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. Therefore, condensation is the change from gas to liquid. In this process, the gas must cool below a critical temperature. Accretion is the process in which the tiny condensed particles from the nebula begin to stick together to form bigger pieces. Solar nebular theory explains the formation of the solar system. In the solar nebula, tiny grains stuck together and created bigger grains that grew into clumps, possibly held together by electrical forces similar to those that make lint stick to your clothes. Subsequent collisions, if not too violent, allowed these smaller particles to grow into objects ranging in size from millimeters to kilometers. These larger objects are called planetesimals. As planetesimals moved within the disk and collide with one another, planets formed. Because astronomers have no direct way to observe how the Solar System formed, they rely heavily on computer simulations to study that remote time. Computer simulations try to solve Newton’s laws of motion for the complex mix of dust and gas that we believe made up the solar nebula. Merging of the planetesimals increased their mass and thus their gravitational attraction. That, in turn, helped them grow even more massive by drawing planetesimals into clumps or rings around the sun. The process of planets building undergoes consumption of most of the planetesimals. Some survived planetesimals form small moons, asteroids, and comets. The leftover Rocky planetesimals that remained between Jupiter and Mars were stirred by Jupiter’s gravitational force. Therefore, these Rocky planetesimals are unable to assemble into a planet. These planetesimals are known as asteroids. Formation of solar system is explained by solar nebular theory. A rotating flat disk with center bulge is the solar nebula. The outer part of the disk becomes planets and the center bulge becomes the sun.
Our solar system, as we see it today, originally formed from the collapse of a very cold and low-density cloud of gas. The mass of this cloud was composed of 98% hydrogen and helium, 1.4% hydrogen compounds, .4% rock, and .2% metal. The nebula was thought to be a few light years across and was roughly spherical in shape. The cloud was in a state of balance, it was neither contracting or expanding, until a cataclysmic event, most likely a supernova, created a shock wave through the nebula, resulting in an area of higher mass. Once this area became more massive than the rest of the nebula it begin to collapse with the area of hig...
Looking up at the night sky you see stars lying on a never-ending dark blanket. It is within this “blanket”, called the interstellar medium, that new stars are formed. The interstellar medium consists of 99% gas and about 1% dust particles. Hydrogen is the predominant gas in both atomic and molecular forms. While being the place where stars are born, the interstellar medium also creates beautiful nebulae. A reflection nebula is created when light from a nearby star reflects from the dust particles in the interstellar medium. There are two main types of nebulae and two other descriptions of what happens to the light that comes from nearby stars.
Supernovas are accountable for the birth of new galaxies and stars, including the Milky Way and its planets. Jupiter is the center of many theories. One speculation considers Jupiter’s core to be solid diamond, or highly compressed carbon. Due to the abnormal mass of the planet, Jupiter has strange weather conditions that lead to large storms, including its Great Red Spot, an anti-cyclonic storm.
According to Cox the explosive depth of the clouds that remained unchanged after traveling millions of light years are more powerful than before, pulling more gas and gravitational pull. At the time, these clouds meet up at any specific point the force make them move in a clockwise rotation and hence a tornado is formed. These fast moving spinning air balls rotate in vertical columns’, this process has been a cause of the formation of the present solar system, more than billions of years
Located in the sword of Orion, the Orion Nebula, also known as M42 or NGC 1976, lies in one of the most recognisable constellations in the night sky. It is a part of the larger Orion Nebula Cluster which at the age of roughly 3 million years old it lies a mere 1,344 lightyears away with a diameter of 14 lightyears [Scally, Clarke, Mccaughrean, 2005]. A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust [Oxford Dictionary, 2016] where either new stars are born or dead stars remain. The Orion Nebula is both an emission and reflection nebula, known as a diffuse nebula. An emission nebula is one in where there is a cloud of high temperature gas [Arnett, 1997]. A reflection nebula is one where the cloud of gas is illuminated by stars around it. The nebula has a
Years later the moon and the sun began to spin and spin really fast until they gained so much speed that they orbited out in tot the center of the galaxy and exploded making a giant sun.
Gravity is important in the formation of stars. A protostar, the earliest stage of a star, is formed from dust and gas from a nebula clumping together. The gravity pulling in is greater than the pressure pushing out. As more matter is pulled towards the core the temperature, pressure, and density increase. The gravitational potential energy is converted to kinetic energy for individual gas particles. The gas particles crash into each and create thermal energy, heating the core. A critical temperature must be met for nuclear fusion to begin. If the temperature isn’t met then a dead star is created.
