INTRODUCTION

TO THE
SOLAR SYSTEM

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 A. Theories on the Origin of the Solar System
B. The Planets, Satellites and Orbits
CONTENTS
C. Classification of Planets
D. What is Light Year

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A.Theories about the Origin of
the Solar System

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What is the composition of our
Solar System?

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Composition Of The
Solar System
• Star • Planets
• Natural Satellites • Comets
• Asteroids • Interplanetary Medium

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Composition Of The
Solar System

Sun The planets Satellites of the

planets
(ex.: moon of
the earth)

Numerous asteroids Interplanetary medium 6

Planets
• Mercury • Neptune
• Venus • Earth
• Mars • Jupiter
• Saturn • Uranus

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A Star System, also called
“stellar system” is a small
number of stars that
orbit each other.

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It should be noted that Earth
belongs to the solar
system,
which is a type of star system
because the sun is a star.
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Nebular Hypothesis

 Marquis de Laplace, a French

mathematician and astronomer in 1976.

 This theory proposed that the gas and

dust particles began to come together
under gravity to form a denser and
denser mass, which started to rotate.
The more it collapsed, the faster it
rotated. Over time, formed into a disc,
with a bulge in the middle.
Nebular
Hypothesis
Immanuel Kant 1755
Pierre-Simon
Laplace 1755
published closely related hypotheses
which postulated that the Solar
System was derived from the
condensation of an enormously 11
Immanuel Kant, and
Pierre-Simon Laplace

independently thought
of a rotating gaseous
cloud that cools and
contracts in the middle
to form the sun and the
rest into a disc that
become the planets.
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Nebular Hypothesis
The solar system developed with observed
regularities in its motions.
Beginning as a rotating gas cloud.
Most of the mass became concentrated at
the center to form the sun;
The remaining material condensed and
accumulated to form the planets.
The present solar system where our planets,
the earth, is the third planet from the sun.
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He assumed that the mutual gravitational
attractions of the particles caused them to
start moving and colliding at which point
chemical forces kept them bonded
together. As some of these aggregates
became larger, they grow more rapidly,
ultimately forming the planets.
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 The Dust Cloud Theory

German physicist Carl Friedrich von Weisaken and US chemist Harold C.

Urey. (1945). It presumed the nebula was flattened by its rotation and the
planetary in the gas molecules accelerated the lighter ones so that most of them
escaped from the nebula. Meanwhile, the matters in the disc were clumping
together into bigger and bigger lumps, which became the planets and their
moons.
 Dust Cloud Theory
 Another theory was formulated by the German physicist Carl
Friedrich von Weizsacken and U.S. chemist Harold C. Urey, called the
Dust Cloud Theory in 1945.

 The nebula was assumed to have a composition mainly of hydrogen

and helium, like the sun, with only 1% of heavier elements.

 The mass of this “Dust Cloud” was originally 10% of the sun’s mass or
about a hundred times as great as the present combined mass of the
planets and the satellites.

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 Planetisimal Theory

Proposed by a French scientist, George

Comte de Buffon, in 1778

He supposed that the planetary

system was formed from the
materials removed from the sun
by great gravitation. Eventually,
the materials cooled and condensed
to form small bodies, which in the
course of time, become planets.
 Planetesimal Theory
When other discrepancies seemed to invalidate the hypothesis of
rotational instability, a second theory, was formulated.

It supposed that the planetary system was formed from materials
removed from the sun by great gravitational attraction.

The gaseous projection was pulled from the sun by tidal action
caused by a passing star.

The projection became masses of gases which revolved around the

sun.

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The Companion Star Theory

•Proposed by Fred Hoyle

•The Sun once had a comparison star. As this
star collided with the sun, it eventually
exploded and its materials were held by the
sun’s gravitation. From these materials, various
planets and other bodies in the solar system
were formed.

Trivia:
Nemesis is the theoretical dwarf
star thought to be a companion to our
sun.
Protoplanet
Hypothesis
 was proposed in 1949 by Gerald P. Kuoper.
 According to this theory, the original nebula
was so massive that on further contraction
and flattening, it broke into separate clouds
or protoplanets.
 These remained stable in the tidal of the sun.
Indeed, it is has been surmised that the
majority of yellow stars, like the sun, may
possess systems of planets.

