“There’s No Place

Like Home”
JAMAIKA JOY ESPINOSA
UST- SHS
EARTH & LIFE SCIENCE
TODAY’S OBJECTIVES:
MILKY WAY GALAXY
VOYAGER GOES INTERSTELLAR
MESSAGES FROM EARTH
MESSAGES FROM EARTH
EVER HEARD OF SLINGSHOT MANEUVER?
WHAT IS YOUR COSMIC ADDRESS?

ASL
p0wzz???
OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE
 OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE

• contains a very large number of superclusters of

clusters of galaxies and other matter that can be
observed from Earth’s vantage point at the present
time.

• our current view of the Observable Universe extends

more than ten billion light years in all directions

• estimated that the diameter of the observable

universe is about 28.5 gigaparsecs (93 billion light-
years, 8.8×1026 metres or 5.5×1023 miles)
 OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE

OBSERVABLE BECAUSE……..

• many astronomers believe that all the planets,

stars, galaxies and clusters in our observable
universe, is but one tiny bubble in an infinite
ocean of other universes

• we could be living in a “multiverse”

MULTIVERSE
VIRGO SUPERCLUSTER (a.k.a LOCAL SUPER CLUSTER)

• contains thousands of clusters of galaxies,

including the Local Group as one of its smaller
members

• called the "Virgo" Supercluster because its

central cluster is one containing thousands of
individual galaxies which we see in the direction
of the constellation Virgo roughly a hundred
million light years away
LOCAL SUPERCLUSTER
VIRGO SUPERCLUSTER
 LOCAL GALACTIC GROUP

• a cluster of galaxies which includes the Milky

Way and about a dozen other galaxies, most of
which are rather smaller than the Milky Way

• represents a "clump" of galaxies, separated

from each other by a few hundred thousand to
a few million light years
LOCAL GALACTIC GROUP
DEFENDER OF THE GALACTIC GROUP
 MILKYWAY GALAXY
• contains the Sun (and its collection of planets)
and an unimaginably large number of other
stars: roughly 400 billion
MILKYWAY GALAXY
 SOLAR SYSTEM
• contains the Earth-Moon system and many
other planets and their moons
• consists of the Sun (a star) and all things in
orbit around it
• eight major planets (Pluto isn't considered
"major" any more)
• dozens of satellites (moons)
• hundreds of thousands of asteroids
• uncountable numbers of smaller bits, including
comet nuclei
 EARTH
• a ball of rock
and metal on
whose surface
all geography
exists

• Earth's
circumference is
roughly 40,075
km
COSMIC ADDRESS
 POPULAR MODELS ABOUT THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
1. Geocentric model – (Ptolemy) the Earth is the
center of the SS

2. Heliocentric model – (Copernicus) the sun is

the center of the SS
ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
EARLY THEORIES
VORTEX THEORY (Rene Descartes)

• Solar system was formed

because of the whirlpool-
like motion
BUFFON’S COLLISION (George Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon)

• Sun collision
with a giant
comet

• Collision
results =
release of
material • Released material = planets
from the sun (condensed material from the
sun)
TIDAL THEORY (Sir James Hopwood Jeans
Harold Jeffreys)

Planets torn out from the Sun as another star

passed through
NEBULAR THEORY (Immanuel Kant &
Pierre Simon Laplace)

• Great cloud of
gas and dust
(Nebula)

• Spinning cloud
SOLAR NEBULAR THEORY
1. Collapse
• High temp gas ball collapse then heat up and
then become disk shape
2. Spinning
• Disk spins faster and faster and temp
decreased
3. Flattening
• Disk become sphere due to rotation, because
of fast rotation, some of the fog escape
4. Condensation
• Some fog formed the core of the largest
mass in the middle, while small part formed
around cooling process
5. Accretion
• Cores of smaller mass turns into planets,
while most remain in a high-temp flare
SOLAR NEBULAR THEORY
• Angular Momentum
• Condensation of Gas and Dust
• Explosion of a star
(Supernova) caused the
collapse
• Accretion- creation of
planetisimals
• Colliding planetisimals created
protoplanets
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
 SOLAR SYSTEM

• Sun is at the center

• trillion of miles wide

• consists of eight
planets and
respective satellites

• asteroids, comets,
meteoroids
 THE SUN
• The sun’s energy comes from
nuclear fusion (where
hydrogen is converted to
helium) within its core. This
energy is released from the
sun in the form of heat and
light.

• Remember: Stars produce

light. Planets reflect light.

• A star’s temperature
determines its “color.” The
coldest stars are red. The
hottest stars are blue.
What are solar winds?
Magnetic fields deflect solar winds.
 AURORAS
• following a strong
solar flare, Earth’s
upper atmosphere
above the
magnetic poles is
set aglow for
several nights
• aurora borealis
(Northern lights)
• aurora australis
(Southern lights)
What happened to the flag left
on the moon?
 SOLAR SYSTEM
• Planets are orbiting in the
same plane.

• Orbits are nearly circular.

