LECTURE- 3

ORIGINS OF UNIVERSE, SOLAR SYSTEM & EARTH

Dr. Krishnanand
OUR UNIVERSE
 CULTURAL THEORIES OF ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE

Abrahamic Region:

The universe of the ancient Israelites was made up of a flat disc-shaped earth floating on
water, heaven above, underworld below.

Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was
morally neutral;

According to Christianity, the Earth had been created by God and would be destroyed before
the Final Judgement. Time was lineal and progressive since the creation until the coming of
Christ to redeem mankind. However, nature was essentially static and unchanging, as
instructed in the Bible.
Indian Religion:

Buddhism:

In Buddhism, like other Indian religions, there is no ultimate

beginning nor final end to the universe. It considers all existence
as eternal, and believes there is no creator god.

Buddhism views the universe as impermanent and always in

flux.

This cosmology is the foundation of its Samsara theory, that

evolved over time the mechanistic details on how the wheel of
mundane existence works over the endless cycles of rebirth and
redeath.
Hindu:

The Hindu cosmology, like the Buddhist and Jain cosmology, considers all existence as
cyclic. With its ancient roots, Hindu texts propose and discuss numerous cosmological
theories. Hindu culture accepts this diversity in cosmological ideas and has lacked a
single mandatory view point even in its oldest known Vedic scripture, the Rigveda.

Alternate theories include a universe cyclically created and destroyed by god, or

goddess, or no creator at all, or a golden egg or womb (Hiranyagarbha), or self-
created multitude of universes with enormous lengths and time scales.
The Vedic literature includes a number of cosmology speculations, one of which questions
the origin of the cosmos and is called the Nasadiya sukta:

Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed? And where? And in whose
protection ? Who really knows?
Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation? The devas (gods)
were born later than this world's creation,
so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has
arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it.
He who surveys it in the highest heavens,

He alone knows or perhaps He does not know." —Rig Veda 10. 129
Time is conceptualized as a cyclic Yuga with trillions of years. In some models, Mount Meru
plays a central role (also in Buddhism and Jainism).

Beyond its creation, Hindu cosmology posits divergent theories on the structure of the
universe, from being 3 lokas to 12 lokas (worlds) which play a part in its theories about
rebirth, samsara and karma.

The complex cosmological speculations found in Hinduism and other Indian religions, states
Bolton, is not unique and are also found in Greek, Roman, Irish and Babylonian
mythologies, where each age becomes more sinful and of suffering.
SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING & THEORIES OF ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE
Almost all the theories of development of universe are based on the astronomical
observation “RED SHIFT”

WHAT IS RED SHIFT ?

1. If the Star is moving towards the observer its light is shifted to the BLUE END of the
Spectrum

2. If it is shifted toward Red End when it is away from observer.

This known as Doppler Effect or Red Shift

The term MULTIVERSE was coined by
American philosopher William James in 1895
to refer to the confusing moral meaning of
natural phenomena and not to other possible
universes.

The most well-developed model of a

multiverse of proliferating space-times is
based on the idea of cosmological inflation.

Inflation is a hypothetical process of the

early universe in which space-time would
have expanded exponentially at a much
faster rate than at present.
 GALAXIES
A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE KNOWN GALAXIES BRINGS OUT AND MAJOR FORMS:
SPIRAL, ELLIPTICAL AND IRREGULAR.

The MILKY WAY and ANDROMEDA GALAXIES - SPIRAL GALAXIES.

THE NAME MILKY WAY DUE TO –

BRIGHT BAND OF LIGHT THAT RUNS THROUGH IT.

MILKY WAY BELONGS TO A CLUSTER OF SOME 24 GALAXIES CALLED “THE LOCAL

GROUP”.
Recently there was an experiment called “Large Hadron Collider”
(LHC)

The Large Hadron Collider is located at CERN, the European

Organization for Nuclear Research, near Geneva, Switzerland.

IT CONSISTS OF
A 27-KILOMETRE RING OF SUPERCONDUCTING MAGNETS
ACCELERATING STRUCTURES TO BOOST THE ENERGY OF THE PARTICLES
It revealed that Big Bang was not the initial point of universe but one among many
incidents occurred then.
Universe was not formed at 15 billion years from now but was exist much before
that.
WHAT IS THE DISTANCE OF GALACTIC NUCLEUS FROM THE SUN?

32,000 LIGHT YEARS

WHAT IS THE DENSITY OF OUR GALAXY?

