EPSC 201 Lecture 1: EPSC NOTES
Document Summary
Parts of the earth mantle: plyable rock (plastic) liquid outer core: liquid iron where magnetic eld is generated; s waves can"t pass, but p waves can solid inner core: purely crystal and iron. 91. 2% of earth"s mass comprises just four elements: Big bang-all the mass and energy was in a single ball. Copernicus & galileo studies led to acceptance that earth and planets orbit the sun. Newton planet motion was explained by theory of gravity: stars are immense balls of incandescent gas, hydrogen nuclei (protons) within a few seconds, at 3 minutes, protons are fused to form helium nuclei, light nuclei (atomic no. < 5) by big bang nucleosynthesis: after abut 380 000 years of expansion and cooling, atoms began to bond; electrons attached to the nuclei, hydrogen formed h2 molecules the fuel of stars, atoms and molecules coalesced into gaseous nebulae. Eventually the stars become hydrogen starved and explodes (supernova explosion)