Our solar system was born when, in a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, a giant rotating cloud of dust and gasses began to collapse. Gravity compressed the dust and gasses and the cloud got increasingly hotter and began to spin faster. During the following one hundred million years, the gasses compressed until the center was so hot that nuclear fusion occurred giving off tremendous energy, combining charged atoms of hydrogen to form helium. This process gave birth to a star, our Sun (Our Solar System, n.d.). Scientists have a good deal of data documenting the solar system’s history for about the last 3.9 billion years, but it was actually formed approximately 4.6 million years ago. The first 700 million years are somewhat of a mystery because earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and erosion have obliterated evidence from that time. During that first 700 million years, the planets coalesced and water and other elements necessary for life were delivered to the inner planets (Cowen, 2009). Our solar system is a diverse and exceedingly interesting speck in the universe.
Earth’s solar system is in the Milky Way Galaxy and is part of a system of eight planets orbiting the Sun, the star which is the center of our solar system. The Sun is constantly burning gas, which heats and lights Earth and the other planets (Solar System Information, n.d.). The planets in our solar system vary widely in size, composition, distance from the Sun, and atmosphere. Of the Milky Way Galaxy’s 100 to 200 billion stars, only about 6,000 of them can be seen with the naked eye from Earth and one of them is the Sun. “Planets” means “wanderers” and were called that because they appeared to travel across the sky. Other objects in the solar syst...
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The greenhouse effect. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2011, from University Corporation for Atmospheric Research website: http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm
Gedzelman, S. (2002). Colors of the sky. Weatherwise, 55(1), 20. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from EbscoHost.Blue sky. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2011, from University of Wisconsin website:
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/bluesky.html
Astronomical theory of climate change. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2011, from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html
Seasons of the year. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2011, from National Aeronautics and Space Administration website: http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sseasons.htm
To better understand the planets, we need to first have a basic understanding of our
This paper can help you with that.... ... middle of paper ... ... Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:49, July 31, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greenhouse_gas&oldid=228960982.
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.
"CO2 vs Temperature: Last 100 Years." CO2 vs Temperature: Last 100 Years. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
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Our sun is the central pivot point to which or entire planet and solar system is built around. With out it all life on our planet would cease to exist. Within this paper we will explore how our Sun and solar system formed and came to resemble what we see today.
The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global-average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue as an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
Schmidt, G. A., R. A. Ruedy, R. L. Miller, & A. A. Lacis (2010), Attribution of the present‐day total greenhouse effect, Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, D20106, doi:10.1029/2010JD014287.
The blue color, which is observed in the sky, is due to the Rayleigh scattering. As light travels in the atmosphere, it comes across gas molecules which absorb most of the colors with shorter wavelength. Colors such as red, orange, yellow are least absorbed. Blue, being a color with short wavelength, gets absorbed in the molecule. It is then radiated into all directions. Now, this is the color that reaches our eyes because it gets scattered in all directions, hence a blue sky.
Our solar system has eight planets, their moons and satellites, and they are all orbiting the Sun. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto used to be the ninth planet but IAU changed the definition of planet and Pluto did not meet the standards so it is now a Dwarf planet.
Climate change is evidenced through shifts in the weather patterns such as winds, humidity and temperatures over certain durations. Natural climate changes occur less frequently and they are triggered by factors related to geographical aspects as well as solar radiation. The earth’s movement on the orbit triggers changes in climate, causing some areas to have higher temperatures than usual, while others are significantly cold depending on the position of the earth on the orbit. The heat from the sun causes changes in the stratospheric ozone and it increases the amount of greenhouse gases. Heat from the oceanic crust also contributes to warming as a result of episodic hydrothermal venting (Liao & Sandeberg, 2012).
Meehl, Gerald A. "Solar and Greenhouse Gas Forcing and Climate Response in the TwentiethCentury." 2012. Web 13 May 2015
The idea behind the Solar Nebular Hypothesis is that the solar system was condensed from an enormous cloud of hydrogen, helium, and a few other elements and rocks. Around five billion years this cloud of materials began to spin and contract together into a disk shape under their own gravitational forces. The particles started combined together, protoplanets, to eventually form planets. A great mass of the material eventually began to form together, protosun, and make up the sun.