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 become round due to the force of its gravity. In addition, the planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit” (Mason, 2006). So how did the planets get here?
The best theory we have today to answer this question is called the Nebula Hypothesis. Our sun and our planets were formed from a rotating cloud of cosmic gas. This cloud was most likely created from a supernova explosion. This cloud contained numerous minerals and materials like hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, iron and silica. Like a giant blender the mixing action was occurring because of the non-stop motion creating friction, energy and heat. As everything came into contact like properties accumulated and the elements fuzzed together. This formed what we know as our solar system today over millions of years.
Our solar system is truly amazing. Did you know it is made up of 88 objects total:
▪ 1 Star
▪ 4 Giant gas Jovian planets
▪ 4 Rocky and dense terrestrial planets
▪ 3 Dwarf planets
▪ 21 Moons
▪ 4 Asteroids
▪ 51 Trans-Neptunian objects
Motion
Formation of our planets is directly related to the motion that started the creation of a planet/star to the sustained motion that supports them today. Some consider the constant spinning motion to be the origin of gravity. “By unifying all motion, Newton shifted the scientific perspective to a search for large, unifying patterns in nature” (Riebeek, 2009). Newton came up with three basic laws related to motion.
▪ A moving object will not change speed or direction; nor will an object start moving until an outside force has influence on it.
▪ F=MA. The amount of force is only equal to the changes in motion/acceleration of an object factored by its mass or size.
▪ For every action there is always an opposed reaction.
Early Evolution
Our sun’s atmosphere has many layers but remains constant over millions of years. The deepest layer is the photosphere and is approximately 300 miles thick and is the layer that provides our primary source of light. The next level is the chromosphere and is where the super-heated hydrogen burns off. Finally the corona is where the ionized gas is emitted into space in the form of solar winds. The earth’s atmosphere however has gone through several phases and early on was rich with hydrogen, methane and water vapors. Later with some stability on the earth’s surface additional elements like nitrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and a consistent water cycle were key in achieving the atmosphere we enjoy today. Scientists also have discovered the earth’s early atmosphere was relatively free of oxygen. Early rock formations were rich in iron and uranium; these minerals are not as prevalent in younger rocks say less than 3 billon year old.
Motion Involves Formation
In the formation of the solar system, there are two types of movement or motions. They are the retrograde motion and the prograde motion. Prograde is in a circular motion and retrograde is in the direction opposite of the prograde direction. The planets and other small bodies of the solar system generally move west-to-east through the stars which is the prograde motion, however every now and then, the direction change and they move east to west which is the retrograde motion.
When planets, solar systems or even galaxies form, the material forms in the shape of a disk. Most of this material move or rotate in one direction. This unchanging motion is a result of the breakdown of the gas clouds. The reason for this breakdown can be explained by a source called the conservation of angular momentum. "The conservation of angular momentum is the moment of force or thrust (astropos, 2014)."
"As discovered in 2010 in reference to the formation of planetary systems, stars, planets and other space objects do not form in isolation but in star clusters which contain molecular clouds and when a protoplanetary disk crashes with or takes material from a cloud this can result in retrograde motion of a disk and the resulting planets (zebu, 2014)."
"Asteroids, comets, meteroriods, and Kuiper belt are all small bodies in the solar system. They provide insight into planet Earth and the formation and evolution of the solar system (zebu, 2014)."
Motion
There are interesting properties of motion when it comes to our planets that are called: 1. Prograde motion – The planets usually move west to east through the stars. 2. Retrograde motion – Periodically the motion changes and they move east to west through the stars. “The appearance of retrograde motion would result from differences between the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun and the time it takes any other planet to orbit the Sun (Merali & Skinner, 2009, Chapter 17).”
