GEOL 101 – Fundamentals of Geology

1. The Earth in the Solar System

Instructor: George Paul Mathews
Contents
 Formation of the solar system: the nebular hypothesis
 The solar system – The Sun, planets, asteroids, meteorites, and comets
 Origin of the Moon

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-origin-of-our-solar-system-3073437
Reading
Chapter 9 – Early history of the terrestrial planets
• Cover pages p. 220-222
• Origin of the solar system p. 222-225
• Diversity of the planets p. 228-229
• Introductory paragraph – What’s in a face ? p. 230
• Mercury: The Ancient Planet p. 231-233
• Venus: The Volcanic Planet p. 233-235
• Mars: The Red Planet p. 235-236
Galileo´s observations of the Universe
 The Italian astronomer Galileo (1564-1642) built

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Donato#/media/File:Galileo_Donato,jpg
http://venus.aeronomie.be/fr/venus/phasesvenus.htm
his own telescope in 1609. His first observations
revealed that the Moon was not a smooth sphere,
but instead had a rough surface characterized by
mountains and depressions.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/galileos-instruments-of-discovery-36222893/

 Between September 1610 and February 1611,

Galileo shows his telescope to the Doge of Venice Leonardo Donato in 1609
Galileo observed the phases of Venus, which led (painting by Henry-Julien Detouche, 1854-1913)

him to suggest that Venus was rotating around the

Sun and not around the Earth, thereby confirming
the heliocentric model of Copernicus.
Formation of the solar system: the nebular hypothesis
https://hiw.kuleuven.be/ripple/images/Kant-portrait.jpg/image_view_fullscreen

The nebular hypothesis was first formulated in 1755 by the German

philosopher Immanuel Kant in his treatise Allgemeine Naturgeschichte
und Theorie des Himmels (Universal Natural History and Theory of the
Heavens).

Kant suggested that at the origin, the solar system consisted of a rotating
cloud of gases and fine dust called the nebular hypothesis.

Kant’s hypothesis was based, although not correcty, on the laws of

Newton. It was corrected in 1796 by the French mathematician Laplace.

Astronomers have recorded many clouds of the type that Kant surmised,
which they have named nebulae.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)
Formation of the solar system: the nebular hypothesis
The diffuse, slowly rotating nebula contracted under the forces of
gravity (1).
Its contraction, in turn, accelerated the rotation of the particles, and
the faster rotation flattened the cloud into a disk (2).
Under the pull of gravity, matter began to drift toward the center of
the nebula, accumulating into a protostar, the precursor of the Sun (3).
Although most of the matter in the original nebula was concentrated
in the proto-Sun, a disk of gases and dust, called the solar nebula,
remained to envelop it [...] Gravitational attraction caused the dust
and condensing material to clump together (accrete) into small,
http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/~luca/astr/Topics-Solar/Formation-N.html
kilometer-sized chunks, or planetesimals (4).

These planetesimals, in turn, collided and stuck together, forming larger, Moon-sized bodies. In a final
stage of cataclysmic impacts, a few of these larger bodies swept up the others to form the planets in their
present orbits (5).
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)
“The solar system comprises all matter that is gravitationally retained by the Sun.”
Skinner et al. (2007)

According to the International Astronomical Union, there are eight planets in the solar
system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
In 2006, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet by the IAU.

There are 3,535 known comets orbiting around the Sun, and
probably hundreds of thousands in the outer solar system,

and there are innumerable meteoroids …

There are dozens of moons orbiting around six of the eight planets:
Earth (1), Mars (2), Jupiter (79), Saturn (53), Uranus (27), Neptune (13). Neither Mercury nor Venus have moons.
Pluto and other dwarf planets do have moons.

There are currently 781,692 known asteroids, also orbiting around the Sun.
Tens of thousands of these asteroids are present in the main asteroid belt,
which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/dictionary/Solar_System.html
Astronomical units
Astronomical units (au) are used to measure distances in the solar system.
An astronomical unit represents the average distance between the Sun and the Earth.
In 2012, the IAU defined the astronomical unit as
1 au = 149 597 870 700 meters, or 150 million km.

Saturn 9.54 au

Neptune 30.06 au

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/
The Oort Cloud

https://space-facts.com/oort-cloud/
 The Oort Cloud is the most distant region of the Solar System, located
somewhere between 1,000 and 100,000 AUs, approximately one-third of the
distance from the Sun to the next star, a-Centauri.
 Its existence was postulated in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, who
proposed that this cloud consisted of billions of icy objects, which occasionally
become the long-period comets.

