LESSON 1

UNIVERSE AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM

IMPORTANT TERMINOLIGIES

A. Baryonic matter

-"ordinary" matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons that comprise atoms, planets,
stars, galaxies, and other bodies.

B. Dark matter

-matter that has gravity but does not emit light

C. Dark energy

-Source of anti-gravity; a force that counteracts gravity and causes the universe to

expand

D. Protostar-

-an early stage in the formation of a star resulting from the gravitational collapse of gases.

E. Thermonudear reaction

- a nuclear fusion reaction responsible for the energy produced by stars.

F. Main sequence stars

-stars that fuse hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their cores; outward pressure resulting
from nuclear fusion is balanced by gravitational forces.

G. Light years

-the distance light can travel in a year; a unit of length used to measure astronomical distance.

THE INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

How did the universe come to be? What is it made up of?

We have always been told that everything is made up of matter and energy, and that matter is composed
of atoms, which are composed of sub-atomic particles; or that organic matter is made up of cells. But have
you ever asked how the universe came to be and what it is made up of?

The creation of the universe is just one of the many things in science that cannot be easily explained.
Several cultures believe in universal creation as observed in their own unique stories, lores, and creation

myths.
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION AND AGE

• The universe as we currently know it comprises all space and time, and all matter and energy in
it.
• It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter ("ordinary" matter consisting of protons, electrons, and
neutrons that comprise atoms, planets, stars, galaxies and other bodies"), 24% cold dark matter
(matter that has gravity but does not emit light) and 71.4% dark energy (a source of anti-gravity)
• Dark matter can explain what may be holding galaxies together for the reason that the low total
mass is insufficient for gravity alone to do so while dark energy can explain the observed
accelerating expansion of the universe.
• Hydrogen, helium and lithium are the three most abundant elements.
• Stars- the building block of galaxies- are born out of clouds of gas and dust in galaxies. Instabilities
within the clouds eventually results into gravitational collapse, rotation, heating-up, and
transformation into a protostar-the hot core of a future star as thermonuclear reactions set in.
• Stellar interiors are like furnaces where elements are synthesized or combined/fused together.
Most stars such as the Sun belong to the so-called " main sequence stars." In the cores of such
stars, hydrogen atoms are fused through thermonuclear reactions to make helium atoms. Massive
main sequence stars burn up their hydrogen faster than smaller stars. Stars like our Sun burnup
hydrogen in about 10 billion years.

BIRTH, EVOLUTION, DEATH AND REBIRTH OF STARS.

• The remaining dust and gas may end up as they are or as planets, asteroids or other bodies in the
accompanying planetary system.
• A galaxy is a cluster of billions of stars and clusters of galaxies form superclusters. In between the
clustersis practically an empty space. This organization of matter the universe suggests that it is
indeed clumpy ata certain scale. But at a large scale, it appears homogenous and isotropic.
• Base on recent data, the universe is 13.8 billion years old. The diameter of the universe is possibly
infinite but should be at least 91 billion light years. (1 light year = 9.4607 x 102 km). Its density is
4.5 x 103 g/cm³

EXPANDING UNIVERSE

• In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced his significant discovery of the "redshift" and its interpretation
that galaxies are moving away from each other, hence as evidence for an expanding universe just
as predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
• He observed that spectral lines of starlight made to pass through a prism are shifted toward the
red part of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e, toward the band of lower frequency; the inference
that the star or galaxy must be moving away from us.
• Red shift as evidence for an expanding universe. The positions of the absorptions lines for helium
for light coming from the sun are shifted towards the red end as compared with those for a distant
star. This evidence for expansion contradicted the previously held view of a static and unchanging
universe.
COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND

1. There is a pervasive cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the universe. Its accidental
discovery in 1946 by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson earned them the physics Nobel
Prize in 1978.
2. It can be observed as a strikingly uniform faint in glow in the microwave band coming from
alldirec ons-blackbody radia on with an average temperature of about 2.7 degrees above
absolute zero.

NON-SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT

• Ancient Egyptians believed in many gods and myths which narrate that the world arose from
an infinite sea at the first rising of the sun.
• The Kuba People of Central Africa tell the story of a creator god Mbombo (or Bumba) who,
alone in a dark and water-covered Earth, felt an intense stomach pain and then vomited the
stars, sun and moon.
• In India, there is the narrative that gods sacrificed Purusha, the primal man whose head, feet,
eyes, and mind became the sky, earth, sun and moon respectively.
• The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Cristianity, and Islam claim that a supreme being
created the universe, including man and other living organisms.
• Creation mythsis a symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood by a
culture.

