Solar System 2010
Presented by Linder Winter
EVENT DESCRIPTION
This event will address:
 The Sun
 Planets and their satellites
 Dwarf planets
 Comets
 Asteroids and the asteroid belt
 Meteoroids
 Oort Cloud
 Kuiper Belt
EVENT DESCRIPTION
A TEAM OF UP TO: 2
APPROXIMATE TIME: 50 Minutes
EVENT PARAMETERS
Teams may bring only one 8.5” x 11” two-sided sheet of
notes containing images, graphics and text, plus a basic,
non-programmable calculator with a square root function.
THE COMPETITION
Participants will be presented with one or more tasks,
each requiring the use of one or more process skills. Skills
may include, but are not limited to, generating inferences,
making predictions, problem solving, making and
recording observations, formulating and evaluating
hypotheses, interpreting data and graphing. The exam may
be presented using a thematic approach.
KNOWLEDGE vs.
CONCEPTUALLY-BASED LEARNING
Knowledge: Basic information often included in notes for
quick reference.
Conceptual: Application of “basic knowledge” to tasks
requiring reasoning.
Ideally, Science Olympiad activities move from basic
knowledge at invitational and regional competitions to
more challenging conceptual activities at state and
national competitions.
KNOWLEDGE vs.
CONCEPTUALLY-BASED LEARNING
 Student
notes should be a collection of basic
knowledge and facts. These may include tables,
graphs and graphics.
 Preparation for competitions should include
numerous opportunities for participants to develop
conceptual thinking skills.
 During this presentation, numerous examples of
conceptual activities will be suggested for use in
preparing for competitions.
KNOWLEDGE vs.
CONCEPTUALLY-BASED LEARNING
 In
preparing your team, select relevant images,
graphs, charts, tables, etc. and challenge participants
to use these in developing their own lists of
questions, tasks and activities.
 Providing opportunities to develop sound
conceptual thinking skills is the most effective type
of preparation for SO competitions.
KNOWLEDGE vs.
CONCEPTUALLY-BASED LEARNING
 Caution
participants that the supervisor who
actually writes the exam may be a fact-oriented
person, so you must prepare them for this
possibility also!
 Even if the supervisor happens to be a fact-oriented
individual, participants who have experienced
conceptual learning will have an edge on those
whose preparation was primarily based on
memorization of facts.
Topics of Study
 Each
of the topics included in the Solar System
event will be introduced in the next series of slides.
 This series of slides may be used to introduce the
event to students who have expressed a desire to
participate in this event.
History and Formation of the Solar System

Image: Northrop Grumman Corporation
Much of our know-ledge
of how the solar system
was formed is gained
from direct observations
of objects within other
galaxies and solar
systems – both younger
and older.
History and Formation of the Solar System


Image: Pat Rawlings, NASA
The planets of the Solar
System formed from a
nebula of gas, dust, and
ices coalescing into a
dusty disk around the
evolving Sun.
Within the disk, tiny
dust grains and ices
coagulated into growing
bodies called
planetesimals.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Prominences
are dense
clouds of material
suspended above the
surface of the Sun by
loops of magnetic field.
 Prominences and
filaments are actually the
same objects, except
that promi-nences are
seen projecting out
above the limb of the
Sun.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Spicules
are small, jetlike eruptions.
 Spicules appear as short
dark streaks.
 Although spicules last
just a few minutes they
eject material off of the
surface and outward
into the hot corona at
speeds of 20 to 30 km/s.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Solar
flares are
tremendous explosions
on the surface of the
Sun.
 Solar flares occur near
sunspots between areas
of oppositely directed
magnetic fields.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Coronal
Mass Ejections
or (CMEs) are huge
bubbles of gas threaded
with magnetic field lines
that are ejected from
the Sun over the course
of several hours.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Coronal
Mass Ejections
disrupt the flow of the
solar wind and produce
disturbances that strike
the Earth with
sometimes catastrophic
results.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 Coronal
mass ejections
are often associated
with solar flares and
prominence eruptions
but they can also occur
in the absence of either
of these processes.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 The
Sun's core is the
central region where
nuclear reactions
consume hydrogen to
form helium.
 These reactions release
the energy that
ultimately leaves the
surface as visible light.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 The
radiative zone
extends outward from the
outer edge of the core to
the interface.
 The radiative zone is
characterized by its
method of energy
transport - radiation.
 Energy generated in the
core is carried by light
that bounces from particle
to particle through the
radiative zone.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 The
interface layer lies
between the radiative
zone and the convective
zone.
 The fluid motions found
in the convec-tion zone
slowly disappear from
the top of this layer to
its bottom where the
conditions match those
of the calm radiative
zone.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 It
is now believed that
the Sun's magnetic field
is generated by a
magnetic dynamo in the
interface layer.
 Changes in fluid flow
velocities across the
layer can stretch
magnetic field lines of
force and make them
stronger.
Objects of the Solar System: Sun
 The
convective zone is the
outermost layer of the
solar interior.
 It extends from a depth of
about 200,000 km right up
to the visible surface.
 Convective motions carry
heat to the surface.
 These motions are visible
at the surface as granules
and super-granules.
Objects of the Solar System: Planets
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
http://www.ccastronomy.org/tour_of_univers
e_tour.htm
According to the International
Astronomical Union (IAU), a
planet is a celestial body that:
Is in orbit around the Sun,
Has sufficient mass to assume a
hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly
round) shape, and
Has “cleared the neighbor-hood”
around its orbit.
This definition does not apply
outside the solar system.
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets




http://www.ccastronomy.org/tour_of_univers
e_tour.htm
According to the IAU, a dwarf
planet:
Is in orbit around the Sun
Has sufficient mass for its selfgravity to overcome rigid body
forces so that it assumes a
hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly
round) shape,
Has not “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbit, and
Is not a satellite of a planet, or
other nonstellar body.
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets

Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and
A. Feild (STScI).
There are currently five
official dwarf planets.
Pluto was demoted to
dwarf planet status.
Ceres, the largest
asteroid in the main
asteroid belt between
Mars and Jupiter, was
also declared a dwarf
planet.
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets



Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and
A. Feild (STScI).
The three other dwarf
planets are Eris, Make-make
and Haumea.
Pluto, Makemake and
Haumea orbit the Sun on
the frozen fringes of our
Solar System in the Kuiper
Belt.
Eris, a Trans-Neptunian
Object, is located even
further from the Sun.
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets
Haumea is a large Kuiper
Belt Object (KBO).
 It is an icy world that orbits
far from the Sun on the
frozen fringes of our Solar
System.
 Because it is so far away,
Haumea takes 285 years to
orbit the Sun once!
 Haumea is usually a bit
further from the Sun than
Pluto.

Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and
A. Feild (STScI).
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets


Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and
A. Feild (STScI).
What, do you suppose,
causes this dwarf planet’s
strange shape?
Which arrow, red or blue,
represents the object’s most
likely spin axis? Explain.
Objects of the Solar System: Dwarf Planets


Images courtesy of NASA, ESA, JPL, and
A. Feild (STScI).
What, do you suppose,
causes this dwarf planet’s
strange shape? Its rapid
rotation.
Which arrow, red or blue,
represents the object’s most
likely spin axis? Explain. Red.
It bulges outward the most
along this line.
Objects of the Solar System: Satellites


Planetary rings are
thought to have been
created when small
moons collided with
others, or ventured too
close to their parent
planet.
The resulting fragments
gradually spread out into
concentric orbits, breaking
into ever smaller
fragments through
repeated collisions,
eventually forming a ring
system.
Objects of the Solar System: Planets


Seasons
Extraterrestrial seasons are hardly noticeable on some
planets (Venus), extreme on others (Uranus), and in some
cases impossible to define (Mercury).
Planetary seasons result from two factors:
(1) axial tilt
(2) variable distance from the sun (orbital
eccentricity)
Objects of the Solar System: Planets
Climates

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Effects of atmospheres
Composition
Density
Orbital eccentricity
Distance from the Sun
Rotational rate
Axial tilt
Presence of surface liquids
Planetary size
Albedo
Solar wind
Objects of the Solar System: Planets
Tidal Effects
 The gravity of Jupiter
and its large moons yank
Io every which way.
 Io’s "solid ground" tides
are more than five times
as high as Earth’s highest
ocean tides!
Objects of the Solar System: Asteroids

The heaviest concentration of asteroids is in a
region lying between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter
called the asteroid belt.
Objects of the Solar System: Asteroids


The figure above shows the
asteroid Gaspra which was
investigated by the Galileo
spacecraft
Some 7000 asteroids have
been identified so far.
It is likely that the origin
of the asteroid belt lies in
the gravitational
perturbation of Jupiter,
which kept these
planetisimals from
coalescing into larger
bodies.
Objects of the Solar System: Asteroids


The Galileo spacecraft found a
surprise when it flew by the
asteroid Ida: Ida has a tiny moon,
which has been named Dactyl! The
small dot to the right of Ida is
Dactyl.