• Orbits of planets are in the

same plane as the rotation of
the Sun.

• Planets revolve around the

sun in counter-clockwise
direction.

• Planets and satellites contains

rotational motion.
Think! Think! Think!

What could be the reason why planets

move in an elliptical manner?
It’s elliptical because…

• the force of gravity,

combined with the
tendency of a planet
to remain in straight-
line motion would result
in a planet having an
elliptical orbit

• the combination of
Earth’s forward motion
and its “falling” motion
that defines its orbit
Just imagine…

• If gravity were somehow eliminated,

Earth would move in a straight line out
into space.

• Conversely, if Earth’s forward motion

suddenly stopped, gravity would pull it,
crashing into the Sun.
THE 8 PLANETS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
• Planets are categorized according to
composition and size. There are
two main categories of planets:

• Terrestrial
✓ small rocky planets (Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars)

• Jovian
✓ gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune)
 Classification of planets by Composition:
➢ Terrestrial planets (Earth-like planets or inner
planets). Composed mostly of dense, rocky, and metallic materials

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

These planets are formed within the frost line where rocks
and metals condense, and hydrogen compounds remain as gas.
TERRESTRIAL (EARTH-like a.k.a Inner Planets)
• substantially smaller

• short orbital periods and less

satellites

• made up mostly of rock and metal

• move slowly in space

• no rings and few moons (if any)

• have a diameter of less than 13,000

km
Classification of planets by Composition:

➢ Jovian planets (Jupiter-like planets or gas planets).

Composed mostly of H and He

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

These planets are formed outside the frost line where light
elements condense into ice.
JOVIAN (JUPITER-like a.k.a Outer Planets)
• substantially larger

• long orbital periods and numerous

satellites

• made up mostly of gases (primarily

hydrogen & helium)

• move quickly in space

• have rings and many moons

• have a diameter of less than 48,000

km
SOLAR SYSTEM
Planets’ Internal Structures
Water on Mars?

What caused Mars to

be a barren planet?
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
 ASTEROIDS: Leftover Planetesimals

• “star-like”
• small bodies
(planetesimals)
remaining from the
formation of the solar
system
• leftover debris
• 4.6 billion years old
• 2,000 Earth-crossing
asteroids
Asteroid Belt
 ASTEROIDS: Leftover Planetesimals

Giuseppe Piazzi of Italy

discovered the very first asteroid
(Ceres) in 1801.
ASTEROIDS: Leftover Planetesimals

Chicxulub crater Shiva crater

(Mexico) (India)
ASTEROIDS: Leftover Planetesimals

NEAR - Shoemaker
(Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker)
- renamed after Eugene Shoemaker
- monitors near-Earth asteroids
- landed successfully on Eros
INEVITABLY, Earth-asteroid collisions will
occur again.
 “Sooner or later it will be back.”

Statistics show that collisions

with bodies larger than 1 kilometer
should be expected every few hundred
thousand years.

Collisions with bodies

larger than 6 kilometers, resulting in mass
extinctions, are anticipated every 100 million
years.
What’s the difference between an
asteroid and meteoroid?

Both are made of rocky or metallic

material, but asteroids are larger
than 100 meters in diameter
whereas meteoroids have
diameters less than 100 meters.
 METEOROIDS: Visitors of Earth

• interplanetary debris
left from the formation
of the solar system

• material that is
continually being
ejected from the
asteroid belt
 METEOROIDS: Visitors of Earth
• Meteoroids
– object floating around in outer space, asteroid
or comet origin
• Meteors
– space object burning up in the atmosphere
("shooting star")
• Meteorites
– space object that made impact with the
surface of another place
– remains of meteoroids, when found on Earth
• Meteor Showers
– swarm of meteoroids traveling in the same
direction at nearly the same speed as Earth
METEOROIDS: Visitors of Earth

Meteor crater
(Arizona)
 COMETS: Dirty Snowballs

• loose collections of rocky

material, dust, water ice
and frozen gases
(ammonia, methane and
carbon dioxide)
• leftover material from the
formation of the solar
system
• surfaces are dry and dusty
(ices are hidden beneath a
rocky layer)
 COMETS: Dirty Snowballs

• Long – period comets

• take hundreds of
thousands of years
to complete a
single orbit around
the Sun

• Short – period comets

• orbital periods of less than 200 years
• Halley’s Comet (76 years)
• Encke’s Comet (3 years)
 COMETS: Dirty Snowballs
Oort Cloud
• Jan Oort
• cosmographical
boundary of the
solar system
• source of long-
period comets

Kuiper Belt
• Gerald Kuiper
• hosts short-period comets
 Orbital periods from 20
yrs to 200 yrs
Encke’s comet

Orbital periods of <

200 yrs
Pons’ comet
WHAT HAPPENED TO PLUTO?
 DWARF PLANET: Smaller Worlds
• celestial bodies that
orbit the Sun

• essentially spherical
due to their own
gravity

• but are not large

enough to sweep their
orbits clear of other
debris
• “cleared the
neighborhood”
THANKS EARTHLINGS!