STEADY STATE MODEL

• The now discredited steady state model of the universe was proposed in 1948 by Bondi and
Gould and by Hoyle.
• It maintains that new matter is created as the universe expands thereby maintaining its
density.
• Its predictions led to tests and its eventual rejection with the discovery of the cosmic
microwave background.

BIG BANG THEORY

• As the currently accepted theory of the origin and evolution of the universe, the Big Bang
Theory postulates that 13.8 billion years ago, the universe expanded from a tiny, dense and
hot mass to its present size and much cooler state.
• The theory rests on two ideas: General relativity and the cosmological Principle. In Einstein's
General Theory of Relativity, gravity is thought of as a distortion of space-time and no longer
described by a gravitational field in contrast to the law of Gravity of Isaac Newton. General
Relativity explains the peculiarities of the orbit of Mercury and the bending of light by the Sun
and has passed rigorous tests. The cosmological Principle assumes that the Universe is
homogeneous and isotropic when averaged over large scales. This is consistent with our
current large-scale image of the universe. But keep in mind that it is clumpy at smaller scales.-
 • The Big Bang Theory has withstood the tests for expansion:
1. the redshift
2. abundance of hydrogen, helium, and lithium,
3. the uniformly pervasive cosmic wave background radiation the remnant heatfrom the
bang.

EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING TO THE BIG BANG THEORY

• From time zero (13.8 existed as a hot, dense, tiny state. It then underwent extremely rapid,
exponential inflation until 10-32 second later after which and until 10 seconds from time zero,
conditions allowed the existence of only quarks, hadrons, and leptons.
• Then, Big Bang nucleosynthesis took place and produced protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, and
then hydrogen, helium, and lithium until 20 minutes after time zero when sufficient cooling did
not allow further nucleosynthesis.
• From then on until 380,000 years, the cooling universe entered a matter-dominated period when
photons decoupled from matter and light could travel freely as still observed today in the form of
cosmic microwave background radiation.
• As the universe continued to cool down, matter collected into clouds giving rise to only stars after
380,000 - years and eventually galaxies would form after 100 million years from time zero during
which, through elements heavier than carbon were produced. nucleosynthesis in stars, carbon
and
• From 9.8 billion years until the present, the universe became dark-energy-dominated and
underwent accelerating expansion. At about 9.8 billion years after the Big Bang, the solar system
was formed.

LARGE SCALE FEATURES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

1. Much of the mass of the Solar System is concentrated at the center (sun) while angular
momentum is held by the outer planets.
2. Orbits of the planets elliptical and are on the same plane
3. All planets revolve around the sun
4. The periods of revolution of the planets increase with increasing distance from the Sun, the
innermost planet moves fastest, the outermost, the slowest.
5. . All planets are located at regular intervals from the sun
SMALL SCALE FEATURES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

1. Most planets rotate prograde. Prograde -counterclockwise when viewed from above the Earth's
North Pole.
2. . Inner terrestrial planets are made of materials with high melting points such as silicates, iron,
and nickel. They rotate slower, have thin or no atmosphere, higher densities and lower contents
of volatiles- hydrogen, helium, and noble gases.
3. The outer four planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called "gas giants" because of the
dominance of gases and their larger size. They rotate faster; have thick atmosphere, lower
densities, and fluid interiors rich in hydrogen, helium and ices (water, ammonia, methane).

ELEMENT ABUNDANCE OF EARTH, METEORITES, AND UNIVERSE

1. The table below shows the abundance of elements across bodies in the solar system as compared
to abundance in the universe.

a. Except for hydrogen, helium, inert gases, and volatiles, the Universe and Earth have similar abundance
especially for rock and metal elements

b. The sun and the large planets have enough gravity to retain hydrogen and helium. Rare inert gases are
too light for the Earth's gravity to retain, thus the low abundance.

c. Retention of volatile elements by the Earth is consistent with the idea that some materials that formed
the Earth and the solar system were "cold" and solid; otherwise, the volatiles would have been lost. These
suggest that the Earth and the Solar system could be derived from materials with composition similar to
that of the universe.

d. The presence of heavy elements such as lead, silver, and uranium on Earth suggests that it was derived
from remnants of a supernova and that the Sun is a second-generation star made by recycling materials.

ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

- Any acceptable scientific thought on the origin of the solar system has to be consistent with and
supported by information about it (e.g. large and small scale features, composition). There will be
a need to revise currently accepted ideas should data no longer support them.

RIVAL THEORIES

- Many theories have been proposed since about four centuries ago. Each has weaknesses in
explaining all characteristics of the solar system.

NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS

A few are discussed below.

of a rotating gaseous cloud that cools contracts in the middle to form the sun and the rest into disc that
become the planets. This nebular theory falled to account for the distribution of angular momentum in
the solar system.
ENCOUNTER HYPOTHESES

1. Buffon's (1749) Sun-Comet encounter that sent matter to form planet.

2. James Jeans (1917) sun-star encounter that would have drawn from the sun matter that would
condense to planets.
3. CTC Chamberlain and F.R Moulton's (1904) planetesimal Hypothesis involving a star much bigger
than the sun passing by the Sun and draws gaseous filaments from both out which planetisimals
were formed.
4. Ray Lyttleton's (1940) sun's companion star colliding with another to form a preto planet that
breaks up to form Jupiter and Saturn.
5. Otto Schmidt's accretion theory proposed that the Sun passed through a dense interstellar cloud
and emerged with a dusty, gaseous envelope that eventually became the planets. However, it
cannot explain how the planets and satellites were formed. The time required to form the planets
exceeds the age of the solar system.
6. M.M Waalfson's capture theory is a variation of James Jean's near-collision hypothesis, in this
Scenario, the sun drags from a near proto-star a filament of material which becomes the planet.
Collisions between proto-planets close to the Sun produced the terrestrial planets; condensations
in the filament produced the giant planets and their satellites. Different ages for the Sun and
planets are predicted by this theory.

SUN-STAR INTERACTION

• Nabel prized winner Harold Urey's compositional studies on meteorites in the 1950s and other
scientists' work on these objects led to the conclusion that meteorite constituents have changed
very little since the solar system's early history and can give clues about their information. The
currently accepted theory on the arigin of the solar system relles much on information from
meteorites.

PROTOPLANET HYPOTHESIS-CURRENT HYPOTHESIS

1. 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 hellum starts to contract due to gravity
2. As most of the mass move to the center to eventually become a proto Sun, the remaining materials
form a dist that will eventually become the planets and momentum is transferred outwards..
3. Due to collitions, fragments of dust and solid matter begin sticking to cach other to form larger
and larger bodies from meter to kilometer in size. These proto-planets are accretions of frozen
water ammonia, methane, silicon, aluminum, iron, and other metals in rock and mineral grains
enveloped in hydrogen and helium.
4. High-Speed collisions with large objects destroys much of the mantle of Mercury, puts Venus in
Retrograde rotation.
5. Collision of the Earth with large object produces the moon. This is supported by the composition
of the moon very similar to the Earth's Mantle.
 6. When the proto-Sun is established as a star, its solar wind blasts hydrogen, helium, and volatiles
from the inner planets to beyond Mars to form the Gas giants leaving behind a system we know
today.

RECENT ADVANCEMENT/INFORMATION ON THE SOLAR SYSTEM

EXPLORATION OF MARS

• Since the 1960s, the Soviet Union and the U.S have been sending unmanned probes to the planet
Mars with the primary purpose of testing the planet's habitability. The early efforts in the
exploration of Mars involved flybys through which spectacular photographs of the Martian Surface
were taken. The First successful landing and operation on the surface of Mars occurred in 1975
under the Viking program of NASA. Recently, NASA, using high resolution imagery of the surface
of Mars, presented evidence of seasonal flow liquid water (in the form of brine-salty water) on the
surface of Mars.

ROSETTA'S COMET

• Rosetta is a space probe built by the European Space Agency and Launched on 2 March 2004. One
of its missions is to rendezvous with and attempt to land a probe (Philae) on a comet in the Kuiper
Belt. One of the purposes of the mission is to better understand comets and early solar systems.
Philae landed successfully on comet suggests that its isotopic composition is different from water
from Earth.

PLUTO FLYBY

• On 14 July 2015, NASA's New Horizon spacecraft provided mankind the first close-up view of the
dwarf planet pluto. Images captured from the flyby revealed a complex terrain- ice mountains and
vast crater free plains. The presence of crater free plains suggests recent (last 100 millions of years)
of geologic activity.

The Uniqueness of the Earth

1. Venus, Earth, and Mars are part of the inner terrestrial or "rocky" planets. Their composition and
densities are not too different from each other.
2. Venus is considered to be the Earth's twin planet. It has a very similar size and mass with the
Earth. Mars isabout half the Earth's size.
3. Orbital period and velocity are related to the planet's distance from the sun. Among the three
planet,Venus is the nearest and Mars is the farthest from the Sun.
4. Rota onal speed of Earth and Mars are very similar. Rota onal speed of Venus is extremely slow.
5. Abundance of liquid water on Earth, hence the blue color. The Earth is a habitable planet.
THE EARTH SYSTEM

Definition of a system

- A set of interconnected components that are interacting to form a unified whole.