IT IS OF THE ORDER OF A MILLION STARS PER CUBIC PARSEC.
STAR CLOSEST TO OUR SUN IS PROXIMA CENTAURI.
 What is Light Year?
DISTANCE TRAVELLED BY LIGHT IN ONE YEAR

NEARLY 6 MILLION MILES (9.4607 × 1012 KM)

1 Parsec = 3.26 light-years

THEORIES OF THE EVOLUTION
The Steady Sate theory: In cosmology, a view that the universe is always expanding but
maintaining a constant average density, with matter being continuously created to form
new stars and galaxies at the same rate that old ones become unobservable as a
consequence of their increasing distance and velocity of recession. A steady-state universe
has no beginning or end in time, and from any point within it the view on the grand scale
— i.e., the average density and arrangement of galaxies—is the same.

The theory was first put forward in 1948 by British scientists Sir Hermann Bondi, Thomas
Gold, and Sir Fred Hoyle.
The Pulsating Theory: The Pulsating Universe Theory is propounded by Dr. Allen Sundes.
According to this theory, the universe follows a self sustaining cycle by alternately expanding
and contracting. In this theory it is assumed that there is continuous expansion and
contraction in universe.

Pulsating theory states that it is the possibility that after some passage of time the
expansion in the universe may stop.

Then their may be the possibility of contraction. When this contraction will approaches to a
particular size. Again the explosion will take place. As a result of this explosion the expansion
of universe will start again. Hence it results in a pulsating universe in which there is alternate
expansion and contraction of universe.
The Big Bang
In 1927, an astronomer named Georges
Lemaitre had a big idea. He said that a
very long time ago, the universe started
as just a single point.
He said the
universe stretched and expanded to get
as big as it is now, and that it could keep
on stretching.

Just two years later, an astronomer

named Edwin Hubble noticed that other
galaxies were moving away from us. And
that’s not all. The farthest galaxies were
moving faster than the ones close to us. Sometimes called the "afterglow" of the Big Bang,
this light is more properly known as the cosmic
microwave background (CMB). It was first predicted
by Ralph Alpher and other scientists in 1948 but was
found only by accident almost 20 years later.
When was the Big Bang Theory established?
Who came up with the idea?

Hubble was really the person who set up the observations. Evidence continued to mount,
especially in the 1970s with the detection of the the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

The term "Big Bang" was first used in the late 1940s by the astronomer Fred Hoyle —
eventually, it caught on in the 1970s.

The CMB has been observed by many researchers now and with many spacecraft missions.
One of the most famous space-faring missions to do so was NASA's Cosmic Background
Explorer (COBE) satellite, which mapped the sky in the 1990s.

Several other missions have followed in COBE's footsteps, such as the BOOMERanG
experiment (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics),
NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space
Agency's Planck satellite.
The Big Bang model : Exploded from a dense primordial matter.

Universe was an extremely hot and dense one

Universe subsequently expanded and cooled.

STRING THEORY: is the idea that everything in the universe, every particle of light and matter, is
comprised of miniscule vibrating strings. These strings are truly tiny, many billions of times
smaller than an individual proton within an atomic nucleus.

String theory was discovered by accident! In 1969, Italian physicist Gabriele Veneziano wrote
down a formula describing the scattering of four strings, the now-famous Veneziano amplitude.

This unique theory is important because it is presented as a universal cosmological theory,

which helps us to better understand the structure, properties, and associations between the
physical matter of the universe.

Big Crunch (The Death of The Universe)

At some point, the universe would reach a maximum size & begin collapsing. The universe
would become denser & hotter again, ending in a state like that in which it started — a single
point of very high density.
 What is Nebula?
A nebula is a giant cloud of dust
and gas in space

What is Solar Nebula?

It is the disc-shaped cloud of gas and
dust left over from the Sun's formation.
 TYPE OF STARS
Red Dwarfs: They are smaller than sun and live a long time as they burn slowly.

White Dwarfs: Stars having mass less than about 8 times of mass of sun will become white
dwarf.

A Red Giants: Red giants forms after a star has run out of hydrogen fuel for nuclear fusion, and
has begun the process of dying. A star maintains its stability through a fine balance between its
own gravity, which holds it together, and the outwards pressure from ongoing thermonuclear
fusion processes taking place at its core.
Our sun will turn into a red giant in around five billion years. At this point, the sun will engulf
the inner planets as it expands.

