AST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Star System, Beta Pictoris, Caloris Planitia
18 Dec 2020
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Document Summary
Two categories of competing theories: evolutionary and catastrophic. A successful theory on the creation of the solar system must explain: Volatile elements exist in gaseous state at relatively low temperature. Nonvolatile elements exist in gases at high temp and condense to liquid or solid when the temperature decreases. Rene descartes- whirlpool or vortex theory in 1644. Immanuel kant- in 1755 used newtonian mechanics, and pierre simon laplace in. 1796 to modify descartes" vortex into a rotating cloud of gas that was contracting under its own gravity into a flattened disk. This disk should speed up according to the law of conservation of angular momentum. The fact that the total angular momentum of the planets is greater than that of the sun somewhat discredited the evolutionary theory. This should not occur due to newton"s laws. Catastrophic theories- theory of solar system formation due to unusual circumstance.
