HYPOTHESES

EXPLAINING
THE ORIGIN OF
THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
 What is
our solar
system?
Why is it important for
us to learn about our
solar system?
Have you ever looked
at the stars and
wondered what lies
beyond?
 What caused
the mini
tornado in the
bottle?
 What is the
relevance of the
activity in the
formation of the
solar system?
 Activity Instructions:
1. Fill the plastic bottle with water until it
reaches around three quarters full.
2. Add a few drops of dish washing liquid.
3. Sprinkle in a few pinches of glitter (this will
make your tornado easier to see).
4. Put the cap on tightly.
5. Turn the bottle upside down and hold it by
the neck. Quickly spin the bottle in a circular
motion for a few seconds, stop and look inside to
see if you can see a mini tornado forming in the
water. You might need to try it a few times
before you get it working properly.
 Scientists believe that the Solar
System evolved from a giant
cloud of dust and gas. They
believe that this dust and gas
began to collapse under the
weight of its own gravity, and
the dust and gas begin moving in
a giant circle.
 Further away from the center of this mass where
the star was forming, there were smaller clumps of
dust and gas that were also collapsing. The star in
the center eventually burst into flames and made
one big ball of continually burning fire becoming
our sun. The sun is a star. It is the biggest thing
found in our solar system. All the light and warmth
on the planets come from the sun. The Sun get
most gets its energy from nuclear reactions, which
release vast quantities of energy; and these same
nuclear reactions created smaller clumps of matter
that became the planets, moons, comets, and
asteroids.
 Have you ever watched
the water as it drains out
of a bathtub?
 HYPOTHESES
EXPLAINING THE
ORIGIN OF THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
Our goals for learning:
How did we arrive at a
theory of solar system
formation?
Where did the solar system
come from?
 Where did the solar system come
from?

2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley

 Galactic Recycling

Elements that
formed planets
were made in
stars and then
recycled
through
interstellar
space.

2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley

 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 The Origin and
Evolution of the Solar
System
 Galaxy- gravitationally-bound
system of stars, stellar remnants,
interstellar gas, and dark matter
Milky way- one of the billion
galaxies in the observable universe
The observable universe refers to
the region of the universe from
Earths vantage point
 Descartes Vortex Theory
Rene Descartes
French mathematician
and physicist
One of the first
proponents of a model
on the origin of the
Solar system
He explained the orbits
of the planets are the
primary whirlpool
motion
 Descartes Vortex Theory
According to this
theory, the Solar
system was formed
into bodies with
nearly circular
orbits because of
the whirlpool-like
motion in the pre-
solar materials.
 Descartes Vortex Theory