A stars final state depends greatly on its mass and a star’s mass is determined at the beginning of its stellar lifecycle. Typically, black holes, neutron stars and type II supernovas only occur in the life cycle of high-mass stars while white dwarfs, planetary nebulae and type IA supernovas occur in the life cycle of low-mass stars. To determine how each of these remnants of stellar evolution are created all that is required is to follow the stellar life cycle of both low and high-mass stars.
The most commonly accepted theory of planet formation is the solar nebula theory. In this theory, planets form by slowly by collecting materials leftover from its star’s formation. The pieces crash together until they form something big enough to to have a gravitational pull strong enough to make them spherical. However this is a very slow process, and the planet, HD 106906 b, is much younger than ours, which is 4.6 billion years old. Also, this theory of planet formation happens relatively close to the star. Neptune, the planet farthest from the sun in our star system, is only 30 AU from the sun, compared to the 650 of the newly discovered planet.
The creation of The Milky Way is somewhat put simply. Zeus gave Hera an infant to suck milk while she was asleep. But suddenly Hera awoke and pushed the baby away. Thus resulting drops of spluttered milk and creating the Milky Way, which is the galaxy that contains the solar system.
In 1910, Arthur Eddington, a British Astrophysicist, discovered solar winds. Solar winds are basically a continuous flow (they are never ending basically) of particles from the sun. They are also known as stellar winds. Their usual way out of the sun is the coronal holes. Their main cause is an expansion of gases in the corona, which is the outer layer of the sun. The idea that the corona is plasma was thought of by Richard C. Carrington. The temperature of the corona is 2,200,000 degrees Celsius. It is so hot that not even the sun’s gravity can contain it. It heats gases and makes them expand. The gas items run into each other as they are heated. As a result, they lose their electrons. Then, the atoms become ions with a positive charge, the electrons and ions (which are mostly Hydrogen ions) make up the solar wind. The velocity of solar winds goes from 250 to 1000 kilometers every second. It has a density of 82 ions for every cubic inch, or 5 ions per cubic centimeter. Solar winds are the cause of many occurrences in the solar system like Mercury having no atmosphere, and Venus’ acidic, radiation filled clouds. They are also known as electrically charged hurricanes.
A star begins as nothing more than a very light distribution of interstellar gases and dust particles over a distance of a few dozen lightyears. Although there is extremely low pressure existing between stars, this distribution of gas exists instead of a true vacuum. If the density of gas becomes larger than .1 particles per cubic centimeter, the interstellar gas grows unstable. Any small deviation in density, and because it is impossible to have a perfectly even distribution in these clouds this is something that will naturally occur, and the area begins to contract. This happens because between about .1 and 1 particles per cubic centimeter, pressure gains an inverse relationship with density. This causes internal pressure to decrease with increasing density, which because of the higher external pressure, causes the density to continue to increase. This causes the gas in the interstellar medium to spontaneously collect into denser clouds. The denser clouds will contain molecular hydrogen (H2) and interstellar dust particles including carbon compounds, silicates, and small impure ice crystals. Also, within these clouds, there are 2 types of zones. There are H I zones, which contain neutral hydrogen and often have a temperature around 100 Kelvin (K), and there are H II zones, which contain ionized hydrogen and have a temperature around 10,000 K. The ionized hydrogen absorbs ultraviolet light from it’s environment and retransmits it as visible and infrared light. These clouds, visible to the human eye, have been named nebulae. The density in these nebulae is usually about 10 atoms per cubic centimeter. In brighter nebulae, there exists densities of up to several thousand atoms per cubic centimete...
Perhaps one of the most interesting features of our fathomless universe are the planets that are classified as gas giants. Huge, turbulent, and distant, the gas giants are some of the most enigmatic features in our Solar System. I have a personal interest to the gas giants and celestial bodies in general. When I was a child, I was fascinated by our Solar System. I read innumerable books about space, and my interests of outer space had been piqued further by other forms of media. Although I held this interest of space, growing up left me with little time to learn about space, and I lost interest for a while. Taking Earth Science in Milpitas High re-invigorated my interests in the celestial bodies. Using this class, I’m now able to focus on learning more about our colossal universe, in particular, the outer planets.
The Orion Nebula is a spectacular sight. Consequently, it has been a preferred target of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) over recent years. The HST has provided a great deal of insight into the complicated process of star formation. In June of 1994, C.
Supernovas are extremely powerful explosions of radiation. A supernova can give off as much energy as a Sun can within its whole life. A star will release most of its material when it undergoes this type of explosion. The explosion of a supernova can also help in creating new stars.