... The Earth was thought of as exact center of the solar system, and that other planets revolved around it. Through the efforts and determination of individuals who refused to believe unchecked facts or documents, Earth is not the center of the universe but is instead a small piece to a larger solar system. The discoveries made by earlier pioneers of science Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton. Developed ideas that help individuals understand the concepts of motion, and the formation of celestial bodies in space. Theories of gravity and space dramatically changed the views in which Individuals determine the origins of our Moon and other planets within our Solar System. As science and technologies progress, ideas of formations and motions in space provides more educated theories of how our world, or universe has formed and will continue to function. The Earth was formed about five billion years ago and is the earliest material in the solar system, which a solar nebula that collapsed from the formation of the sun ("How Did the Earth Form", 2012). Dust and gas from the solar nebula took about millions of years to form into the earth starting with center of the Earth to cool down and form a crust that allowed water to accumulate. The accumulation of water formed the oceans, which produced water vapor from asteroids and planets that collided with earth to form the atmosphere from gases and volcano activity. The best hypothesis in the “evolution of the Sun” is the...
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...Evolution Through the Solar System Abstract Over the course the class has been about many different things through our solar system, land features, and more. This week we had to put together a paper describing how evolution has taken place through our solar system. The main objectives of the paper are to include the formation of the planets, the motion of the planets, the early revolution. Also, discussed is the scientists who discovered these properties of our solar system. For example Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, and Kepler. These scientists have all created or in some way helped to discover something new about our solar system. Evolution Through the Solar System Though scientists have been studying the solar systems for years. There are still discoveries made each year. Many of the discoveries have been interesting from the formation and motion of the planets, the early revolution of the planets, and the scientists who discovered what we know today. Formation Scientists have been studying the origin of our solar system for hundreds of years. Some findings are well supported while others are not as well received. The best news is we are not done concluding the formation of our solar system just yet. In 2006, the distant ice-covered body known as Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf and changed the model of our solar system from nine planets to eight. Today a planet is defined as, “A full-fledged planet is an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have...
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...has searched for life in our solar system and outside of it for years. Speculation supporting and against the probability of life on other planets has been a subject of debate in the scientific word and beyond. The probability of life mathematically is extremely low even when all the elements of life are present. Stages of evolution and development needed to create life take time. This time that it takes to develop is difficult to come by in the Universe according to some scientist. To understand what it takes to produce life scientist look to life as it evolved on Earth for an example on how this occurs. Properties of Life on Earth Life refers to any living system that can maintain homeostasis, grow or have the capacity to do so, respond to environmental stimuli, reproduce in some manner, and adapt to environmental changes. Anything that can do these things is referred to as a living organism. Life on Earth consists of carbon forms. Carbon is a key component for all life that has naturally occurred on Earth. Molecules made of carbon bond with hydrogen, nitrogen, and mostly oxygen to make complex molecules. The substance carbon is in excess on Earth. It is easy for enzymes to move and manipulate carbon molecules due the size and the fact that they are lightweight. The most common elements found in living organisms on Earth are hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur, and carbon. Possibilities of Extraterrestrial Life in Our Solar System The possibility...
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...Comparative Essay: Original creation of the Earth PHSC 210, D03-LUO I. Introduction The old-Earth evolution and young-Earth creation debate has been one that has gone on for centuries. Each viewpoint seeks to give an answer to life’s most difficult questions or origins and how the Earth came to be what it resembles today. While the Young Earth viewpoint has remained constant and unchanged throughout the centuries the Old Earth view seems to be continually evolving as new discoveries tend to discredit previous assumptions. One certainty is that both viewpoints take a dogmatic stance against each other in regards to the interpretation of scientific evidence. The purpose of this paper is to compare old-Earth and young-Earth viewpoints on the original creation of the Earth. II. Old-Earth Secular View The old-Earth evolution viewpoint on the original creation of the Earth is the nebular hypothesis. This viewpoint gave birth to evolutionary thought concerning origins. “…the history of evolution did not begin in 1859 with Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species,’ but with the publication in 1796 of Pierre Simon Laplace’s so-called nebular hypothesis” (Numbers. 1977). This viewpoint suggests “About 4.6 billion years ago our solar system formed from a cloud of gas and dust which slowly contracted under the mutual gravity of all of its particles” (The Solar Nebula. N.d.). It is believed that this cloud of gas and dust was spinning at an accelerated rate and...
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...Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is approximately 143,000 kilometers (about 89,000 miles) wide at its equator. Jupiter is so large that all of the other planets in the solar system could fit inside it. More than 1,000 Earths would fit inside Jupiter. Jupiter is like a star in composition. If Jupiter had been about 80 times more massive, it would have become a star rather than a planet. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. Jupiter's average distance from the sun is 5.2 astronomical units, or AU. This distance is a little more than five times the distance from Earth to the sun. When viewed from Earth, it is usually the second brightest planet in the sky, after Venus. The planet is named after Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods. What Is Jupiter Like? Jupiter is a giant gas planet. Its atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen gas and helium gas, just like the sun. The planet's surface is covered in thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds. One of Jupiter's most famous features is the Great Red Spot. It is a giant spinning storm, resembling a hurricane. At its widest point, the storm is about three-and-a-half times the diameter of Earth. Jupiter is a very windy planet. Winds range from 192 mph to more than 400 mph. Jupiter has three thin rings. The rings were discovered in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft. Jupiter's rings are made up mostly of tiny dust particles. Jupiter rotates, or spins, faster than any other planet. One rotation equals...