It was first thought that the universe revolved around the Earth by watching the Sun rising and setting while Earth stood still. Those who believed this theory argued that the universe was geocentric, which means that the unmoving Earth is at the center while all other planets and stars rotate around it. It was not until astronomer Nicolai Copernicus suggested a different idea of the Heliocentric System; the Sun is the center of the Solar System, not the Earth. Although Copernicus was correct with the fact that we live in a heliocentric universe, it was a German mathematician Johannes Kepler who suggested that a force keeps the planets moving around the Sun. According to Merali and Skinner (2009), Kepler determined three laws that explain planetary motion: 1. The motions of the planets are ecliptic, with the Sun at one focus. (The law of ellipses) 2. An imaginary line is drawn from the midpoint of the Sun to the midpoint of the planet sweeps out an equal area in equivalent intervals of time. (The law of Equal Areas) When a planet is near the sun, it moves faster, but slower when it is far from the sun. 3. The square of the orbital dated in years is related to the cube of the planet’s average distance from the Sun for any planet (Chapter 17).
All of the facts stated are very interesting because they suggest that the planets in our Solar System formed as a single entity rather than individual planets.
Discoveries
Copernicus
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who studied the universe and is known as the founder of modern astronomy. He concluded, based on research that the Sun was the center of our Solar System and not the Earth Centered Universe that was the beliefs of Aristotle and Ptolemy. He had a model called the heliocentric system (see below) which we use today in relating the placement of our planets to the sun. Copernicus came to this conclusion based on the daily rotation of the Earth with regards to night and day compiled with data from a yearlong journaling of the movements of the Earth along with the eclipse (Copernicus, 2014). (csep10, 2014)

Kepler
Kepler was known in astronomy circles as having three scientific laws regarding the Sun and the planets moving around it. Those three laws (known as the Laws of Planetary Motion) are: 1. The sun is the focus point of which the planets move in a squashed circle around, which is offset from the center. 2. That when you draw a line between the sun and a planet, which the planet orbits over equal areas during equal elements of time. 3. There is a mathematical relationship between the time it takes to move around the sun and its distance from the sun (Earth, 2014)
Kepler who had the same vision as Copernicus with regards to the planets, went one step further that his observation of the planets. He was the creator of the philosophy that the planets had an orbit and set about proving that. Using astronomical records that he obtained from his mentor, Brahe, after his death Kepler set about proving the circular orbit of Mars using the three laws.
Galileo
Galileo made discoveries through the first built telescope. Galileo confirmed the heliocentric model that Copernicus had discovered. In Galileo’s time he had discovered the moons seas, Jupiter’s moons, and even starts. Also, Galileo in his time discovered the speed of light, in which he placed lanterns a mile apart from one another (Stanford Solar Center, 2010).
Newton
Newton is the physist who came up with the three laws of motion. The first is inertia, the second is the relationship of force and an object, and the third is there is always an equal force pushing back. Newton also discovered gravity, in his eyes he knew that the apple did not fall from the moon (Zimmerman Jones, 2014).
Conclusion
Knowing the four who discovered different portions of the solar system helps to understand many situations. For example, the philosophy of a planets orbit to understanding the three laws of motion. Today many of these discoveries are in textbooks along with discoveries that have been made in the last 20 years. Understanding just how planets were created, the laws of motion, and how motion involves formation will help one understand the solar system.

References
Copernicus, Nicholas." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved from <http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nicholas_Copernicus.aspx#sthash.RbXFZvFb.dpuf>
Earth Observatory. (2014). The Science: Orbital Mechanics. Retrieved from <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OrbitsHistory/page2.php>
Inman, Mason. (2006). Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule. National Geographic. Retrieved from <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060824-pluto-planet.html>
Lecture 13: The Nebular Theory of the origin of the Solar System. (2014). Retrieved from <http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/teaching/nats102/mario/solar_system.html>
Merali, Z., & Skinner, B. J. (2009). Visualizing Earth Science.
Retrieved from The University Of Phoenix eBook Collection.
Planetary Motions. (2014). Retrieved from <http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/121/lecture-2/planet.html>
Stanford Solar Center. (2010). Who was Galileo?. Stanford Solar Center. Retrieved from <http://solar-center.stanford.edu/galileo/>
The Copernican Model: A sun-Centered Solar System. (2014). [Photograph]. Retrieved from <http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/retrograde/copernican.html>
Zimmerman Jones, Andrew. (2014). Newton’s Law of Gravity. About Education. Retrieved from <http://physics.about.com/od/classicalmechanics/a/gravity.htm>