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Understanding Solar System Formation, Planetary Structure, and Celestial Bodies

Explore the solar nebula, planetary motions, origin of asteroids and comets, extra-solar planets, terrestrial worlds, atmospheric composition, geology, Jovian planets, meteorites, dwarf planets, and cosmic collisions.

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Understanding Solar System Formation, Planetary Structure, and Celestial Bodies

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  1. Review 2 • What was the solar nebula? • What was it made of? • How did gravitational collapse affect the Solar nebula? • How does conservation of energy and angular momentum effect solar system formation? • What are the orderly motions of the planets? • What produced the orderly motion we observe in the Solar System today? • How do we explain the exceptions to the orderly motions? • What key fact explains why there are two types of planet?

  2. What is the origin of asteroids and comets? • How old is the Solar System and how do we know? • What are chondrules? • What is the frostline? • What is the soot line? • What are two ways to detect extra-solar planets? • What is different about most of the extra-solar planets detected so far? • What is the Kepler mission? • How can we determine is an extra-solar planet has life?

  3. Describe the basic interior structures of the terrestrial worlds. • How do the interiors of terrestrial planets get hot? • What happens during planetary differentiation? • Why is planetary size so important to internal heat and geology? • What drives plate tectonics on Earth? • How did the lunar maria form? • What was the composition of the original atmospheres of Earth, Venus, and Mars? • What is an El Nino and why should you care?

  4. What evidence suggests a past warm and wet period on Mars? • How did Mars lose much of its early atmosphere? • Is there water on Mars now? Where? • What causes deserts? • How many Hadley cells are there from the equator to the pole? • Why are there hurricanes? • Why don’t hurricanes form off the equatorial coast of South America? • How do you use craters to determine the age of planetary surfaces?

  5. Why isn’t there much erosion on Venus? • What happened to Venus about 500-800 million years ago? • What are the surfaces of Venus and Mercury composed of? • Is Venus still geologically active? • Why is Venus so hot? • What is the greenhouse effect? • Compare the greenhouse effect on Venus, Earth, & Mars. • How do gyres effect hurricanes? • What are the 4 unique features of Earth that are important to human life? • How was the Moon created?

  6. What creates global wind patterns? • Why are there deserts? • How does rotation effect the creation of Hadley cells? • How is the Earth’s atmosphere different now then it was 4 billion years ago? • How does the CO2 cycle promote climate stability on Earth? • What happened to most of the CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere? • Why isn’t Florida a desert? • What are monsoons?

  7. What are the major features of the Jovian planets? • Why are Jovian planets so different from terrestrial planets? • What are the main elements of Jovian Planets? • Jupiter and Saturn are about the same size, but much different mass….why? • Do Jovian planets have Hadley cells? • What is the Great Red Spot? • How do other Jovian atmospheres compare to Jupiter’s?

  8. Why can active geology occur on much smaller worlds when they are made of ice rather than rock? • Why do we suspect a subsurface ocean on Europa? • What makes Io so volcanically active? • Describe Saturn’s rings. • How can planets migrate? • How does conservation of momentum factor into planetary migration? • Which Jovian planets have ring systems?

  9. What is the difference between a meteorite and a meteor? • How do other ring systems compare to Saturn’s? • What is the origin of planetary rings? • How do you identify a meteorite? • Why are so few meteorites found in Florida? • What are resonances in the asteroid belt? • What is a Dwarf Planet? • How do impacts effect the Earth and the evolution of species?

  10. Why are there no large asteroid belts outside of Jupiter and inside of the Kuiper Belt? • What is the composition of comets? • What happens to a comet as it approaches the Sun? • How do we know that vast numbers of comets reside in the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt? • What is the difference between the plasma tail and the dust tail? • Why don’t Pluto and Neptune collide? • Is Pluto a Kuiper belt object? • Do asteroid/comets still collide with Earth?

  11. For a water-rich super-Earth what would happen to most of its 2000 kilometer thick ocean? • How does the Earth’s magnetic field protect the atmosphere? • For an iron and rock super-Earth what would happen to mantle convection, plate tectonics, and plate motions? • What are three ways that a planet can lose atmosphere? • Why has Mars lost more atmosphere than the Earth? • How does life effect the type of minerals you see on Earth? • What was the Red Earth period and why? • Why do small, dry worlds like Mercury and the moon possess simple surfaces of low mineral diversity?

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