Asteroid orbit distributions
show evidence for Kirkwood
Gaps, which are certain orbital
radii within the asteroid belt
for which there are few
asteroids.
These gaps are associated with
orbital radii that lead to orbital
periods that are ratios of
integer multiples of Jupiter's
orbital radius.
They result from resonance
interactions with Jupiter that
tend to eject asteroids from
such orbits.
Objects of the Solar System: Meteoroids
A
meteoroid is matter revolving around the sun or any
object in interplanetary space that is too small to be
called an asteroid or a comet.
 Unofficially the size limit for an asteroid has been set at
50 meters; anything smaller than that is simply called a
meteoroid.
Objects of the Solar System: Comets
Information participants should know about comets:
 Composition: water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and
methane ices, with mixed-in dust
 Origins of short-period vs. long-period comets
 Parts: head, coma and tails: ion (gas) tail, dust tail
 Why they glow: reflection of light and gases being excited
by sunlight emitting electromagnetic radiation
 Disturbances that cause comets to leave their home in
the Kuiper belt or Oort Cloud … passing star, etc
 Influence of Jovian planets on their orbits
Objects of the Solar System: Comets
The center of a comet's head is called its nucleus.
The nucleus is a few kilometers across and is surrounded by a diffuse,
bright region called the coma that may be a million kilometers in
diameter.The coma is formed from gas and dust ejected from the nucleus
as it is heated by the Sun.
The coma is bright both because it reflects sunlight and because its
gases are excited by sunlight and emit electromagnetic radiation.
Objects of the Solar System: Comets
Short-period comets are the most common. They have only mildly
elliptical orbits that carry them out to a region lying from Jupiter to
beyond the orbit of Neptune. Illustrated: Location of Halley’s Comet
in the year 2024
Facts about the Asteroid Belt
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The total weight of all the
asteroids in the asteroid
belt is about 1/35th of that
of our moon!
Ceres, the largest asteroid,
is about 1/3 the total
weight of all the asteroids!
Even though there are a
lot of asteroids, the
asteroid belt is mostly
empty space.


Traveling through the
asteroid belt in a space
ship would not be very
much like what you see in
a science fiction film.
In addition to the belt
asteroids, there are others
based upon their location
and orbit in the solar
system: Apollo, Amors,
Atons, Trojan and
Centaurs.
Kuiper Belt
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Missions to Kuiper Belt: New
Horizons
After it flies past Pluto and
Charon, New Horizons will head
into the Kuiper Belt. It will be
the first spacecraft to explore
this mysterious region.
The Kuiper Belt is made
up of millions of icy and
rocky objects that orbit
our Sun beyond the orbits
of Neptune and Pluto.
Scientists think the gravity
of big planets like Jupiter
and Saturn swept all these
icy leftovers out to the
edge of our solar system.
Oort Cloud
 The
Oort Cloud is an
immense sphericallyshaped cloud surround-ing
our Solar System.
 The vast distance of the
Oort cloud is considered
to be the outer edge of
the Solar System.
A diagram comparing the size of the
Oort Cloud to the orbits of Uranus
and Pluto.
Lunar Eclipse
1. Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: The Moon passes through Earth's
penumbral shadow. This type of eclipse is difficult to detect.
2. Partial Lunar Eclipse: A portion of the Moon passes through
Earth's umbral shadow.
3.Total Lunar Eclipse: The entire Moon passes through Earth's
umbral shadow.
Solar Eclipses
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Image courtesy of NASA
A solar eclipse occurs
when the moon passes
in a direct line between
the Earth and the Sun.
The moon's shadow
travels over the Earth's
surface and blocks out
the Sun's light as seen
from Earth.
Solar Eclipses
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Image Courtesy of NASA
During a total solar
eclipse the entire central
portion of the Sun is
blocked out.
During a total solar
eclipse, the Sun's outer
atmosphere, the corona, is
visible.
Solar Eclipses
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Partial Solar Eclipse
If the penumbra passes
over you, only part of
the Sun's surface will be
blocked out.
You will see a partial
solar eclipse, and the sky
may dim slightly
depending upon how
much of the Sun's disc is
covered.
Solar Eclipses
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Annular Eclipse
Courtesy of NASA
In some cases, the moon
is far enough away in its
orbit that the umbra
never reaches the Earth at
all. In this case, there is no
region of totality, and what
you see is an annular solar
eclipse.
In an annular eclipse, only
a small, ring-like sliver of
light of the Sun’s disk is
visible. ("annular" means
"of a ring").
Lunar Phases
Lunar Phases
Planetary Phases
Inferior Planets
Explanation

