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Published byEunice Stokes Modified over 9 years ago
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Chapter 2 The Solar System
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Observing the Solar System Planets: “Wandering Star” Greeks Ideas: We lived in a Geocentric system. (Earth is in the center of solar system)
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Copernicus’s Idea 1500’s Heliocentric System – Earth and other planets revolve around the sun. Galileo used telescope to prove heliocentric system idea.
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Brahe and Kepler’s Law Orbit of each planet is an ellipse.
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Issac Newton Inertia and gravity keep planets in orbit. –Inertia – a moving object continues in a straight line. –Gravity – keeps planet in an orbit
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The Sun Interior of the sun 1.Nuclear fusion of H- sun’s energy comes from 2.5 billion years of fuel left
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Sun’s Atmosphere 3 layers: 3. Photosphere: inner layer, light comes from 2. Chromosphere – reddish glow seen during an eclipse 6. Corona - outermost
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Solar Wind Corona sends out stream of charged particles Creates Auroras (Aurora Borealis)
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Antarctica:
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Features of the sun Sunspots – dark spots on sun, areas of gas that are cooler than the rest of the sun.
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Prominences Reddish loops of gas link sunspot regions
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Solar Flares Explosions due to prominences connecting Increase solar wind – magnetic storms
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Other objects in Solar System Comets: “dirty snowball” Orbits are long and narrow 3 parts of a comet: –Tail – –Nucleus – –Coma -
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Orbit of a comet
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Asteroids Too small to be planets Belt between Mars and Jupiter Discovered about 10,000 asteroids Impact Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
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Meteors. Meteoroid: chunk of rock or dust in space. Meteor: A streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in Earth’s atmosphere Meteorites: meteoroids that pass through the Earth’s atmosphere and hit the Earth’s surface Meteor crater in Arizona
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A bright meteor 1998, Florida
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