EARTH 108 Lecture 2: Lecture 2.docx

• School: U of M
• Department: Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Course: EARTH 108
• Professor: Jie Li

Document Summary

Lecture 2: solar system overview, mercury is at 7 degree tilt from the ecliptic plane, venus has a 4 degree tilt from ecliptic plane, 1 au= 1 astronomical unit= average distance btwn sun an earth=150 million km, bulk composition, comet belt in our solar system > kuiper belt(cid:224) ~ 200 million comets, massive gaseous sun, small rocky interior planets (cid:224) iron/nickel cores and rock (silicates, large outer gaseous planets(cid:224) water and rock core, metallic hydrogen, molecular hydrogen gas, left overs: Jovian (gaseous) vs terrestrial planets: density as guide to composition, earth: mass=1, radius=1, density= 5. 5, sun: mass= 330,000, radius= 110, density, jupiter: mass= 318, radius=11, density=1. 2, building blocks: atoms and isotopes, matter consists of elements, smallest unit of an element is an atom, each atom has. Stops at fe: nucleosynthesis 2, neutron capturing in supernova explosions (cid:224) fe burning stars collapse and explode, origin of the universe, big bang.