Proficiency 2:
The History of our Solar System
1. Solar Nebula: A huge cloud of cold gas and dust many times larger than our present solar system. The temperature would have been -382°. From the start the solar nebula must have been spinning very slowly.
2. Formation of the Protosun: Under the influence of gravity, the solar nebula condensed into a dense central region (the protosun) and diffuse outer region (the protoplanetary disk). As it contracted, the cloud began to spin faster and flattened out, and the central region heated up.
3. Rings and Planetesimals: Instabilities in the rotating disk caused regions within it to condense into rings under the influence of gravity. Very slowly, planetesimals (small objects made of rock and ice) formed in these rings through the creation of much smaller particles.
4. Rocky Planets: The planetesimals attracted one another by gravity and collided to form planets. Closest to the protosun, where it was extremely hot, only rocky material and metals could withstand the heat, so the planets in this region are mainly made of these materials.
5. Gas Giants: In the outer part of the disk, the bodies formed from planetesimals were made of rock and ice; they became so large they attracted large amounts of gas. Soon after these gas giants formed the Sun became a full-fledged star.
6. Radiation from the Sun blew away most of the most of the gas and other material in the planetary solar system. Some of the leftover planetesimals in the outer part of the disk formed the vast and remote Oort Cloud of comet.
Evolution of the Sun
1. Protostar: 4.57 billion years ago- A cloud of dust, gas, and the other materials needed to make a star. Kind of like Legos, for stars.
2. The Sun (NOW)
3. Red Giant: 5 billion years from now- The Red Giant will grow so big; it will swallow up Mercury and Venus. Even though Earth will not be touched by Red Giant it will drain all of the oceans and bodies of water. My opinion on the Sun becoming too large is simple, if the species on Earth want to live they must find a planet that once had ice will most likely then have will have water. Therefore, being able to sustain life.
4. Planetary Nebula- A phase in a stars life when it can no longer support itself.
5. White Dwarf- The last phase of the Sun’s life, where from here, can do nothing. It now remains a dud of a star.
(Hubble site )
Bibliography
Hubble site . 10 1 2011 <http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/>.
(University)
Bibliography
Hubble site . 10 1 2011 <http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/>.
University, Western Kentucky. Galaxy Classification . 10 1 2011 <http://astro.wku.edu/astr106/galaxy.html>.