 Unlike the orbits of the planets, which lie mostly in

the same flat disk around the Sun, the Oort Cloud is
believed to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the
rest of the solar system.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/

 Between the planets and the Oort Cloud lies the

Kuiper Belt.
http://www.astromnomytrek.com/10-interesting-facts-about-the-oort-cloud
The Kuiper Belt
 The Kuiper Belt extends from roughly the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) out to about 55 astronomical
units from the Sun.

 It contains small solar system bodies made mostly of ices, the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The ices are
frozen volatiles (gases) such as methane, ammonia, nitrogen and water. These icy objects,
occasionally pushed by gravity into orbits around the Sun, become the so-called short-period comets.

 The Kuiper Belt hosts Pluto and two other dwarf

planets.

 Beyond the Kuiper Belt lies another region known

as the scattered disk, which extends to 1,000 AU.

https://space-facts.com/kuiper-belt/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/in-depth/
The Sun
 The Sun represents 99.86% of the mass of the solar system (its
mass is 333,060 times that of the Earth), 3/4 of this mass is
hydrogen (H) and the rest mostly helium (He)

 The Sun has a diameter of 1.392 million km

 The Sun emits from its upper atmosphere (corona) a constant

stream of charged particles (protons, electrons, and a particles)
called the solar wind, flowing outward from the Sun through
the solar system at 900 km/s and at 1 million °C.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-the-sun-made-of-and-when-will-it-die-20180705/
The solar wind
 The heliosphere (the region of space under the
influence of the solar wind) acts as a giant shield,
protecting the planets from cosmic radiations.

 Earth is additionally shielded by its own magnetic

field, the magnetosphere, which protects us not
only from solar and cosmic particle radiation but
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326622449-
also from erosion of the atmosphere by the solar
LAGRANGIAN_COHERENT_STRUCTURES_IN_IONOSPHERIC-THERMOSPHERIC_FLOWS/figures?Io=1
wind. Planets without a shielding magnetic field,
Earth´s magnetosphere deflecting part of the solar wind such as Mars and Venus, are exposed to such
processes and have evolved differently.
Two groups of planets
The eight planets of the solar system are divided into two groups: terrestrial and Jovian.

The terrestrial* planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

The Jovian† planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_Earth_Comparison.png
Planet Diameter, km Density, kg/m3 Composition
Mercury 4879 5247
Terrestrial

“Rocky”
Venus 12,104 5243 1/3 Fe-Ni + Fe-S
Earth 12,756 5514 2/3 silicates
Mars 6792 3933
Jupiter 142,984 1326
Jovian

Saturn 120,536 687 “Gas-rich”

Uranus 51,118 1271 H 75%, He 25%
Neptune 49,528 1638
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/astronomy/chapter/composition-and-structure-of-planets/

* from the Latin word Terra: Earth

† from Jove, the other name of Jupiter
Two groups of planets
[The terrestrial planets] formed close to the Sun, where conditions were so hot that most of their volatile
materials (those that most easily become gases) boiled away. Radiation and matter streaming from the
Sun – the solar wind – blew away most of the hydrogen, helium, water, and other light gases and liquids on
these planets. Thus, the inner planets were formed mainly from the dense matter that was left behind,
which included the rock-forming silicates as well as metals such as iron and nickel […] Most of the volatile
materials swept from the region of the terrestrial planets were carried to the cold outer reaches of the
solar system to form the giant outer planets.
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)

Boiling point*
H2 -252.89°C
Fe 2861°C

* at 1 atm
Solar system abundances of the elements (after Lodders, 2010)

 Knowing the composition of the solar system allows to explain the differences in the compositions of the
planets, since all planets of the solar system share a common origin, i.e. the protosolar disk.
 This composition is estimated from a comparison between spectral analyses of the solar photosphere and
chemical analyses of chondritic meteorites.
H
10
He
Mg
8 C O
log abundance *

Si Fe
6 S
N Ca Ni
4 Na Ti Zn
Al P K
2 Li
F V Cu Zr Ba Pb
B Sn Pt
0 W
Be Au U
-2

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Atomic number, Z

* Normalized to 106 atoms of Si

 Mercury
 The surface of Mercury appears to have been intensely cratered by billions
of years of meteorite impacts. This surface is therefore very old.

