CEEES/SC 10110/20110 Planet Earth

Earth
Portrait of a Planet
Fifth Edition

Our Place in the Universe

2
 Cosmology: study of the overall structure of the universe

Geocentric Universe Concept: 600 B.C.E.

Sun

Earth

Stars

B.C.E. = 4
Before Common Era
Heliocentric Universe: 250 B.C.E. = heresy!

Copernicus (1473-1543
Galileo (1564-1642)

Earth

Sun

Axis of Rotation
North (Pole) Star

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 Shape of the Earth
Eratsothenes (276-194 B.C.E.)
Measurement of the Sun’s angle
between Syene and Alexandria
(800 km or 5,000 stadia apart)
in Egypt.

360˚ 7.2˚
=
x 5,000 stadia
360˚×5,000 stadia
x=
7.2˚
€ x = 250,000 stadia 40,007 km or
1 stadia = 0.1572 km 24,859 miles
€ Therefore, x = 39300 km !
7
or 24,421 miles.
€
€

Distance & Subdivisions

Earth-Moon: 381,555 km (average);
Earth-Sun: 149,600,000 km.
Light Year: distance
light travels in one Earth
year (~9.5 trillion km).

Solar System:
Collection of planets
around a star;
Galaxy: Vast collection
of solar systems/stars
(e.g., Milky Way:
100,000 light years
across. 8
 Doppler Effect
Train whistle changes pitch depending on where you here it when
the train is moving - wavelength changes.

Doppler Effect
Galaxies further away are “redder” than ones closer.

Universe is expanding!

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 The Big Bang Theory
Everything in the
Universe was once
packed into an
infinitesimally small
point that “exploded”
13.7 (± 1%) billion
years ago.

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Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Initial material =
protons, neutrons,
electrons.
Elements formed
before stars: He, Li,
Be, B.

Formed in the first 5

minutes - after this,
material was too far
apart for fusion to
occur.

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 Nebulae
As the universe
expanded and Crab Nebula
(Hubble Telescope)
cooled, molecules
slowed down and
accumulated into
nebulae.

Forming Stars – Nebular Theory

All matter exerts gravitational pull.
Material accumulated into nebulae and more material gets sucked
in causing it to spin.
Material flattens into a spinning accretion or protoplanetary disk.
Gravitational pull eventually causes wholesale inward collapse of
the surrounding nebula.

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 Forming Stars
With the additional mass, gravity pulls the inner portion of the
accretion disk into a “ball”.
Centrifugal force focuses pressure at the center until this area is hot
enough to glow, forming a protostar.
More material added to the core of the disk increases temperature
and density to the point that nuclear fusion occurs = star – blows
volatile elements away from the star leaving refractory elements.
Material away from the central star separates into stable orbits.

15

Nucleosynthesis
Stars = element factories through two processes:

1. Nuclear Fusion:
Way of building elements from hydrogen.
Releases subatomic particles & requires large amounts of
energy.
2. Neutron Capture & Decay:
(a)  Neutron sticks to a nucleus - atomic mass increases by 1;
(b)  Neutron is transformed into a proton by decay (release of
an electron).

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 Nucleosynthesis
Hydrogen Burning (T ~10 million K):
1
1 H+11H→12 D + positron
2
1 D+11H→23 He + γ − ray
3
2 He+ 23He→24 He +211H

17

Nucleosynthesis
As the star becomes hotter, additional !
reactions can occur.
Helium Burning:

4 12
3 He→ C
2 6
12
6 C+24He→186O
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 Nucleosynthesis
Carbon Burning:
O, Ne, Na, Mg

Neon Burning:
O, Mg
Oxygen Burning:
Mg, Al, Si, P, S

Silicon Burning:
P, S, Cl, Ar, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, !
Mn, Fe
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Nucleosynthesis

H Burning
He Burning
C Burning
Ne Burning
O Burning
Large Mature Star Si Burning

Stream of atoms emitted from a star = stellar wind.

From our Sun = solar wind. 20
 Nucleosynthesis
Star runs out of H, it contracts to form a “white dwarf”.
If a star is 1.4x bigger than the Sun, the density of the
matter at the center is high enough for:
Electrons + Protons = Neutrons

Removes e- and p+ from reactions and pressure drops

and star suddenly collapses in on itself (Supernova).
Intense pressure = ionization – massive repulsion.

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Nucleosynthesis
Supernova to
create
elements > Fe
and forms a
“nebula”.
E.g., Crab
Nebula: 7,000
light years
away –
“Supernova
Taurus”, July
1054. 22
 Our Solar System

Planet: sizeable object

that orbits a star;
Moon = sizeable object
that orbits a planet.

Earth = 3rd rock from the Sun!

One of 8 (or 9!) planets.
The 8/9 planets + their moons +
asteroids + comets = Solar System 23

Regular spacing between the planets.

Use the Astronomical Unit (AU) = 150,000 km
(the distance of the Earth from the Sun).

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 Formation

Dust particles grew by accretion, forming planetesimals (planet

“wannabees”), that in turn accreted to form protoplanets
Gases could only condense and become stable far from the Sun
(outer planets). Uranus and Neptune = ice rather than gas.
ssanim.mov 25

Formation
Outer planets had more material to grow from (e.g., ice stable and
abundant; H and its compounds are not “blown away” and can be
captured by the larger planets). These are much larger than the inner
planets.

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 The Solar System
Shows many regularities: All follow ~ circular orbits;
All planets move around the Sun in the same direction;
All have orbits in the same plane, except Pluto (7˚) and Mercury
(17˚) - have inclined orbits relative to Earth’s.

