4 billion years old and rocks older than 3 billion years are rare. The oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old. There is no record of the critical period when life was first getting started. 71 Percent of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Earth is the only planet on which water can exist in liquid form on the surface (though there may be liquid ethane or methane on Titan's surface and liquid water beneath the surface of Europa). Liquid water is, of course, essential for life as we know it. The heat capacity of the oceans is also very important in keeping the Earth's temperature relatively stable. Liquid water is also responsible for most of the erosion and weathering of the Earth's continents, a process unique in the solar system today (though it may have occurred on Mars in the past). Earth's atmosphere seen at the limb The Earth's atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water. There was probably a very much larger amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere when the Earth was first formed, but it has since been almost all incorporated into carbonate rocks and to a lesser extent dissolved into the oceans and consumed by living plants. Plate tectonics and biological processes now maintain a continual flow of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to these various "sinks" and back again. The tiny amount of carbon dioxide resident in the atmosphere at any time is extremely important to the maintenance of the Earth's surface temperature via the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect raises the average surface temperature about 35 degrees C above what it would otherwise be (from a frigid -21 C to a comfortable +14 C); without it the oceans would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible. The presence of free oxygen is quite remarkable from a chemical point of view. Oxygen is a very reactive gas and under "normal" circumstances would quickly combine with other elements. The oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is produced and maintained by biological processes. Without life there would be no free oxygen. The interaction of the Earth and the Moon slows the Earth's rotation by about 2 milliseconds per century. Current research indicates that about 900 million years ago there were 481 18-hour days in a year. Earth has a modest magnetic field produced by electric currents in the outer core. The interaction of the solar wind, the Earth's magnetic field and the Earth's upper atmosphere causes the auroras (see the Interplanetary Medium). Irregularities in these factors cause the magnetic poles to move and even reverse relative to the surface; the geomagnetic north pole is currently located in northern Canada. (The "geomagnetic north pole" is the position on the Earth's surface directly above the south pole of the Earth's field; see this diagram.)

The Earth's magnetic field and its interaction with the solar wind also produce the Van Allen radiation belts, a pair of doughnut shaped rings of ionized gas (or plasma) trapped in orbit around the Earth. The outer belt stretches from 19,000 km in altitude to 41,000 km; the inner belt lies between 13,000 km and 7,600 km in altitude.

Earth's Satellite
Earth has only one natural satellite, the Moon. But thousands of small artificial satellites have also been placed in orbit around the Earth. Asteroids 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29 have complicated orbital relationships with the Earth; they're not really moons, the term "companion" is being used. It is somewhat similar to the situation with Saturn's moons Janus and Epimetheus. Lilith doesn't exist but it's an interesting story. Distance Radius Mass Satellite (000 km) (km) (kg) --------- -------- ------ ------Moon 384 1738 7.35e22

Asteroids or Minor Planets.

There are many smaller bodies that circle the sun in orbits that lie, for the most part, between Mars and Jupiter. These are the asteroids, sometimes called minor planets. Ceres is the largest, with a diameter of more than 600 miles (965 kilometers). Few asteroids have diameters larger than 100 miles (160 kilometers). Most are probably no larger than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) across. It is estimated that millions of asteroids of boulder size exist in the solar system.

The total mass of all asteroids in the solar system adds up to only about three times that of Ceres. Many of the smaller asteroids are thought to be fragments caused by collisions between the larger asteroids. Some of the fragments may collide with Earth as meteorites. Scientists are then able to determine their compositions and ages. Some asteroids are thought to contain samples of the first materials to coalesce out of the great cloud from which the solar system itself is believed to have formed.

Asteroid table
A few asteroids and comets are listed below for comparison. (distance is the mean distance to the Sun in thousands of kilometers; masses in kilograms).
No. ---2062 3554 1566 433 1862 2212 951 4 3 15 1 2 243 52 10 511 911 2060 Name Distance Radius Mass Discoverer Date --------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ----Aten 144514 0.5 ? Helin 1976 Amun 145710 ? ? Shoemaker 1986 Icarus 161269 0.7 ? Baade 1949 Eros 172800 33x13x13 Witt 1989 Apollo 220061 0.7 ? Reinmuth 1932 Hephaistos 323884 4.4 ? Chernykh 1978 Gaspra 330000 8 ? Neujmin 1916 Vesta 353400 265 3.0e20 Olbers 1807 Juno 399400 123 ? Harding 1804 Eunomia 395500 136 8.3e18 De Gasparis 1851 Ceres 413900 466 8.7e20 Piazzi 1801 Pallas 414500 261 3.18e20 Olbers 1802 Ida 428000 35 ? ? 1880? Europa 463300 156 ? Goldschmidt 1858 Hygiea 470300 215 9.3e19 De Gasparis 1849 Davida 475400 168 ? Dugan 1903 Agamemnon 778100 88 ? Reinmuth 1919 Chiron 2051900 85 ? Kowal 1977