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...Extra-Solar Planets and its Effects on Religion Scott R. Pelow ITT Technical College S. Slovik EN-1320: Composition one Throughout the history humankind has looked to the stars and wondered if they are alone in the universe. Only in the past few hundred years have humans had the means to start answering this timeless and most important of questions and now that humans have begun to discover extra-solar planets in their galactic neighborhood they may soon find out. The sheer mathematical probability since there are hundreds of billions of stars that populate the Milky Way galaxy. Since 1995, more than 200 extra-solar planets have been discovered, demonstrating not only are those planetary systems are common, but also that planets may come in a large variety of flavors. As the number of detections grows, statistical studies of the properties of exoplanets and their host stars can be conducted to unravel some of the key physical and chemical processes leading to the formation of planetary systems (Santos, 2008). The study of extra-solar planets has become one of the most active fields of research in astronomy since the discovery in 1995 of several giant planets orbiting nearby stars similar to the Sun. There have been many unexpected results, and the progress has been remarkable. More than 100 planets are now known, many of them in systems of two or more bodies orbiting the same star. In one case it has even been possible to detect the atmosphere of the planet as it transits...
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...Nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. The source of all the energy so generously radiated by the Sun does two things: it converts hydrogen into helium and it converts mass to energy.Sunspots are small areas that appear darker than their surrounding solar surface. Sunspot areas have strong magnetic field. Occasionally the strong magnetic field in a sunspot is overly twisted and decides to fire up like 'fire works'. Those 'fire works' are solar flares and they are above sunspots. Sunspots last for a bit shorter than a day to several days. Flares are much shorter and last for a few seconds to a few hours. Sunspots are temporary, relatively darker and relatively cooler spots in the sun's photosphere. They are typically of the size of an earth. A solar flare is a sudden, tremendous, explosive outburst of...
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...Extra-Solar Planets and its Effects on Religion Scott R. Pelow ITT Technical College S. Slovik EN-1320: Composition one Throughout the history humankind has looked to the stars and wondered if they are alone in the universe. Only in the past few hundred years have humans had the means to start answering this timeless and most important of questions and now that humans have begun to discover extra-solar planets in their galactic neighborhood they may soon find out. The sheer mathematical probability since there are hundreds of billions of stars that populate the Milky Way galaxy. Since 1995, more than 200 extra-solar planets have been discovered, demonstrating not only are those planetary systems are common, but also that planets may come in a large variety of flavors. As the number of detections grows, statistical studies of the properties of exoplanets and their host stars can be conducted to unravel some of the key physical and chemical processes leading to the formation of planetary systems (Santos, 2008). The study of extra-solar planets has become one of the most active fields of research in astronomy since the discovery in 1995 of several giant planets orbiting nearby stars similar to the Sun. There have been many unexpected results, and the progress has been remarkable. More than 100 planets are now known, many of them in systems of two or more bodies orbiting the same star. In one case it has even been possible to detect the atmosphere of the planet as it transits...
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...accuracy of how it was portrayed and whether living on Jupiter for a sustained period of time is realistic. Finally, I will wrap up by delving deeper into the black monolith. I will discuss the plausibility of the technology and the initial reaction to the technology from life on Earth. The ending of this film is entirely open to interpretation, ranging from an explanation for Darwinian evolution to strictly religious thoughts of God or gods. Personally, I saw the black monolith as some sort of super-advanced alien technology that served multiple purposes. The first purpose, which was seen in the “Dawn of Man” section of the movie, was to assist in the advancement of an intelligent race. The monolith first appeared to the primates, before some of the early Homo species had arose. Shortly after contact with the monolith, one group of primates began to use a bone as a weapon. With the newly found weapons, one group was able to defend the water hole from another group. This suggests that the monolith had somehow inspired, whether through some sort of telepathic thought transmission or simply through touching it, the apes to begin using tools. The monolith had instantly advanced the primates towards further evolution. This was seen again in the closing scene of the film as well. The sole surviving astronaut, Bowman, is shown in a mysterious room. The scene keeps advancing and he keeps aging. Finally, in his deathbed, the monolith appears again. This is where the film went from weird/vague...