Blue Giants: They are among hottest stars and live for less than 100 million years. The color of a
star comes from its temperature. The coolest stars appear red, while the hottest stars are blue
Supergiant: Rarest of stars which have lives less than 50 million years.
Neutron Star: It is a body of densely packed neutrons formed after explosion of supernova.
A neutron star is one of the possible ends of a star. Due to its high density, a neutron star
being around 20Km in diameter is about 1.4 times mass of our sun (Chandrashekhar Limit)
and its magnetic field is million times stronger than that or Earth.
Pulsars: Most neutron stars are observed as pulsars. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars
observed to have pulses of radiation at very regular intervals that typically range from
milliseconds to seconds. Pulsars have very strong magnetic fields which funnel jets of particles
out along the two magnetic poles.
Cepheids- The Star Child- also called Cepheid Variables, are stars which brighten and dim
periodically. This behavior allows them to be used as cosmic yardsticks out to distances of a
few tens of millions of light-years.

Supernova - It is an explosion of star and is the largest explosion that takes place in space. It
happens when there is change in core or centre of a star.
Black Holes:
Black holes are points in space that are so dense they
create deep gravity sinks. Beyond a certain region,
not even light can escape the powerful tug of a black
hole's gravity. And anything that ventures too close
—be it star, planet, or spacecraft—will be stretched
and compressed like putty in a theoretical process
aptly known as spaghettification.

How do black holes form?

Black holes are expected to form via two distinct
channels. According to the first pathway, they are
stellar corpses, so they form when massive stars die.
Stars whose birth masses are above roughly 8 to 10
times mass of our sun, when they exhaust all their
fuel — their hydrogen — they explode and die
leaving behind a very compact dense object, a black
hole.
Who discovered black holes?

Black holes were predicted as an exact mathematical solution to Einstein's equations.

Einstein's equations describe the shape of space around matter. The theory of general
relativity connects the geometry or shape of shape to the detailed distribution of matter.

The black hole solution was found was by Karl Schwarzschild in 1915, and these regions
— black holes — were found to distort space extremally and generate a puncture in the
fabric of space-time.

The first detected black hole was Cygnus-X1.

 SUPERCLUSTER

It is a large group of smaller galaxy clusters or galaxy groups. It is

among the largest known structures of cosmos.

Recently Indian scientists discovered a supercluster and named it

Saraswati which is about 4 billion light years away from Earth.

Our Milky way is itself a part of Laniakea supercluster.

 CONSTELLATIONS
It refers to a group of stars that form a recognizable pattern or shape in the night sky. These
star patterns have been named and categorized by various cultures and civilizations throughout
history. There are a total of 88 recognized constellations that are widely accepted worldwide.

To aid in the identification and naming of different constellations, various international

organizations and societies have agreed upon the division of the sky into specific groups of
stars. Some examples of prominent constellations include:

• Big Dipper/Ursa Major: This constellation is the most well-known and easily recognizable
in human civilization and is located in the northern celestial hemisphere.

• Orion: This constellation is a prominent example of a figure in human perspective and

features notable stars such as Betelgeuse and Sirius.

• Cassiopeia: This constellation is visible in the northern sky and is characterized by its
distinct "W" or "M" shape, including stars such as Schedar, Caph, and Ruchbah.
EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
 Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace

NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS

MOST WIDELY ACCEPTED MODEL TO EXPLAIN THE FORMATION AND

EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

IT SUGGESTS THAT THE SOLAR SYSTEM IS FORMED FROM THE SOLAR

NEBULA.
 TIDAL HYPOTHESIS
PUT FORTH BY JENNY AND JEFFREYS

It assumes the presence of two nebula instead of one as assumed by Laplace.

the matter rising in the form of a tidal wave from the smaller
nebula was pulled towards larger nebula.

This hypothesis is closer to reality

 PROTO-PLANET HYPOTHESIS

By G.P. Kuiper

What is a Protoplanet?
A protoplanet is a large planetary embryo that originated within a
Protoplanetary disc

It has undergone internal melting to produce a differentiated interior.

It is suggested that rather than rings, big chunks of gas were left
behind.
 TYPES OF PLANETS

The Jovian Planets The Terrestrial Planets

Roman god Jove or Jupiter Latin words “terra” used to refer to Earth.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Earth, Mercury, Venus, and Mars

Neptune
no solid surfaces (gaseous state)
EVMM
SUNJ
Earth is the densest , largest and most massive of the four
terrestrial planets.
 WHAT IS IAU ?
International Astronomical Union (IAU), was founded in 1919.

It is the international body of Astronomers having 13130 members

worldwide.

Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy

 Do you know 'Pandit Jasraj.‘ and his link with IAU ?
IAU named minor planet - 2006 VP32, discovered on November 11, 2006, between
the orbits of Mars and Jupiter as 'Pandit Jasraj.‘

He is the first Indian musician to join the galaxy of immortal

composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Pavarotti.
 THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Our solar system consists of the sun, eight major planets, dwarf planets (Pluto, Ceres, Eris
etc.), satellites and countless minor planets, asteroids, meteors, comets and debris.
 Formation of the Solar System: Nuclear Disc Model (neo-Laplacian model)
• Nebular Theory of Laplace (1796) tried to explain the formation of the solar system. But it
had many drawbacks as the theory was based on scientifically erroneous assumptions.

• But one assumption it got right was that the solar system was born from a giant gas of dust
called as nebula.

• A giant interstellar cloud known as the solar nebula (a vast, swirling cloud of gas and
dust) gave birth to our solar system and everything in it.

• The nebula started its collapse and core formation some 5-5.6 billion years ago and the
Sun and the planets were formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
THE SUN
 THE SUN
CENTRE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM (our NEAREST STAR)

It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth.

It is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma

It is 150 Million Km from Earth

Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth(1.39

million km)
Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth
It accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the
Solar System.
 Surface Period of Period of Distance Size Density Specific gravity
Planet Revolutio from Sun Diameter (km) Moons
Temp in ֯C Rotation n (AU)
Rank (gm/cm3) (m/s2)

1.Mercury +427 58 days 88 days 0.4 4,878 0.38 8 0 5.4 3.7 0.38
1.Venus +480 243 days 224 days 0.7 12,104 0.95 6 0 5.2 8.9 0.9
1.Earth +22 23:56 hrs 365 days 1 12,756 1.00 5 1 5.5 9.8 1
1.025
1.Mars -23 687 days 1.5 6,787 0.53 7 2 3.9 3.7 0.38
days
1.Jupiter -150 9.9 hrs 11.9 years 5.2 1,40,000 11.19 1 79 1.3 24.9 2.53
1.Saturn -180 10.7 hrs 29 years 9.6 1,16,000 9.46 2 62 0.7 10.4 1.06
1.Uranus -214 17 hrs 84 years 19.2 51,000 4.11 3 27 1.3 8.8 0.9
1.Neptun
-220 16 hrs 164 years 30.0 48,000 3.88 4 13 1.6 11.1 1.13
e
Pluto
-223 6.39 days 248 years 39.5 2,377 0.18 9 5 1.9 0.6 0.06
(dwarf)

The astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of length, roughly the distance

from Earth to the Sun and equal to about 150 million kilometres (93
million miles).
 MERCURY
• Mercury’s surface appears heavily cratered and is similar in
appearance to the Moon’s, indicating that it has been
geologically inactive for billions of years (because there is no
atmosphere on Mercury).
• Having almost no atmosphere to retain heat, it has surface
temperatures that vary diurnally more than on any other
planet in the Solar System (−173 °C at night to 427 °C during
the day).
• Mercury is smaller than the largest natural satellites in the
Solar System, Ganymede (largest moon of Jupiter) and Titan
(largest moon of Saturn).
• However, Mercury is massive (has more mass) than
Ganymede and Titan.
• Images obtained by MESSENGER spacecraft in 2004 have
revealed evidence for pyroclastic flows (vulcanicity) and
water ice at Mercury’s poles.
 VENUS
• Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system and is the third
brightest object visible from earth after the sun and the moon.

• Venus is sometimes called Earth’s sister planet or Earth’s twin because

of their similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun,.

• It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets. The

atmospheric pressure at the planet’s surface is 92 times that of Earth,
or roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 ft) underwater on Earth.

• Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System, because of the
greenhouse effect arising from high concentrations of CO2 and thick
atmosphere.
• A day on Venus is equivalent to 243 earth days and lasts longer than its
year (224 days).
• It rotates in the opposite direction (clockwise) to most other planets.
• In the ancient literature, Venus was often referred to as the morning
star and evening star.
 The Moon
The Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years
ago
“Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact
between Earth and a Mars-sized body called THEIA. “

It is now generally believed that the formation of the moon, as a

satellite of the earth, is an outcome of ‘giant impact’ or what is
described as ‘the big splat’.