2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley

Buffons Collision Theory
Proposed by George Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon
French Naturalist
Buffons Collision Theory
Proposed that the planets were fomed
by the collision of the sun with a
giant comet
The resulting debris formed into
planets that rotate in the same direction
as the revolve around the sun.
Based on ideas
and
observations by
Descartes, Kant
and Herschel
 Pierre Laplace (1796) put forward the first
really scientific theory
 Kant-Laplace
Nebular Hypothesis
 Kant-Laplace Nebular
Hypothesis
Suggested that a great cloud of
gas and dust called nebulae
begin to collapse because of
gravitational pull
As the cloud contracted, it spun
more rapidly
Laplace Nebular
Hypothesis
 (a) A slowly rotating and collapsing gas-and-dust
sphere. (b) An oblate spheroid forms as the spin rate
increases. (c) The critical lenticular form. (d) Rings left
behind in the equatorial plane. (e) One planet
condensing in each ring.
 Laplaces theory was a monistic theory in which the
same body of a material gave rise to both the sun and
the planets
This monistic theory, that produced the Sun and the
planets in a single process, has an attractive
simplicity but a fatal flaw. It suggests that most of
the angular momentum of the system is in the Sun
which is not so. The Sun with 99.86% of the
mass of the system has only 0.5% of the total
angular momentum contained in its spin; the
remainder is in the planetary orbits. All 19th
century attempts to rescue the theory were unsuccessful.
The theory, although based on scientific principles, did
not agree with observation and so had to be abandoned.
 Tidal Theory
Sir James H. Jeans (18771946) and Sir
Harold Jeffreys proposed a dualistic theory
Involved a tidal interaction between the
sun and a very massive star
The massive star, passed close by, raised a
tide on the sun and pulled out material in
the form of filament
This filament was gravitationally unstable
and broke up into a series of blobs and so
condensed to form planets
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
Kants Modern
Nebular Theory
 Solar Nebular Theory
states that our solar system formed from the
gravitational collapse of a giant
interstellar gas cloudthe solar nebula
Hydrogen and other gases swirled around
and condensed into our sun and its planets.
most widely accepted model in the field of
cosmology to explain the formation and
evolution of the Solar System
It suggests that the Solar System formed
from nebulous material. The theory was
developed by Immanuel Kant
 Solar Nebular Theory
The main concern of the solar nebula
theory is to solve the original problems
of Kant and Laplaces nebular
hypothesis about angular momentum
of the sun.
The redistribution of the angular
momentum has been central in the
development of SNT
 Solar Nebular Theory
The solar system was formed as a result of
the condensation of hydrogen gas and dust
referred to as interstellar gas and dust cloud
Something must have happened to trigger
the condensation of the gas and dust cloud
An explosion of a star (supernova) might
have caused the dust and gas cloud to
collapse, forming the sun and planets
Without this violent disturbance, the gas and
dust cloud would remain an expanded and
uncondensed cloud
 Solar Nebular Theory
The gas and dust cloud
collapsed due to the force of
gravity
The center compressed enough
to become a protostar, leaving
the outer material suspended
around the center
 Solar Nebular Theory
As the cloud continues to shrink, its
rotational speed increases and becomes
a rapidly rotating disk
The contraction converts gravitational
energy into heat energy, and causes the
center to glow
When the temperature is sufficient
enough, a nuclear reaction begins at
the core of the protostar, and later
becomes the sun.
 Solar Nebular Theory
A mechanism to transfer the angular
momentum from a pre-existing star
involves the loss of ionized material
and strong stellar magnetic field.
Ionized materials moves outward and
locks to a magnetic field. Forming the
sun requires inward movement while
the magnetic field mechanism requires
outward movement
 Solar Nebular Theory
The remaining gas and dust
cloud form a disk-shaped
bodies due to rotation called
solar nebulae
 Solar Nebular Theory
According to the solar nebular theory, the
formation of the planets involves different
stages, in contrast to the single process of
nebular theory
The first stage is the accretion of grain-sized
particles to form centimeter-sized particles
which would later grow to several
kilometers in diameter
The objects are called planetisimals
 Solar Nebular Theory
The second stage involves the
formation of more massive objects
from coalescing planetisimals
The massive objects are reffered to
as protoplanets
These would later become the
planets
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 Solar Nebular Theory
After the formation of the Solar System, it was
speculated that after one million years, it
generated a very strong solar wind
This swept away all of the gases left in the
protoplanetary nebulae. As the protoplanet became
large enough, its gravity pulled in the nebular gas
This resulted in the formation of gas giants
Otherwise, the protoplanet would remain a rocky
or icy body
 Solar Nebular Theory
Finally, the Solar System is composed
of only solid, protoplanetary bodies
and gas giants
Eventually after millions of years the
Solar System ended up with planets
that had stable orbits
 Evidence from Other Gas Clouds
The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated
in the Milky Way, being south of Orion's Belt We can
in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the see stars
brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked forming in
eye in the night sky.
other
interstellar
gas
clouds,
lending
support to
the
nebular
theory.
2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
A. The early solar system
is a dust and gas cloud
(nebula).
B. Contraction of the
nebula into a rotating
disk.
C. Cooling of the nebula
causes condensation
of dust into solid
particles.
D. Accretion of planets.
Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
The orbits of all planets
are almost in the same
plane
Solar system is flat
 Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
The orbits of the planets are
nearly circular.
The elliptical orbits depart only
slightly from being a perfect circle
The orbits of the planets are
nearly in the same plane as the
rotation of the sun
Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
All the planets revolve around
the sun in counter clockwise
direction.
Most planets rotate around their
own axis in a counter clockwise
direction.
Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
The distances of the planets from the sun
can be expressed in a similar relationship
called Bodes law named after German
astronomer Johann Bode
The calculated distances (using Bodes
law) and the observed distances of the
planets from the sun are almost the same,
with the exception of Neptune anf Pluto
 Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
The satellite systems of Jupiter
and Saturn are nearly identical
in their arrangements with the
solar system
The distances of the satellites
from the planets follow the
Bodes Law
Solar System: Properties
and Current Information
The satellites and planets
contain almost the rotational
motion of the Solar system
The solar system also contains
asteroids and comets
 Asteroids
made up of rocks and are sometimes referred to as
minor planets
Atmosphere-free
Orbit around the sun
Thought of as remnants of the early stages of the Solar
Systems formation
Tend to congregate in what is known as main asteroid
belt- located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
They were never formed as planets because of
Jupiterss high gravitational force
Ceres- first known asteroid
 COMETS
Composed mainly of ice (frozen water and gas) and
non-volatile dust (silicate minerals and carbon grains)
Only become active when their orbits take them near
the sun
The suns heat causes the frozen gases to sublimate,
forming vaporous jet of streams
These vapour jets create a spectacular tail of streaming
out from the sun
Originate from the two regions of the outer Solar
System
 KUIPER BELT
Solar systems final frontier
Outermost region of the Solar
system
Short period comets like Halleys
comet come from the Kuipers belt;
they orbit around the sun in less
than 200 years up to millions of
years
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
Trans- Neptunian Objects
Objects orbiting
beyond
Neptune
 Classification of Planets
2 categories based on
composition
Terrestrial
Jovian
 2005 Pearson Education Inc., publishing as Addison-Wesley
 Terrestrial Jovian
Planets Planets
Earth-like planets Jupiter-like planets
Mercury Jupiter
Venus Saturn
Earth Uranus
Mars Neptune
Composed mainly of Gas planets; mostly
dense, rocky and made of hydrogen and
metallic materials helium
 Frost Line
Distance of the solar nebula from the
protostar
As the radius of the protostar increases
temperature decreases
At cooler temperatures, more materials
condense
Divides the inner warm regions (where
terrestrial planets are formed) from the
outer cooler region (where Jovian planets
are formed)
 Frost Line
Light elements remain gaseous inside the frost line
where temperatures are high
They condense into ice outside the frost line where
temperature is cooler
Thus, the Jovian planets are formed outside the frost line
In contrast, metals and rocks condense at high
temperature
This explains why terrestrial planets are formed in the
inner warm regions
The rocky particles and the icy particles undego the
process of accretion that later forms the terrestrial and
Jovian planets
 Classification of Planets
Based on positions relative to the sun
Inner planets- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Outer planets- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune
Asteroid Belt- between Mars and Jupiter,
between the inner and outer core
 Classification of Planets
Based on positions relative to Earth
Inferior planets- located inside the
orbit of the Earth
Superior planets- located outside the
orbit of the Earth