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Protoplanet
Hypothesis
• About 4.6 billion years
ago, in the Orion arm of the
Milky Way galaxy, a slowly
rotating gas
• and dust cloud dominated
by hydrogen and helium
starts to contract due to
gravity 21
As most of the mass move to the center to eventually become
a proto-Sun, the remaining materials form a disc that will
eventually become the planets and momentum is transferred
outwards.

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B. The Planets, Satellites and Orbits
Planets
and their satellites,
asteroids and other rocky
objects, and an incalculable number
of comet like objects, some more
than 1 trillion miles from the Sun,
make up the solar system.
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 Solar System
Time: 9 Billion yrs Temperature: -258 ºC

Solar system
emerged. A mass of gas
and dust of supernova collapsed until it
gave rise to the Sun. Later the planetary
system was formed from the leftover
material.
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 Solar System
Time: 9.1 Billion yrs Temperature: -265 ºC

Like the rest

of the planets, the Earth
formed of material that remained
after the formation of the solar system.
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 Solar System
Composed of the Sun and the Planets

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SUN

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The Sun
is the
Center of
The
Solar
System
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 SUN
A ball of incandescent
light

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SUN

It’s a huge ball of flaming gases

A. Hydrogen – 71%
B. Helium – 27.1%
C. Other Gases – 1.9% (Oxygen, Carbon,
Nitrogen, Neon, Magnesium, Iron, Sulfur,
Sodium

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SUN

Compared to other stars, the Sun is medium

sized, of average brightness and middle aged.

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REGION

CORE
RADIATION ZONE
CONVECTION ZONE
PHOTOSPEHERE
CHROMOSPHERE
CORONA

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CORE
- Has a diameter of about
400,000 Km.
- Generates a tremendous
amount of energy from nuclear
reactions
- Temperature is about
15,000,000 K, decreasing
outward to the surface.

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Radiation Zone
- Is about 300,000 Km thick and
located above the core
- Transport solar energy
towards the surface by
electromagnetic radiation

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Convection Zone
- Is about 200,000 Km thick
- Located above the radiation
zone
- Transport energy towards the
surface by convection
movement of the sun’s material

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Photosphere
- Sun’s visible surface
- Located above the convection
zone
- Estimated to be 500 to 800 Km
thick
- Temperature is 5780 K

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Chromosphere
- Sun’s lower atmosphere
- Extending outward from
10,000 to 19,000 Km above
the Photosphere
- Made up primarily of Hydrogen

Chromosphere 38
 The Sun

Diameter at the equator - 864,000 Miles

(1,393,000 Km)
Average Temperature - 5,500 °C
Temperature at core - 15,000,000 °C
Mass - 332,900 M ⊕

Density - 1.4 g per cu cm

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Mercury

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Venus

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Earth

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Mars

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Asteroid Belt – lies between the orbit of
Mars and Jupiter 48
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Jupiter

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Saturn

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Uranus

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Neptune

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My Very Enlarged Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

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EARTH

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 The Earth
Diameter at the equator - 7,930 miles

Av distance to the Sun - 93M miles (1 AU)

Average Density - 5.52 g per cu cm

Mass - 5.9722 x 10²⁴ kg

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Our Planet

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Our Planet

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Our Planet

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Our Sun with its Neighbors
There are Stars in our
Galaxy that are more
than two thousand times
the diameter of Sun.

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C. Classification of Planets

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 2 Types of Planet:

The inner or Terrestrial planet

The outer or Jovian planets

Satellites
Natural Satellites of Mars

Deimos
Phobos
Orbits
Smaller bodies that inhabit the Solar System

Asteroids Comets Small icy

bodies in
Kulper Belt
 Astronomy
Study of Heavenly Bodies

MEASURING THE UNIVERSE

• Astronomical Unit – Earth’s distance from the sun
1 A.U. = 1.496 x 10⁸ km (1.5 x 10⁸ km)

• Light Year – Distance that light year travels

1 L Y = 9.46 x 10¹² km (10¹² km; 6 trillion miles)

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