As Earth rotates, the Moon’s gravity causes the oceans to seem to

rise and fall. There is a little bit of friction between the tides and the
turning Earth, causing the earth’s rotation to slow down just a
little (1.4 milliseconds in 100 years).
As Earth slows, it lets the Moon move away by a little (four
centimetres per year).
 MOON
• Its diameter is only one-quarter that of the earth.
• It is about 3,84,400 km away from us.
• A ray of light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth. Light takes only a
second to reach us from the moon.
• The moon is tidally locked to the earth, meaning that the moon revolves around the earth
in about 27 days which is the same time it takes to complete one spin.
• Tidal locking is the name given to the situation when an object’s orbital period matches its
rotational period.
• As a result of tidal locking, only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth.
• Neil Armstrong was the first, and Buzz Aldrin was the second to step on the surface of the
moon on 29 July 1969 (Apollo 11 mission).
• Till date, only Twelve astronauts walked on the Moon’s surface.
Colonizing the moon
• Discovery of lunar water at the lunar poles by Chandrayaan-1 has renewed interest in the Moon.
• Exploration of the lunar surface by spacecraft began in 1959 with the Soviet Union’s Luna program.
• Luna 2 made a hard landing (impact) into its surface and became the first artificial object on the
moon.
• Crewed exploration of the lunar surface began in 1968 when the Apollo 8 spacecraft orbited the
Moon. The following year, the Apollo 11 Apollo Lunar Module landed two astronauts on the Moon.
• In 2009, the Chandrayaan probe discovered that the lunar soil contains 0.1% water by weight.

• There are several disadvantages to the Moon as a

colony site
• The long lunar night would impede reliance on solar
power.
• The Moon is highly depleted in carbon and volatile
elements, such as nitrogen and hydrogen.
• The low gravity on the Moon will have adverse effects
on human health in the long term.
 MARS
• Mars is often referred to as the “Red Planet” because of
the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface.
• Mars is the site of Olympus Mons (shield volcano), the
largest volcano and the highest known mountain (24 km)
in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the
largest canyons in the Solar System.
• Mars has two irregularly shaped moons, Phobos and
Deimos, which are thought to be captured asteroids.
• Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to
low atmospheric pressure (less than 1% of the Earth’s).
• Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth’s
volume and 11% of Earth’s mass.
• Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon
and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and
water.
The Mars 2020 mission (NASA) was launched on July 30, 2020, in search for Ancient
Life, Gathering Rocks and Soil
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan is a
space probe orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was
launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO).

It is India's first interplanetary mission and it made it the fourth

space agency to reach Mars, after Roscosmos, NASA, and the
European Space Agency.

It made India the first Asian nation to reach Martian orbit and
the first nation in the world to do so on its maiden attempt.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN)is a spacecraft

developed by NASA that went into orbit around Mars to study
the planet's atmosphere. Mission goals include determining how
the atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been
substantial, were lost over time
 JUPITER
• It is composed mostly of gas and liquid swirling in complex patterns with
no solid surface.

• Jupiter’s four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), called
the Galilean satellites because Galileo discovered them.

• Ganymede is the largest natural satellite (5,268 km in diameter) in this

solar system and is larger than Mercury, and three times larger than the
earth’s Moon (3,474 km in diameter, the fifth largest moon).

• It is the third-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon
and Venus and the fourth brightest object in the sky after the Sun, the
Moon and Venus.

• Because of its rapid rotation (once every 10 hours), the planet’s shape is
that of an oblate spheroid (slight bulge at the equator).
• The latest probe to visit Jupiter is Juno.
 SATURN
• Saturn’s rings are probably made up of billions of particles of ice and ice-covered rocks.

• Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System (larger than Mercury) and it is the only
satellite in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere (nitrogen-rich).
Uranus
• In contrast to all other planets, it is tipped and spin on its sides, that
is its axis of rotation lies in nearly the plane of its orbit. (The poles of
Uranus lie in a plane where equators of other planets lie)
• Venus and Uranus have a strange retrograde rotation (clockwise),
i.e., opposite of sun’s rotation.

Neptune
• Uranus and Neptune (the ice giants) are called the twins of the outer
solar system.
• They are surrounded by a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium
and contains a higher proportion of “ices” such as water, ammonia,
and methane ice giants” to emphasise this distinction.