Between the large old craters lie younger plains,

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/m10_aom_19.html

Mariner 10 spacecraft
which are probably volcanic, like the lunar maria. (1973-1975)
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mariner_10.jpg

https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/mariner-10-first-mission-to-mercury
https://phys.org/news/2011-03-Messenger-
spacecraft-orbit-mercury,html

Messenger spacecraft
(2004-2015)

 The last mission to Mercury with the Messenger spacecraft

has revealed the presence of ice water at the poles.
 https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/the-return-to-venus-and-what-it-means-for-earth
Venus
 Venus is similar to Earth in size, mass, and structure.

 Although not the closest planet to the Sun, Venus has a

surface temperature of 475°C. The atmospheric pressure at
the surface of Venus is 93 bar.

 The composition of the atmosphere of Venus mostly consists

of CO2 (96.5 %) and N2 (3.5 %), with minor sulfuric acid.

 Because of its thick and dense atmosphere, astronomers had difficulties in investigating the surface of
Venus. It was only in the 1990s that the Magellan spacecraft could take detailed pictures of this
surface using Radar technology.
 Venus  At least 85% of the surface of Venus are covered by volcanic
rocks (lava flows) occupying lowlands, the rest being occupied
by mountains and volcanoes.

https://sci.esa.int/web/venus-express/-/50372-radar-map-of-venus-surface
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/470063279835612163

Maat Mons (shield volcano)

https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/jpl-vtad-magellan

Magellan spacecraft
(1989-1994)

Radar map of Venus´surface

 The surface of Venus, like that of the Earth, shows very few meteorite craters, suggesting that this surface
is relatively young and, together with the presence of mountains, that Venus has been tectonically active
until recently.
Mars
 Mars is called the Red Planet because of the abundance of iron oxides (Fe2O3) on its surface. The formation
of these iron oxides may imply that liquid water (H2O) was once present on Mars.
 Because of this possible presence of water, no other planet has as much chance of harboring extraterrestrial
life as Mars.
 Unlike those of Mercury, Venus, and

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA04293
the Moon, the lowlands of Mars are
created not only by lava flows, but
also by sediments and sedimentary
rocks [another suggestion of the past
presence of water on Mars].
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)

Meandering patterns within sediments deposited

by liquid water inside Eberswalde Crater
(Mars Global Surveyor image)

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/in-depth/
 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA02982
Mars
The topography of Mars shows a large range of elevation.
 Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the solar system, with a
summit almost 25 km above the surrounding plains.

 Valles Marineris is the longest

(4,000 km) and the deepest (up to
10 km) canyon in the solar system.
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news.php?feature=1047
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/in-depth/
Jupiter

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2486/hubbles-new-portrait-of-jupiter/
and the other giant planets
The giant gaseous outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune – are likely to remain a puzzle for a long time [...] All
four of the giant planets are thought to have rocky, silica-rich and
iron-rich cores surrounded by thick shells of liquid hydrogen and
helium. Inside Jupiter and Saturn, the pressures become so high
that scientists believe the hydrogen turn into a metal.
Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)

Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a

Jupiter’s familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds giant storm bigger than Earth.
of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and Hubble space telescope view taken on June
helium. 27, 2019.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/
Dwarf planets
 A planet is an object in orbit around the Sun that is
large enough (massive enough) to have its self-
gravity pull itself into a round (or near-spherical)
shape. In addition a planet orbits in a clear path
around the Sun. If any object ventures near the orbit
of a planet, it will either collide with the planet, and
thereby be accreted, or be ejected into another orbit.

 Generally, a dwarf planet is smaller than Mercury. A

dwarf planet may also orbit in a zone that has many
other objects in it. For example, an orbit within the
asteroid belt is in a zone with lots of other objects.

 Currently there are five objects accepted as dwarf

planets: Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea.
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/pluto/

https://www.space.com/15216-dwarf-planets-facts-solar-system-sdcmp.html
Asteroid belt
Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Early on, the birth
of Jupiter prevented any planetary bodies from forming in the gap between Mars and Jupiter, causing the
small objects that were there to collide with each other and fragment into the asteroids seen today.
https://www.space.com/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html

https://www.esa.int/esatv/Videos/2015/05/Rosetta_news/Asteroid_belt_animation
Asteroids
 Asteroids are planetary objects that are too small to be called planets. They range in diameter from 2m
(space rock 2015 TC25) to as large as Ceres (950 km).

