Geography 2090A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Hubble Space Telescope, Comet Nucleus, Gas Giant
5 Feb 2016
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Document Summary
The solar system - the sun and all things bound to it - is our neighbourhood in space. Previously the object of only astronomical study, it is now accessible to human activities, mainly with robots but even with people in its nearest parts. Since this is a geography course, we will think of it in geographical terms: places, resources, hazards, etc. The central mass which holds the solar system together and provides us with warmth and light. The sun, a fairly average star, produces power by nuclear fusion, converting hydrogen to helium. It will do so for several billion years more, gradually becoming warmer. Some projections suggest it will become too warm for comfortable life on earth in a billion years or so. The sun ejects sub-atomic particles which stream out through the solar system, the "solar wind". These produce the aurora (northern lights) on earth.
