foundations of astronomy science and religion in schools project - unit 4a the scientific account of...
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Foundations of Astronomy
Science and Religion in Schools Project - Unit 4aThe Scientific Account of the Beginning
The Sun
Ball of super-hot gas Core temperature 16 million
degrees ºC Roughly 4.5 billion years old Will last another 4.5 billion
years A very typical star
The Solar System
In this image, the planets are in the correct order The relative sizes of the planets is about right, but the
distances are not The Sun is the arc on the far left!
Mercury 0.4 times Earth’s diameter No atmosphere worth mentioning Surface temperature 1700C on
average Mercury rotates two times for
every three orbits round the Sun Takes 88 days to orbit the Sun Distance from the Sun is about
0.4 times that of Earth
Venus Clouds are too thick to see the
surface Venus is bright as these clouds
reflect a lot of the sun’s light Surface of Venus is hot (4600C) Atmospheric pressure is about 90
times that on Earth Surface features only ‘seen’ by
radar
Guess where?
Meteorites
Lumps of rock from space that generally burn up in the atmosphere
Some large ones make it to the surface and can cause damage
The Moon
Orbits the Earth No atmosphere Some water, as ice Craters due to being hit
by meteorites Probably made when a
giant meteor hit the Earth and blasted part of the crust into space
Phases of the Moon
Moon keeps the same face to the Earth
Time it takes to turn on its axis, same as the time taken to orbit Earth
Phases dependent on how much of the Moon visible from Earth is lit by the Sun
Mars
Atmosphere is carbon dioxide Atmospheric pressure is
0.75% of Earth’s Smaller than Earth, but about
the same size of land area Being well explored by
unmanned probes
Martian Surface
Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is the large volcano in the top left
The pale features are clouds drifting over the region
Jupiter
Largest planet in the solar system
Composed entirely of gas Black dot is the shadow of
Europa Large red dot is a hurricane
- bigger than Earth 11 times the diameter of
Earth and a thousand times more massive
Saturn
Beautiful gas giant Nearly as big as Jupiter Ring system can clearly be
seen from Earth with even a small telescope
Saturn’s rings
Complex structure of rings Large gap is the Cassini
division
The F ring contains shepherd moons
The Moons lap each other every 25 days
Can cause the rings to be ‘braided’
Uranus True colour image from Voyager 2
makes Uranus seem bland Infra-red image from the Hubble
Space telescope shows more activity and the thin ring system
Hubble image shows cloud structure
Also that Uranus rotates on it side - so it ‘rolls’ around the Sun, unlike the other plants
Neptune Final gas giant Similar in size to Uranus Great dark spot was thought to be
a storm system, but could be a ‘hole’ like the hole in Earth’s ozone layer
High altitude ‘wispy’ clouds can also be seen
Pluto Pluto’s orbit crosses that of Neptune Also highly angled with respect to the other planets Pluto’s moon Charon was discovered in 1978
New planet? Discovered on 14 November 2003 Far beyond Pluto Orbit yet to be worked out Status as a planet to be determined
(is it big enough?) Provisionally called Sedna, the Inuit
goddess of the sea, who was believed to live in the cold depths of the Arctic Ocean
The Milky Way
Andromeda Galaxy Nearest galaxy to the Milky Way Still about 2 million light years away In about 3 billion years, Andromeda
will collide with our galaxy Can be seen with the naked eye on
a dark night
Deep Field One of the most important
pictures ever taken Hubble space telescope Try to count the number of
galaxies! This patch of sky could easily
be covered by the end of your finger at arm’s length