The planets, as viewed in
the sky, exhibit
characteristic aspects
and phases. "Aspects"
refers to the location of
the planet with respect
to our overhead sky
reference;"phases"
refers to the fact that
the planets, through a
telescope, exhibit phases.
Planetary Phases
Superior Planets
Explanation

The aspects and
phases of the superior
planets differ from
those of the inferior
planets because of
geometry: their orbits
are outside that of the
Earth.
Planetary Phases
Possible Comparison Activity
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/celestial/aspects.html
Planetary Motions: Rotation
 The
time the Earth takes to make a complete rotation on
its axis varies by about a millionth of a second per day.
 While some days are shorter than average, the planet’s
rotation shows a long-term slowing trend, ultimately
leading to a longer day.
Planetary Motions: Precession

The Earth's rotation
axis is not fixed in
space. Like a rotating
toy top, the direction
of the rotation axis
executes a slow
precession with a
period of 26,000 years.
Planetary Motions: Precession

Pole Stars are Transient.
Thus, Polaris will not
always be the Pole Star or
North Star.The Earth's
rotation axis happens to be
pointing almost exactly at
Polaris now, but in 13,000
years the precession of the
rotation axis will mean
that the bright star Vega in
the constellation Lyra will
be approximately at the
North Celestial Pole, while
in 26,000 more years
Polaris will once again be
the Pole Star.
Planetary Motions:
Precession
Because of the
precession of the
equinoxes, the
vernal equinox
moves through all
the constellations
of the Zodiac over
the 26,000 year
precession period.
Presently the
vernal equinox is in
the constellation
Pisces and is slowly
approaching
Aquarius.
Kepler’s First Law of Planetary Motion
 The
path of the planets
about the sun are elliptical
in shape, with the center
of the sun being located at
one focus. (The Law of
Ellipses)
Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion
 The
line joining a planet to
the Sun sweeps out equal
areas in equal times as the
planet travels around the
ellipse.
Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion
 The
square of the total
time period (T) of the
orbit is proportional to
the cube of the average
distance of the planet to
the Sun (R). (The Law of
Harmonies)
Newton’s First Law of Motion

Every object in a state
of uniform motion
tends to remain in that
state of motion unless
an external force is
applied to it.

This law is recognized
as Galileo's concept of
inertia, and is often
termed simply as the
"Law of Inertia".
Newton’s Second Law of Motion

The relationship
between an object's
mass m, its acceleration
a, and the applied force F
is F = ma. Acceleration
and force are vectors (as
indicated by their
symbols being displayed
in slant bold font); in this
law the direction of the
force vector is the same
as the direction of the
acceleration vector.

This is the most
powerful of Newton's
three Laws, because it
allows quantitative
calculations of dynamics:
how do velocities change
when forces are applied.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion

For every action there
is an equal and
opposite reaction.

This law is explains the
flight of a rocket.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation: The Legend

What Really Happened with the Apple?
Newton, upon observing an apple fall from a tree,
began to think along the following lines:The apple is
accelerated, since its velocity changes from zero as it
is hanging on the tree and moves toward the ground.
Thus, by Newton's 2nd Law there must be a force that
acts on the apple to cause this accelera-tion. Let's call
this force "gravity", and the associated acceleration
the "acceleration due to gravity".Then imagine the
apple tree is twice as high. Again, we expect the apple
to be accelerated toward the ground, so this suggests
that this force that we call gravity reaches to the top
of the tallest apple tree.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation
Newton reasoned that if
the force of gravity
reaches to the top of the
highest tree, might it not
reach even further;
 In particular, might it not
reach all the way to the
orbit of the Moon!

