As a nebula contracts, what happens to the particles?
- Particles collide with colossal force
2. Igniting a nuclear reaction and forming a protostar
What begins as huge clouds of dust and other particles?
Nebulas
When a protostar transforms into an adult star, what happens to the star and its fuel?
The star converts its fuel into more massive elements and compounds and becomes denser
- star’s own gravity is pulling in *
- # star is also pushing out *Balance
When the gravity pushing on the star overpowers the outward push of the star what happens? What can it become and why?
The star collapses
Based on mass & other factors becomes either:
- Brown dwarf - fizzled out
- White dwarf
- Neutron star
- Nova - star exploded all over galaxy
- Black hole - pulling light & trapping it
What is the solar system made up of?
Due to what?
What are the planets & other objects?
Numerous bodies which orbit the sun due to centrifugal force
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
Other objects include:
- Asteroids
- Comets
- Meteors
What is centrifugal force?
The balance between
inertia- wants to continue in a straight line indefinitely a pull the body away from the sun
&
gravity - wants to pull the star or body towards the sun
What do they call Jupiter & Saturn?
What do they have special?
Gas super-giants
Many moons
What are asteroids, comets, & meteors?
- Asteroids - chunks of rock orbiting in a belt around the solar system
* asteroid belt* - Comets - chunks of ice and rock
Comet tail - ice breaking away - Meteors - chunks of rock that strike a planet
* * usually meteors burn up in the atmosphere (shooting star)
Why does the moon have many more craters than earth?
The moon has no atmosphere, so the meteors crash right into it
cannot burn up
What is a galaxy?
What is our galaxy and what is its shape?
- Galaxies are huge clusters of billions of stars
2. The Milky Way galaxy is shaped like a spiral disk with several long arms
Where is solar system located ?
In one of the arms of the milky way
- when we look up we see a white strip
- there are so many stars in that strip you cant make out individual ones