EPS SCI 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Escape Velocity, Reflectance, Plate Tectonics

• School: UCLA
• Department: Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences
• Course: EPS SCI 3
• Professor: 5.0 Margot, J.Treude, T.I.

Document Summary

This cloud collapsed under its own gravity and spun into a disk, most of the mass falling into the center of the disk (sun) while a tiny fraction of the leftovers formed the planets, moons, etc. Some day (~5 billion years from now) the sun will die and redistribute most of this matter back into an interstellar cloud. Cosmic recycling: interstellar gas increases in density to turn into star-forming clouds. The gravity of these clouds causes it to collapse, creating star systems. Stellar winds and explosions create interstellar gas and the cycle begins again. Major phases: contraction of the solar nebula: cloud heats, flattens, and spins faster, condensation of solid particles: metal/rock seeds condense throughout. Ices only in outer solar system: accretion of planetesimals: small seeds collide/stick, large seeds accrete by gravity, clearing of the nebula. Condensation phase: solar nebula model predicts a specific chemical condensation sequence as the hot gaseous nebula cooled.