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Nebular Theory Explains:

All planets orbit the sun in the same direction and in the
same direction that the Sun spins;
Most planets spin the same way that they orbit, and the
same way that the Sun spins;
The planets orbit in nearly the same plane;
The planets orbits are nearly circular;
Observed distribution of elements.

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 The Solar System
Four planets closest to the Sun = rocky = Terrestrial
(Inner) Planets (silicates around an Fe core).

Pluto = rocky with an inclined orbit. Captured planet?

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The Solar System

The next four planets are much larger = Gas Giant
(Outer) Planets (H & its compounds; CH4, H2O, NH4).

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 The Solar System
The Asteroid Belt = failed planet (Jupiter’s gravity was too strong
for a planet to form).
Asteroids = rocky or metallic objects.
Comets = icy objects from two
sources:
1) Kuiper Belt – extends from a little
past Neptune’s orbit to a little past Orbit
of
Pluto’s orbit. Pluto is ~ 4 billion Earth

miles from the Sun.

2) Oort Cloud – huge spherical
region extending thousands of times
beyond the Sun than Pluto.
Heliosphere: represents the
Composition known by looking at the outer reach of solar winds
way the sunlight is reflected by them. (charged particles from the Sun)

Comets
Comets have little mass: Giotto mission (ESA) to
Halley’s Comet showed the nucleus to be fluffy !
(0.2 g cm-3).
Comet nucleus: block of ice and gases frozen in the
cold of space to an irregular block (dirty snowball).
Each comet follows it’s own orbit – those in the Oort
Cloud take millions of years to complete an orbit,
Kuiper Belt = shorter orbits.
Far from the Sun, gases and ices remain deeply frozen.
As it gets closer to the Sun, heats up and boils to form
the tail.
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 Comets

Comets consist of two

parts: long tail of dust and
gas that may stretch almost
an AU (100 million km).
The coma = cloud of gas ~100,000 km around the nucleus. 33

Formation of the Comet Tail

Sunlight imparts slight pressure to dust grains = radiation pressure.
Dust grains in the coma respond to the pressure and are pushed away
from the Sun.
A second tail may form due to solar wind – outflow of gas from
the Sun at ~400 km/sec, but is tenuous although strong enough to
interact with the comet’s coma. Tail usually points away from the
Sun.

Eventually ice
and gas is boiled
off and rocky
mass may form a 34
meteor shower.
 Meteorites
Stony, iron, stony-iron.
Some stony meteorites contain “chondrules” = chondritic
meteorites.

Chondrules = rounded pieces of rock.

Appear to have been rapidly melted
and cooled. First solid material to
condense within the solar nebula and
have remained unchanged.
Carbonaceous chondrites: contain
black, organic matter. Building blocks 35
for life?

Asteroids Small rocky bodies that orbit the Sun.

Most are in the “Asteroid
Belt” (between Mars & Jupiter).
Some can reach the size of Texas; have
gravity that forms them into a sphere
(e.g., Ceres).
Smaller bodies = irregular. Collisions
leave them “lumpy”.
Probably fragments of planetesimals.
Failed to form a planet because of
Jupiter’s tremendous gravity.
The Apollo asteroids. Orbit takes them
across Earth’s orbit.
Made up of ~700 bodies (≤ 1 km) – one
hits Earth every ~10,000 years. Maybe
“dead” comets. 36
Formation of the Earth-Moon System

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Formation of the Earth-Moon System

If a planet gets big enough, its gravity attracts more material.
A ring of material forms around the planet and could coalesce into a
moon.
Moons could also be captured asteroids and planetesimals.
The Earth’s Moon is special!
Our Moon is likely to have
been formed by a Mars-sized
planetesimal impacting the
Earth.

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 The Moon
One-fourth the diameter of the
Earth. Dry. Gravity = one tenth.
Bright areas = highlands.
Composed of anorthosites.
Maria are younger than the
highlands.
Smooth dark areas = Maria or Seas
- composed of basalt.
Contains a record of the early solar systems history – lack of “recent”
activity - tectonically dead.
Large impacts occurred shortly after Moon formation and these
subsequently filled with lava to form the Maria.
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The Moon
Surface is covered with impact
craters – from micro to macro
(240 km diameter).
Continual bombardment
produces the lunar regolith -
broken rock, even down to
powder.

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 Impact Craters

Some larger craters have a central peak (rebound due

to compression of material at impact).
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Impact Craters
Also have
“crater
rays” (e.g.,
Tycho).

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 Internal Structure of the Moon
Difficult to understand – no seismic network.
What we do know:
1) Crust is thicker on farside – no Maria there.
Nearside Farside

Internal Structure of the Moon

2) Center of mass is offset from the center of figure.

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 Internal Structure of the Moon
3) MAY have a small
core ~250 km. MAY
be Fe, but MAY be
ilmenite (FeTiO3). ?
Difficult to tell – no ?
magnetic field.
?

Internal Structure of the Moon

4) Lunar crust = plagioclase-rich (anorthosite) flotation
cumulates.
5) Evolved through a magma ocean. The source regions of
the lunar or mare basalts = mafic cumulates, but…..

46
 Summary
Cosmology: study of the overall structure of the universe.
Geoccentric vs. Heliocentric orbits.
Axis of Rotation (North Star).
Distance and Subdivisions.
Doppler Effect.
Big Bang Theory.
Nebulae.
Star Formation: Accretion Disk, Protostar, Star.
Nucleosynthesis: Nuclear Fusion & Neutron Capture/Decay; H, He,
C, Ne, Si Burning; Supernova.
Our Solar System: Regular spacing, inner/outer planets/ similar
orbits, Nebular Theory.
Planetary Differentiation.
Comets, Asteroids, Meteorites. 47
Formation of the Earth-Moon System.