OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Natural Science Department
Earth and Life Science

The Universe and Solar System

A. Origin of the Earth
- The earth and other planets were formed at the same time according to the beliefs of
many researchers.
Ancient Astronomy
- The Greeks used basic geometry and t r i g o n o m e t r y to measure the sizes and
distances of the largest appearing bodies in heavens, the Sun and the Moon.
- They believed that the earth is at the center of the universe and it is sphere-shape. The
moon, the sun, and the planets are revolving around the earth.

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+planet&client

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 The Greek Philosophers
1. Anaxagoras stated that because the moon is sphere –shape; thus, it shines by
only half reflected sunlight at one time.
2. Aristotle made the conclusion that the earth is spherical because it always casts a
curved shadow w h e n it eclipses the moon.
3. Aristarchus the scientist who professed the heliocentric, (Helios=Sun, centric
=centered).
4. Hipparchus determined the location of almost 850 stars which he divided into six groups
according to their brightness. He measured the length of the year to within minutes of
the modern value and developed a method for predicting the times of lunar eclipses
within a few hours.
5. Claudius Ptolemy presented the geocentric outlook of the Greeks in its most sophisticated
model that became known as Ptolemaic system.

Geocentric (Ptolemaic system)

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+planet&client

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 Modern Astronomy
This was developed from religious and philosophical ideas of the great scientists.

Five Scientists
1. Nicolaus Copernicus – adapted the scientific theory of heliocentrism, stating that the
motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center
of the universe.
2. Tycho Brahe – expressed the idea of stellar parallax that if the earth does revolve along
an orbit around the Sun, the position of the stars near to it, when observed from extreme
points in Earth‘s orbit six months apart, should shift with respect to the more distant stars.
3. Johannes Kepler – derived the three basic laws of planetary motion.
 The path of the planets about the sun is elliptical in shape, with the center of the
sun being located at one focus. (The Law of Ellipses)
 An imaginary line drawn from the center of the sun to the center of the planet will
sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time. (The Law of Equal Areas)
 The ratio of the squares of the periods of any two planets is equal to the ratio of
the cubes of their average distances from the sun. (The Law of Harmonies)
4. Gallileo Galilei – greatest contribution was his first description of the moving objects.
5. Sir Isaac Newton – conceptualized the force of gravity.

Universe is described as an enormous empty space that holds small particle to the biggest
galaxy. Scientists believe that about 13.7 billion years ago the big explosion happened
that set the universe into motion which is known as Big Bang explosion.

Solar System
- The Solar System is defined as group of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.

- The Solar Nebula Theory is the model constrained in the formation of the solar
system which includes the motions of the planets, compositions and ages of the
sun, planets, and meteorites.

Theories of the Origin of Solar System

1. Nebular Hypothesis – states that hydrogen and other gases swirled around and condensed
into our sun and its planets.
2. Fission Theory – according to George Darwin, he stated that the sun burst open and planets
and moons shot out a high speeds and went to their respective places, then stopped, and
started orbiting the sun as the moon began orbiting the planets. The moon lifted out from
the Pacific Ocean on a high tide and began orbiting the Earth.
3. Capture Theory – planets and moons were flying around, and some were captured by our
sun and began circling.
4. Accretion Theory – a pile of space dust and rock chunks pushed together into our planet,
and another pile pushed itself into our moon. Then the moon got close enough and began
encircling the Earth.

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 5. Planetary Collision Theory – our world collided with small planet, and the explosion threw
off rocks which became the moon, and then it began orbiting us.
6. Stellar Collision Theory – our planets, moons, and suns spuns off from the collision
between stars.
7. Gas Cloud Theory – gas clouds were captured by our sun but instead of being drawn into it,
they began whirling and pushing themselves into planets and moons.

Types of Planets

1. Terrestrial planets are composed of rock, metals, with high densities, slow in
rotation, with weak magnetic field and absence of rings; namely, Mercury, Venus, Earth,
and Mars.

2. Jovian planets are composed of gases, with low densities but fast in rotation, have
strong magnetic field and has many rings namely, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Sun is referred as the star at the center of the solar system.

The Regions of the Sun

1. The Photosphere occupies the interior surface and includes the special features like
sunspot, granulation, faculae, and pores.
2. The Chromosphere is the middle layer and includes the special features like
prominences and flares.
3. The Atmosphere or corona is the outermost layer and its interesting feature is the
coronal hole.
- It is composed of carbon or iron and rocky materials. It remains in the Asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter

The Asteroid belt refers to the group of rocks that appears to have never joined to form the
planet.
- According to astronomers, there are three asteroids that hit the Earth every one million
years.
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- When an asteroid crashes the Earth, the part is known as meteoroids.

Source: http://www.kontextua.com/.

Meteors
- It refers to small interplanetary rocks smaller than asteroids.
- When the meteoroid burns in the earth‘s atmosphere it is called meteors. These
are rocky materials mainly made up of iron and nickel.
- One of the interesting features is the meteor; shower which is the result of the
earth passing through the orbit of the comet, which has left debris along the path.
Comets
- It refers to dirty snowballs of dust and rock in methane, ammonia, and ice

Source: http://study.com/academy.
Asteroids
- These are thousands of small planet like bodies, ranging in size from a few hundred
kilometers to less than a kilometer, whose orbits lie mainly between those Mars and
Jupiter.

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 Source: daytondailynews.com

Source: http://www.bigbangcentral.com/theory_page.html
History of the Universe

The Big Bang Theory

Many scientists considered this theory to be the most scientifically correct explanation
of how the universe was generated through a ―Big Bang.
The Big Bang Hypothesis states that all current and past matter in the universe
came into existence at the same time about thirteen point eight billion years ago. All
matters were compacted into a very small ball with infinite density and intense
heat known as Singularity. About 15 billion years ago, a cataclysmic explosion occurred,
hurling the material in all directions. The big bang marks the inception of the universe; all
matter and space were created at that instant. The ejected masses of gas cooled and

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condensed, forming the stars that compose the galactic systems we now observe fleeing
from their birthplace.
Astronomy
It is a natural science of celestial body, such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids,
comets and nebulae, and processes, the physics, chemistry, and evolution of such objects
and all phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of the Earth.

Three Branches of Astronomy:

1. Astrophysics is a branch of astronomy that studies the physical nature of stars
and other celestial bodies.

2. Celestial Mechanics deals with the calculation of the motions of celestial

objects such as planets.

3. Cosmology deals with the study of the origin and development of the universe.

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Telescope
A telescope is an optical instrument that helps magnifies distant object. It
also collects and focuses light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation.

Types of Telescope
1. Refracting telescope this was invented by Galileo. It provides view by
looking through a lens or series of lenses that focus on one eyepiece.

Source: binoculas.net

2. Reflecting Telescope. This was invented by Sir Isaac Newton. It provides

view by focusing light through a concave mirror.

Source: http://binoculas.net/refracting-and-reflecting-telescope.