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...first pictures of the Martian planet. Since then we have launched more than 40 spacecrafts to mars, from orbiters that fly by the atmosphere to landers that have been on the surface of Mars (“10 things to know about mars”) . Today we still continue to progressively learn and to explore the famous red planet. Mars is the same age as Earth. The whole solar system and everything in it was formed the same time, about 4.56 billion years ago. One of the greatest scientific questions is if there's life on Mars. Since scientists know that Earth and Mars both experienced similar weather conditions in early history, and life eventually happened on Earth. Therefore life may have begun on Mars too. The big question is if life did start their, then how did it die out? Maybe there is still life on Mars, and it’s buried underground where conditions may be less hostile. The only way to answers all these questions is to explore Mars. Scientist call comparisons between Earth and Mars analogs. Scientists say that even though, the two planets are mostly different when it comes to the atmosphere, temperature, size, and the geologic processes on the two planets. Surprisingly there are similarities between the two planets, also. An example is, on Mars there are volcanoes, channels, and basins that have been impacted just like the ones that are here on Earth. Since there are similarities scientists can study a certain part of the geologic features on Earth to learn about or even the...
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...Planetary geology This astronomical field examines the assemblage of planets, moons, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, and other bodies orbiting the Sun, as well as extrasolar planets. The solar system has been relatively well-studied, initially through telescopes and then later by spacecraft. This has provided a good overall understanding of the formation and evolution of this planetary system, although many new discoveries are still being made.[50] The black spot at the top is a dust devil climbing a crater wall on Mars. This moving, swirling column of Martian atmosphere (comparable to a terrestrial tornado) created the long, dark streak. NASA image. The solar system is subdivided into the inner planets, the asteroid belt, and the outer planets. The inner terrestrial planets consist of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The outer gas giant planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.[51] Beyond Neptune lies the Kuiper Belt, and finally the Oort Cloud, which may extend as far as a light-year. The planets were formed in the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the early Sun. Through a process that included gravitational attraction, collision, and accretion, the disk formed clumps of matter that, with time, became protoplanets. The radiation pressure of the solar wind then expelled most of the unaccreted matter, and only those planets with sufficient mass retained their gaseous atmosphere. The planets continued to sweep up, or eject, the remaining matter during a period...
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...Astronomy is a natural science that is the study of celestial objects (such as moons, planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies), thephysics, chemistry, mathematics, and evolution of such objects, and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth, including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic background radiation. A related but distinct subject, cosmology, is concerned with studying the universe as a whole.[1]Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures left behind astronomical artifacts such as the Egyptian monuments andNubian monuments, and early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.[2]During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, which is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields...
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...For thousands of years, humans have observed the patterns of the sun and the night sky, giving importance and meaning to their findings in many different ways. The earliest humans used no more than their naked eyes to track the activity of the sky above them. Today, scientists are able to look at areas of space billions of light years away using equipment like the Hubble Space Telescope. The evolution of these astronomical technologies was no simple feat - the development of this scientific field can be credited to a countless number of people who, over hundreds of years, spent their time straining their necks to look up at our sky. The sun is the center of our solar system, but that does not mean that it was always central to the beliefs...
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...the processes occurring on Earth today are very similar in manner as those throughout much of geologic times. In other words “the present is the key to the past.”(Murck, B. W., Skinner, B. J., & Mackenzie, D. (2010)). When looking at past geological events and occurrences that happened in the past with additions of new testing and technology they can predict when and if volcanic eruptions may occur, meteorite impacts and their damages, and if plate shifts will occur resulting in earthquakes. Scientists rate the earthquakes on a scale based on how damaging they are. 5. In what ways do geologic processes affect your daily life? Daily activities including the water we drink or the tress we plant to help prevent and control soil erosion are a part of geologic processes. Earth materials and processes affect our lives through our dependence on Earth resources; through geologic hazards such as volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes; and through the physical properties of the natural environment (Murck, B. W., Skinner, B. J., & Mackenzie, D. (2010)). Understanding Earth’s materials is important because we depend on its resources for building, soil for agricultural needs, energy resources, the air we breathe, and water needed to sustain life. Earth’s natural resources are not all unlimited some or many need management and conservation because they are not infinite. Chapter 2 1. When astronauts brought back rock samples from the Moon, the minerals present were...
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...Although we have no confirmation of life beyond earth, the odds of earth having the only sign of life in our Universe is slim. The Universe is too large and ever expanding to know what life can be found beyond Earth if any. For years we have studied our planet Earth, we have tried to understand its climate, atmosphere its lands and oceans. We try to understand how life as we know only exists on earth. This study is now known as Geology. Earth is the 3rd planet from the Sun at a distance of about 150 million kilometers It takes 365.2 days for the Earth to travel around the Sun and 23.9 hours for the Earth to rotate a complete revolution. It has a diameter of 12,756 kilometers, only a few hundred kilometers larger than that of Venus. Our atmosphere is composed of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other constituents. It is believed that life began on earth about 4.6 billion years ago. Scientist believe that comets and meteorites could have contributed to life on earth by depositing carbon based molecules into the atmosphere. Nitrogen and oxygen in another form can create water. Water is the most essential part of life. It is no surprise that water covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface. According to How stuff works (n.d.), “Water is on a constant cycle, it evaporates from the ocean, travels through the air, rains down on the land and then flows back to the ocean” (para. 1). Earth maintains the correct balance of elements to sustain...
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