 Asteroids are found in three regions of the solar system:

• the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter which contains tens of thousands of
asteroids (and Ceres);
• Trojan asteroids are found in the orbit of Jupiter;
• near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are asteroids orbiting in the Earth’s neighborhood.

http://www.astronomy.com/magazine/news/2018/09/exploring-jupiters-trojan-asteroids
Asteroids

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/101955-bennu/overview/
Asteroids have stayed mostly unchanged for billions of years
— as such, research into them could reveal a great deal about
the early solar system.
https://www.space.com/51-asteroids-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html

Bennu likely was broken off from a much larger carbon-

rich asteroid about 700 million to 2 billion years ago,
which is relatively recent in geological time. It likely
formed in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and
Jupiter, and has drifted much closer to Earth since then.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/asteroids/101955-bennu/in-depth

With the selection of final primary and backup sites, the mission team will undertake 492 meters
further reconnaissance flights, beginning in January and continuing through the spring.
Once these flyovers are complete, the spacecraft will begin rehearsals for its first "touch-
and-go" sample collection attempt, which is scheduled for August. The spacecraft will The Asteroid 101955 Bennu
(image collected by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft
depart Bennu in 2021 and is scheduled to return to Earth in September 2023.
at 24 km distance, December 2018)
Comets
Like asteroids, comets are also leftovers of the early
solar system. They consist mostly of ice coated with
dark organic material. Comets may have brought water
and organic compounds, the building blocks of life, to
early Earth and other parts of the solar system.
Each comet has a tiny frozen part, called a nucleus,
often no bigger than a few kilometers across. The
nucleus contains icy chunks and frozen gases with bits
of embedded rock and dust. The nucleus may have a
small rocky core.
A comet warms up as it nears the Sun and develops an
atmosphere, or coma. The coma may be hundreds of
thousands of kilometers in diameter. The pressure of
sunlight and high-speed solar particles (solar wind)
blows the coma materials away from the Sun, forming a
Comet NEAT pictured on May 7, 2004 (NASA)
long and sometimes bright tail.
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/nasaandyou/home/comets_bkgd_en.html
Meteorites
Little chunks of rock and debris in space are called meteoroids. They become meteors — or shooting stars
— when they fall through a planet's atmosphere. Any of these debris that survive the journey and hit the
ground are called meteorites.

The Murchison meteorite fell in Australia in 1969. It has a high H2O content and
may be of cometary origin. It is one of the most studied meteorites. More than
92 different amino acids have been identified within the Murchison meteorite to
date. Nineteen of these are found on Earth. The remaining amino acids have no
apparent terrestrial source. http://www.meteorlab.com/METEORLAB2001dev/murchy.htm

The study of meteorites is important because it brings us

information on
• the age of the solar system and of the Earth
• the chemical composition of the solar system
• the origin of water on Earth
• the origins of Life on Earth
Meteorites
Classification
 Stony meteorites – mainly composed of silicate minerals
 Iron meteorites – mainly composed of metallic iron and nickel
 Stony-iron meteorites – containing both silicate and metallic material Stony meteorites are subdivided into
 chondrites
 achondrites
Chondrites have not been modified since the formation of the solar
system 4.6 billion years ago. They are extensively studied because
they bring information on the origins of the solar system, the
synthesis of organic compounds in the solar system, and the origins
of water and Life on Earth (the latter two informations are provided
by the carbonaceous chondrites). Chondrites are characterized by
the presence of chondrules, small rounded grains of minerals,
which constitute 20 to 80 % by volume of a chondrite. http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/BleachedChondrules.html

Chondrules
Achondrites do not have chondrules and were formed more recently.
Origin of the Moon
* Women and a bird in the moonlight

https://ecriturbulente.com/2017/06/20/joan-miro-femme-et-oiseau-au-clair-de-lune-1949/
The prevailing theory supported by the scientific community, the
giant impact hypothesis suggests that the Moon formed when an
object smashed into early Earth. The early solar system was a
violent place, and a number of bodies were created that never
made it to full planetary status. One of these could have crashed
into Earth not long after the young planet was created. Known as
Theia, the Mars-sized body collided with Earth, throwing
vaporized chunks of the young planet's crust into space.
https://www.space.com/19275-moon-formation.html

Dones i ocell al clar de lluna *

Joan Miró (1949)
Origin of the Moon
Many scientists now think that such a cataclysm did occur during the middle to late stages of Earth’s accretion.
A giant impact by a Mars-sized body created a shower of debris from both Earth and the impacting body and
propelled it into space. The Moon aggregated from that debris. According to this theory, Earth re-formed as a
body with an outer molten layer hundreds of kilometers thick – a magma ocean. The huge impact sped up
Earth’s rotation and changed the angle of its axis, knocking it from vertical with respect to Earth’s orbital plane
to its present 23° inclination. Grotzinger & Jordan (2014)

https://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/moons-formation-linked-to-high-energy-impact/