-

The Earth subsystem

➢ Atmosphere
o The atmosphere is the thin gaseous layer that envelopes the lithosphere.
o The present atmosphere is composed of 78% nitrogen (N), 21% окудел (02), 0.9% argon,
and trace amount of other gases.
o One of the most important processes by which the heat on the Earth's surface Is
redistributed is through atmospheric circulation.
o There is also a constant exchange of heat and moisture between the atmosphere and the
hydrosphore through the hydrologic cycle.
➢ Lithosphere
o The lithosphere includes the rocks of the crust and mantle, the metallic liquid outer core,
and the solid metallic inner core.
o The Plate Tectonics is an important process in shaping the surface of the Earth. The
primary driving mechanism is t the Earth's internal heat, such as that in mantle
convection,
➢ Biosphere
o The biosphere is the set of all life forms on Earth.
o It covers all ecosystems-from the soil to the rainforest, from mangroves to coral reefs, and
from the plankton-rich ocean surface to the deep sea.
o For the majority of life on Earth, the base of the food chain comprises photosynthetic
organisms During photosynthesis, COZ is sequestered from the atmosphere, while oxygen
is released as a byproduct. The biosphere is a CO2 sink, and therefore, an important part
of the carbon cycle.
o Sunlight is not necessary for life.
➢ Hydrosphere
o About 70% of the Earth is covered with liquid water (hydrosphere) and much of it is in the
form of ocean water.
o Only 3% of Earth's water is fresh: two-thirds an the form of ice, and the romaining one-
third is present in streams, lakes, and groundwater.
o The oceans are important sinks for CD2 through direct exchange with the atmosphere and
indirectly through the weathering of rocks.
o Heat is absorbed and redistributed on the surface of the Earth through ocean circulation.
The origin of the systems approach to the study of the Earth

1. One of the first scientists to push for a more integrated or holistic approach in the understanding
of the universe (and by extension the Earth) was Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von
Humboldt. He considered the universe as one interacting entity.
2. The term "biosphere" was popularized by Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945), a Russian Ukranian
scientist who hypothesized that life is a geological force that shapes the Earth.
3. In the 1970s, the Gaia Hypothesis was jointly developed by James Lovelock, an English
scientist/naturalist, and Lynn Margulis, an American microbiologist. According to the Gaia
Hypothesis, the biosphere is a self- regulating system that is capable of controlling its physical and
chemical environment.
4. In 1983, NASA advisory council established the Earth Systems Science Committee. The committee,
chaired by Moustafa Chahine, published a ground breaking report Earth System Science: A
Program for Global Change in 1988. For the first time, scientists were able to demonstrate how
the many systems interact.

Factors that make our planet habitable.

1. Temperature - This will influence how quickly atoms and molecules move. Most living things are
limited to a temperature range of minus 15°C to 115°C. Given this temperature range, H2O may
still exist in liquid form being crucial to life. Among the other planets, only Earth's surface has this
temperature range.
2. Water -This matter dissolves and transports materials in and out of the cell. Only Earth has the
right chemical materials like liquid water that could support life.
- Right Atmospheric Conditions The earth's atmosphere is capable of trapping heat and houses the
important atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen which cause the earth to warm.
It shields the surface from harmful radiation through the ozone layer and Earth has the right size
to hold a sufficient-sized atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is about 100 miles thick.
3. Energy - Living things use light or chemical energy to run essential life processes. With the
availability of sufficient energy, organisms can perform different metabolic reactions through the
cells. The inner planets such as Earth, get too much sunlight for life. The outer planets get too
little.
4. Right Distance from the Sun - The Earth is in the Goldilocks Zone. A region with the just the right
temperature to sustain life 3 not too cold not too hot.
5. Strong magnetic field - It shields us from the electromagnetic radiation coming from the Sun. The
magnetic field deflects the radiation that may destroy the ozone layer.
6. Nutrients - These are materials that build and maintain an organism's body. The inner planets
including Earth and moons have the same general chemical components which makes nutrients
easily available in the environment.

There are various biogeochemical cycles and geologic processes that facilitate the transport and
replenishment of the chemicals and nutrients required by the biotic factors. Examples include water cycle
and volcanism. The presence of volcanoes, cycle of water and atmosphere, contribute to the flow of
nutrients within earth's systems.
7. Greenhouse Gases - Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be frozen, more than 60° F
colder. As mentioned above, the atmosphere is capable of trapping heat because of greenhouse
gases. Examples of greenhouse gases are water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide.
8. It is protected by the plate tectonics from the very hot temperature of the core - The earth's
core causes the convection currents in the mantle causing the overlaying lithosphere to move.
However, the surface is protected from heat from the core by the lithospheric plates.