• Neptune has the strongest sustained winds (2,100 km/h) of any

planet in the Solar System.
PLUTO AND CHARON
• Pluto (39 AU) is the largest known object in the Kuiper belt. Charon is Pluto’s largest moon.
• When discovered in 1930, it was considered to be the ninth planet; this changed in 2006 with the
adoption of a formal definition of a planet.
• International Astronomical Union’s definition of a Planet: a Planet is an object that orbits the sun;
• has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium ― a nearly round shape;
• is not a satellite (moon) of another object, and
• has removed debris and small objects from the area around its orbit
• IAU’s definition of Dwarf planet: Dwarf planet is an object that meets planetary criteria except that it
has not cleared debris from its orbital neighbourhood.
 KUIPER BELT
• The Kuiper belt is a great ring of debris similar to the
asteroid belt but consisting mainly of objects composed
primarily of ice.
• It extends between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun.

• Pluto is a part of the Kuiper belt that contains millions

of rocky and icy objects. Also, there are numerous other
objects in the Kuiper belt which are of similar size to
Pluto. E.g. Eris (diameter: 2,326 km).

• So, if Pluto is considered a plant, then many other

objects like Eris will also have to be considered as
planets.

• Hence, Pluto (diameter: 2,377 km) (Kuiper belt) was

voted by IAU as a dwarf planet just like Ceres (asteroid
belt) and Eris (diameter: 2,326 km) (Kuiper belt).
 WHAT IS SOHO ?

SOHO, the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory, was launched on December 2, 1995.

It is a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA

Objective: to study layers of the sun and the solar wind

The Sun's Surface Temperature is approximately 5,800 K

RECENT ANALYSIS OF SOHO MISSION :

faster rotation rate in the core than in the radiative zone above
 WHAT IS SUNSPOT?

Sunspots are visible as dark patches on the Sun's photosphere

They are are slightly cooler than the surrounding photosphere, and, so, they appear dark.

WHAT IS SOLAR FLARE ?

A solar flare is a sudden flash of increased brightness on the Sun

An energy release of typically 1020 joules of energy : clearly observable event

A major event can emit up to 1025 joules.

 WHAT IS SOLAR WIND?

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere
of the Sun, called the corona.

WHAT IS GEOMAGNETIC STORM?

A geomagnetic storm (commonly referred to as a solar storm)

It is temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind

shock wave

The storm interacts with the Earth's magnetic field (i.e. least at Poles)
VISUALS OF SOLAR FLARES

Aurora Borealis (northern and

southern lights)

The ionization and excitation of

atmospheric constituents

emit light of varying colour and

complexity

Iceland, Alaska, Canada, Norway,

Sweden, Finland and Green Land

NSG CIA F
Asteroids
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from
the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

Most of this ancient space rubble can be found orbiting the Sun between Mars and
Jupiter within the main asteroid belt. Asteroids range in size from Vesta – the largest
at about 329 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter – to bodies that are less than 33
feet (10 meters) across. The total mass of all the asteroids combined is less than that
of Earth's Moon.
The current known asteroid count is: 1,289,473.

Meteors:
A meteor is a streak of light in the sky caused by a meteoroid crashing through Earth's
atmosphere. Meteoroids are lumps of rock or iron that orbit the sun. Most meteoroids
are small fragments of rock created by asteroid collisions. Comets also create
meteoroids as they orbit the sun and shed dust and debris.
Most meteoroids that enter the atmosphere burn up completely as meteors. In some cases,
however, the meteoroid does not completely burn up, and the object actually makes it to
Earth's surface. The chunk that has survived its fiery journey is called a meteorite.

Trojans:
Trojan asteroid, also called Trojan planet, any one of a number of asteroids that occupy a
stable Lagrange Points in a planet's orbit around the Sun.

Lagrange Points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system
like the Sun and Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion. These can be
used by spacecraft as "parking spots" in space to remain in a fixed position with minimal fuel
consumption.

Lucy Mission by NASA: The First Mission to the Trojan of Jupiter.

 SOME FACTS ABOUT THE MOON

SHAPE: SCALENE ELLIPSOID (due to tidal stretching)

• It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System

• The Moon is the second-densest satellite after Jupiter's satellite IO

• The Moon is moving approximately 3.8 cm away from the Earth Every Year

• Moonquakes are caused by the gravitational influence of the Earth

 Ceres - 0 Moons
Mercury - 0 Moons Pluto - 5 Moons
Venus - 0 Moons Haumea - 2 Moons
Makemake - 0 Moons
Earth - 1 Moon
Eris - 1 Moon
rs - 2 Moons ( Deimos and Phobos)

Dwarf Planets
Jupiter - 79 Moons Ganymede
Terrestrial Planets
(largest: 5276 km diameter)
Saturn - 82 Jovian Planets
MoonsUranus - 27 Moons
Neptune - 14 Moons