JC Excellente Christian Academy Inc.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE.LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL. CHRISTIAN VALUES

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Earth Science

Module 1
Lesson 1

TOPIC: The Universe and the Solar System (Part 1)

Overview:
 The solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy a huge disc- and spiral-shaped aggregation of about
at least 100 billion stars and other bodies;
 Its spiral arms rotate around a globular cluster or bulge of many, many stars, at the center of which lies a
supermassive black hole;
 This galaxy is about 100 million light years across (1 light year = 9.4607 × 1012 km;
 The solar system revolves around the galactic center once in about 240 million years;
 The Milky Way is part of the so-called Local Group of galaxies, which in turn is part of the Virgo
supercluster of galaxies;
 Based on the assumption that they are remnants of the materials from which they were formed,
radioactive dating of meteorites, suggests that the Earth and solar system are 4.6 billion years old on the
assumption that they are remnants of the materials from which they were formed.

Important Terms:

a. Baryonic matter - "ordinary" matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons that comprises atoms,
planets, stars, galaxies, and other bodies.
b. Dark matter - matter that has gravity but does not emit light.
c. Dark Energy - a 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. Thermonuclear 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 universe is at least 13.8 billion of years old and the Earth/Solar System at least 4.5 to 4.6 billion of years
old. But how exactly is a billion? How long do you think it will take them to spend 1 billion pesos if you
spend 1 peso per second?
 The solar system position with respect to the Milky Way galaxy.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

STRUCTURE COMPOSITION AND AGE:

 The universe as we currently know it comprises all space and time, and all matter & energy in it.
 It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter (“ordinary” matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons:
atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and other bodies), 24% cold dark matter (matter that has gravity
but does not emit light), and 71.4% dark energy (a source of antigravity)
 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 born out of clouds of gas and dust in galaxies (fig. 4). Instabilities
within the clouds eventually results into gravitational collapse, rotation, heating up, and transformation
to a protostar - the 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.

 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
clusters is practicallyan empty space. This organization of matter in the universe suggests that it is
indeed clumpy at a certain scale. But at a large scale, it appears homogeneous and isotropic.
 Based 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 × 1012 km). Its density is 4.5 x
10-31 g/cm3.
EXPANDING UNIVERSE:

 In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced his significant discovery of the “redshift” (fig. 5) 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; thus, 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 (A) are shifted towards the red end as compared with those for a distant star
(B).

 This evidence for expansion contradicted the previously held view of a static and unchanging universe.

REPORT: THE DOPPLER EFFECT AND INTERACTIVE

COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND:

 There is a pervasive cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the universe. Its accidental
discovery in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson earned them the physics Nobel Prize in
1978.
 It can be observed as a strikingly uniform faint glow in the microwave band coming from all directions-
blackbody radiation with an average temperature of about 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.

Cosmic microwave background radiation map showing small variations from WMAP (Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe).

ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

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.
 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, Christianity, and Islam claim that a supreme being created the
universe, including man and other living organisms.

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, and 3) the uniformly pervasive cosmic microwave background radiation-the
remnant heat from the bang.

BIG BANG TIMELINE

Evolution of the Universe according to the Big Bang Theory

 From time zero (13.8 billion years ago) until 10-43 second later, all matter and energy in the universe
existed as a hot, dense, tiny state (fig. 7). 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 nucleosynthesis in stars, carbon and elements heavier than carbon were produced.
 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.
TOPIC: The Universe and the Solar System (Part 2)

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

A. Large Scale Features of the Solar System

 Much of the mass of the Solar System is concentrated at the center (Sun) while angular momentum is
held by the outer planets.
 Orbits of the planets elliptical and are on the same plane.
 All planets revolve around the sun.
 The periods of revolution of the planets increase with increasing distance from the Sun; the innermost
planet moves fastest, the outermost, the slowest;
 All planets are located at regular intervals from the Sun.

B. Small scale features of the Solar System

 Most planets rotate prograde

 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.
 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).

C. Element Abundance on Earth, Meteorites, and Universe

 The table below shows the abundance of elements across bodies in the solar system as compared to
abundance in the universe.
 Except for hydrogen, helium, inert gases, and volatiles, the universe and Earth have similar abundance
especially for rock and metal elements.

 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.
 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.
  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.
 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.

D. Origin of the 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.

E. Rival Theories
1. Nebular Hypothesis
2. Encounter Hypothesis
3. Protoplanet Hypotheses - Current Hypothesis

ENRICHMENT:
1. What is the fate of the universe? Will the universe continue to expand or will it eventually contract
because of gravity?
2. Is the Solar System unique or rare? What is the possibility of finding a similar system within the Milky
Way Galaxy? What about an Earth like planet?
Activity 1: Describes the cosmic microwave background radiation and its significance.

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Activity 2: States the different hypotheses that preceded the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe.

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Activity 3: Watch the video clip from the given URL below and describe the Doppler Effect and where the horn
is coming from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3RfULw7aAY
Activity 4: Give the meaning of the following terms.

1. Condensation

2. Precipitation

3. Evaporation

4. Transpiration

5. Infiltration

6. surface run-off

References:

 http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lesson_plans.html
 http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/materials.html
 http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dns/teachersguide/website.pdf
 http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/WMAP_Universe.pdf
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
 http:// www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/endlessuniverse/ askauthors.html
 http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-formand-evolve/
 http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/solarsys/solarsys.html
 .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Solar_System_formation_and_evolution_hypotheses#Classific
ation_of_the_theories (accessed 13 October 2015)
 ”The Origin of the Universe, Earth, and Life." National Academy of Sciences. Science and Creationism:
A View from the National Academy of Sciences, Second Edition. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press, 1999.
 http://www.nap.edu/read/6024/chapter/3#8 http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-
powered-the-big-bang/