The stars' fuel for energy generation is the stuff they are made of --hydrogen, helium, carbon, etc. -- which they burn by converting these elements into heavier elements. Nuclear fusion occurs, which is when the nuclei of atoms fuse into nuclei of heavier atoms. The energy given off by a star through nuclear burning heatsits interior to many millions and, even in some cases to Pleiades Star Cluster hundreds of millions to billions of degrees Fahrenheit. It causes heat to flow from the interior toward the surface, where it is released out into space and makes the star shine.
The first step in the formation of planets is that a protoplanetary disc was made from the materials of the solar nebula. The solar nebula was supposedly disc-shaped cloud of dust and gas left over from the formation of the sun. Because of this accretion, the smaller sized dust particles begin to gather together due to collisions which form larger bodies of planetesimals. When planetesimals reach a certain size they start to attract other smaller bodies because of their gravity. Over time planetesimals get big enough to attract bigger bodies which form protoplanets, which then form planets.
A star’s habitability depends on how much star light it absorbs and reflects which determines its temperature (Astrobio Website). 2.2 Super-Earths A super-Earth is a planet with masses between one and ten times that of Earth (Phys Org Website). They have a 41% incidence in habitable zones (Phys Org Website). 2.3 Missions/Organizations Due to the difficulties in detecting an exoplanet becau... ... middle of paper ... ...zone, methane, and water (Space Telescope Science Institute Website). It will be able to reveal what drives star formation, and interactions between dark matter and galaxies (Space Telescope Science Institute Website).
Similarities in planets led scientists to believe there is a common bond between Venus, Earth, and Mars. In August 1960 the new science of astrobiology was given the name “exobiology,” the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe. Venus, Earth and Mars share similar amounts of carbon dioxide, indicating a similar origin for these worlds, even though much of Mars’ carbon dioxide mysteriously emerges from the soil and some from the polar ice cap. A theory is that “anaerobes” lived on all the planets. Anaerobes can only live without oxygen.
Just like the pervious chapters, Corfield provided the history and discovery of this planet. He went on to explain the different attempts scientists used to retain images of Venus. It was discovered that this planet had some similarities to Earth, like the small amount of crater on its surface. In chapter four,” The Wizards of Earthsea: Earth and Moon,” Corfield explains how Earth is used as a timescale for other planets. It is suggested that all the planets are the same age, therefore to determine the time of different event on other planets Earth is used a reference.
To elaborate, both low and high-mass stars become a protostar after gravity gradually forces the hydrogen gas that is available in their nebula together and begins to spin. (NASA, 2013). This spinning eventually causes the temperature of the protostars to reach 10 million K (or 15,000,000 degrees Celsius) whereby the protostar becomes hot enough for hydrogen fusion to operate efficiently. Both low and high-mass protostars then become main-sequence stars as the hydrogen fusion holds their gravitational contractions in stasis and they become stable. In this state, they glow and burn hydrogen in their core, converting it into helium through nuclear fusion.
It is speculated that the source of this heat is due to the rapid rotation of the planet and it’s liquid metallic hydrogen core. Liquid Metallic hydrogen consists mainly of ionized protons and electrons and is the electric... ... middle of paper ... ... tidal forces, which caused nitro gas volcanoes on it’s surface. Different from the terrestrial planets, the Jovian planets are basically big balls of gas. The jovian planets seemed to be formed around the same time from the solar nebula. Jupiter and Saturn are the closest in nature to each other with Neptune and Uranus taking on a few of their traits.
Stars owe their existence to the force of gravity. Stars are created from the thinly spread atoms of dust and gas that swirl throughout space. The atoms clump together into dense clouds that eventually collapse under their own gravity. Other forces counteract the gravity. The dust and cloud grows steadily hotter until a nuclear furnace ignites creating a bright shining star.
The next terrestrial planet, and second planet from the sun, is Venus. Venus is the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon. The first spacecraft to visit the planet was the Mariner 2 in 1962. It has also been visited by many other spacecrafts, including the Pioneer Venus, Venera 7, Venera 9, and most recently the US spacecraft Magellan. The rotation on Venus is somewhat unusual because it is very slow and also retrograde.
Solar nebula is a rotating flattened disk of gas and dust in which the outer part of the disk became planets while the center bulge part became the sun. Its inner part is hot, which is heated by a young sun and due to the impact of the gas falling on the disk during its collapse. However, the outer part is cold and far below the freezing point of water. In the solar nebula, the process of condensation occurs after enough cooling of solar nebula and results in the formation into a disk. Condensation is a process of cooling the gas and its molecules stick together to form liquid or solid particles.