Newton’s Law of Gravitation

Then, the orbit of the
Moon about the Earth
could be a consequence
of the gravitational force,
because the acceleration
due to gravity could
change the velocity of
the Moon in just such a
way that it followed an
orbit around the earth.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation

This can be illustrated with
the thought experi-ment
shown in the figure to the
left. Suppose we fire a
cannon horizontally from a
high mountain; the
projectile will eventually
fall to earth, as indicated by
the shortest trajectory in
the figure, because of the
gravitational force directed
toward the center of the
Earth and the associated
acceleration.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation

But as we increase the
muzzle velocity for our
imaginary cannon, the
projectile will travel
further and further before
return-ing to earth. Finally,
Newton reasoned that if
the cannon projected the
cannon ball with exactly
the right velocity, the
projectile would travel
completely around the
Earth, always falling in the
gravitational field but
never reaching the Earth,
which is curving away at
the same rate that the
projectile falls.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation

That is, the cannon ball
would have been put into
orbit around the Earth.
Newton conclud-ed that
the orbit of the Moon
was of exactly the same
nature: the Moon
continuously "fell" in its
path around the Earth
because of the acceleration due to gravity, thus
producing its orbit.
Newton’s Law of Gravitation

By such reasoning,
Newton came to the
conclusion that any
two objects in the
Universe exert
gravitational attraction
on each other, with the
force having a
universal form:
Newton’s Law of Gravitation

The constant of proportionality G is known as the
universal gravitational constant. It is termed a
"universal constant" because it is thought to be
the same at all places and all times, and thus
universally characterizes the intrinsic strength of
the gravitational force.

To continue your studies, go to:
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newtongrav.html
Effects of Planets and Their Satellites upon
each other: Tidal Lock
Tidal locking (or tidal
coupling) occurs when the
gravitational gradient makes
one side of an astronomical
body always face another.
 A tidally locked body takes
just as long to rotate around
its own axis as it does to
revolve around its partner.
 This synchronous rotation
causes one hemisphere
constantly to face the
partner body.

Effects of Planets and Their Satellites upon
each other: Tidal Lock
 Usually, only
the satellite
becomes tidally locked
around the larger planet,
but if the differ-ence in
mass between the two
bodies and their physical
separation is small, both
may become tidally locked
to the other, as is the case
between Pluto and
Charon.
Effects of Planets and Their Satellites upon each
other: Tidal Coupling and Gravitational Locking
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As a consequence of tidal interactions with the Moon, the
Earth is slowly decreasing its rotational period and
eventually the Earth and Moon will have exactly the same
rotational period, and these will also exactly equal the
orbital period.
Thus, billions of years from now the Earth will always
keep the same face turned toward the Moon, just as the
Moon already always keeps the same face turned toward
the Earth.
Effects of Planets and Their Satellites upon
each other: Shepherding

Cordelia and Ophelia, a
pair of shepherding
satellites on each side of
Epsilon ring of Uranus
keeps the ring particles in
place through resonant
gravitational forces.
Effects of Planets and Their Satellites upon
each other: Resonance
 Hyperion
and Titan are in
a 4:3 orbital reso-nance,
which means that Titan
orbits Saturn 3 times for
every 4 times Hyperion
orbits. As a result,
Hyperion gets periodic
"shoves" from Titan's
gravity as their orbits
match up.
Constellations
 Identification
of the constellations containing all planets
visible on the evening of the day of the competition,
either with the unaided eye or a telescope.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIVITY
Participants will attempt to identify and to place in
sequential order the series of events in the geologic
history of one or more small areas on the surface of a
planet or satellite.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIVITY
This is an imaginary
scene on Earth’s Moon.
Using the concept of
super-position, list the
events as they occurred,
by letter and in order,
from oldest to most
recent.
REPRESENTATIVE ACTIVITY
1. B, A, C
Event B is the oldest as it
is overlapped by event A.
Event C is the most
recent because it
overlaps Event A.
RESOURCES
 http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/products/sci_olym
piad/sci-olympiad_astro_geo.html
 http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/products/sci_olym
piad/sci_olympiad_geo.htm.
RESOURCES
 http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/products/sci_olym
piad/sci-olympiad_astro_geo.html
 http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/products/sci_olym
piad/sci_olympiad_geo.htm.
NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION
STANDARDS
Earth and Space Science, Content Standard D: Structure
of the Earth System; Earth’s History; Earth in the Solar
System.
Physical Science: Content Standard B: Motions and Forces;
Transfer of Energy
Recommended Websites

Astronomy 161: The Solar System
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/index.html

Solar Physics: The Sun
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/interior.shtml

Kepler’s Laws
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/a101_kepler.html