Formation of the Solar System

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Formation of the Solar System

• 27-1

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• Solar System the sun and all of the bodies and
  planets that travel around it
• Planet any of the primary bodies that orbit a
  sun
• Solar nebula rotating cloud of gas and dust from
  which the sun and planets formed

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Nebular Hypothesis

• Energy and pressure within a solar nebula
  increased greatly until fusion occurred.
• A star, which is now called the sun, formed in
  the center of the nebula.

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Formation of the Planets (cont.)

• While the sun formed in the center of the solar
  nebula, planets began to form in the outer parts
  of it.
• Planetesimal small body from which a planet
  originated in the development of the solar
  system.
• Some planetesimals fused together to form
  protoplanets.
• Eventually, the protoplanets became very large
  and condensed to form planets and moons

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Formation of the Planets (cont.)

• Some protoplanets were being formed in a part of
  the solar nebula that was closer to the sun.
  Others were being formed a bit further than were
  the sun was.

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Formation of the Planets (cont.)

• The planets that ended up forming closer to the
  sun became the four inner planets which are also
  the warmest planets.
• The planets that ended up forming further from
  the sun became the four outer planets which are
  also the coldest planets. The cooler temperatures
  allowed the gases that were present to survive.
  This is why the outer planets are called the gas
  giants.

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• Chain of Events
• Formation of the Inner Planets

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• Chain of Events
• Formation of the Outer Planets

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Early Earth

• Baby Earth was super hot. It was hot enough to
  melt iron !
• As Earth developed, the denser materials, such as
  molten iron, sank to its center and less dense
  materials were forced to the outer layers. This
  is called differentiation.
• Differentiation caused the Earth to form three
  distinct layers
• Core, mantle and crust

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• Chain of Events
• Formation of the Solid Earth

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Formation of Earths Atmosphere(cont.)

• During the original differentiation of Earth,
  less dense gas molecules like hydrogen and helium
  rose to the surface. So, the original atmosphere
  consisted primarily of hydrogen and helium.
• Some organisms were able to live in this
  atmosphere. Some of these organisms were
  cyanobacteria and early green plants.

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Formation of Earths Atmosphere (cont.)

• Cyanobacteria and the green plants used carbon
  dioxide during photosynthesis and produced oxygen
  as a byproduct.
• As the years went by, more and more green plants
  started arising.
• More plants more ???

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Formation of Earths Atmosphere(continued)

• Outgassing
• As Earths surface continued forming, more and
  more volcanic eruptions occurred. These volcanic
  eruptions released lots of gases like water
  vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, sulfur
  dioxide and ammonia.
• These gases formed a new atmosphere.
• Some gases interacted with radiation from the sun
  and some of the remaining oxygen formed ozone.

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• Chain of Events
• Formation of the Earths Atmosphere

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Formation of Earths Oceans

• It is thought that some of Earths water may have
  come from icy bodies such as comets that collided
  with Earth.
• Also, over millions of years, rainwater fell to
  Earth and flowed over the land, through rivers
  and into the ocean.
• The rainwater dissolved some of the rocks and
  carried the dissolved solids into the oceans.
• As the water evaporated into the atmosphere some
  of these chemicals combined to form salts.