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24. Earth and the Solar System

Syllabus Points :

 Earth ,Sun and Moon

 The Solar System

DAY AND NIGHT

The earth has two types of motions, namely rotation and revolution.

Revolution is the
Rotation is the movement of the earth
movement of the earth around the sun in a fixed
on its axis. path or orbit

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 Day and night are due to the Earth rotating on

its axis, not its orbiting around the sun.

 The term 'one day' is determined by the time

the Earth takes to rotate once on its axis and
includes both day time and night time.

 The duration of the day and night is not equal

at all places on the earth because of the
inclined axis.

 It takes 365¼ days (one year) for the earth to

revolve around the sun.

 Six hours saved every year are added to make

one day (24 hours) over a span of four years.
This surplus day is added to the month of
February. Thus every fourth year we have leap
year with 366 days.

 A year is usually divided into summer, winter,

spring and autumn seasons.

 The rotation of the earth on its own axis around

the sun cause changes in season.

 The change in seasons is caused by the

rotational tilt of the earth on its axis when it
revolves around the sun. 4

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EXTRA

Summer Solstice:
•The longest day and the shortest night. It occurs on
21st June in the northern hemisphere.
On 21st June, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted
towards the sun. The rays of the sun fall directly on
the Tropic of Cancer. Therefore, these areas
experience more heat. The areas near the poles
receive less heat as the rays of the sun are slanting.
The North Pole is inclined towards the sun and the
places beyond the Arctic Circle experience
continuous daylight for about 6 months.

Winter Solstice: Equinox:

•The nights are longer than the days. It occurs On
22nd December.
On 22nd December, the Tropic of Capricorn receives
direct rays of the sun as the South Pole tilts towards
it. As the sun’s rays fall vertically at the Tropic of
Capricorn (23½° S), a larger portion of the Southern
Hemisphere gets light.
•The whole earth experiences equal days
and equal nights. It occurs on 21st March
and September 23rd.
On 21st March and September 23rd,
direct rays of the sun fall on the equator.
At this position, neither of the poles is
tilted towards the sun.

The Solar System

The solar system comprises 8 planets, approximately 170 natural planetary satellites (moons), and
countless asteroids, meteorites, and comets.

There are eight planets in the solar system.

The four inner terrestrial planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth,

and Mars, all of which consist mainly of rock.

The four outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus,
giant planets that consist mainly of either gases or ice. These
planets are also called as Julian planets.

Julian is formed by gaseous particles, whereas terrestrial planets

are formed by solid particles.

Pluto was considered the ninth planet until 2006, when the 6

International Astronomical Union voted to classify Pluto as a dwarf

planet instead. Ms.Sapna [Fravashi International Academy]

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Minor planets are a group of solar system objects that orbit the Sun but do not include comets
or planets.

Three objects in our solar system have been classified as dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres and Eris.

As their name suggests, the main difference between a dwarf planet and a planet is size.

THE CERES
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An asteroid is a rocky object that orbits the Sun.

Asteroids are smaller than a planet.
Mostly found in asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter.

Comets are made of ice and dust i.e small icy dirtballs that orbit the Sun.

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A meteor is a space rock—or meteoroid—that enters

Earth's atmosphere, as it – burns up upon entering
Earth’s atmosphere, it creating a streak of light in the
sky (often called "shooting stars"). When Earth
encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it
a meteor shower.

If a meteoroid survives its trip through Earth’s

atmosphere and lands on the Earth’s surface, it is
called a meteorite.

Note: Asteroids are smaller than a

planet, but they are larger than the
pebble-size objects we call meteoroids.

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The Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star – a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and
helium – at the center of our solar system.

It’s about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth and it’s our solar
system’s only star.

The Sun is the largest object in our solar system. Its diameter is about 865,000 miles
(1.4 million kilometers).

Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest
planets to the smallest bits in orbit around it.

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EXTRA
Gravitation or just gravity is the force of attraction between any two bodies.
All the objects in the universe attract each other with a certain amount of
force, but in most of the cases, the force is too weak to be observed due to
the very large distance of separation. Besides, gravity’s range is infinite but
the effect becomes weaker as objects move away.

Statement : The force of attraction between any two bodies is directly

proportional to the product of their masses and is inversely proportional to
the square of the distance between them.
F = Gm1m2/r2
This force of attraction was first observed by Sir Isaac Newton and was
presented as Newton’s law of gravitation in the year 1680. However,
gravitation can generally exist in two main instances.
1. Gravitation may be the attraction of objects by the earth
Example:
If a body (ball) is thrown upwards, it reaches a certain height and falls
downwards because of the gravity of the earth.
2. Gravitation may be the attraction of objects in outer space.
Example:
Force of attraction between the other planets and sun.

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A planet is a celestial body that revolves in an orbit around a

certain star and receives all of its light from that star.
visual
Stages of formation of planets:

•The first stage of formation -

The star is made up of gas lumps within a nebula. The
gravitational force within lumps causes the formation of the
core and the massive rotating discs of gases and dust that
surround the gaseous core.

•The second stage of formation –

The matter surrounding the core is condensing into smaller
rounded objects. Planetesimals are a large number of smaller
bodies that collide to form larger bodies.
The formation of the planets
•The final stage of formation -
These planetesimals form and form larger planet bodies.
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The material in the nebula not absorbed into the

Sun swirled around it into a flat disk of dust and
gas, held in orbit by the Sun’s gravity. This disk is
called an accretion disk. Material in the disk
accumulated by further accretion — from sticking
together.

Each planet began as microscopic grains of dust in

the accretion disk. The atoms and molecules began
to stick together, or accrete, into larger particles.
By gentle collisions, some grains built up into balls
and then into objects a mile in diameter, called
planetesimals. These objects were big enough to
attract others by gravity rather than by chance.

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About an ellipse EXTRA

An ellipse is a circle that has been stretched in one direction, to give it the shape of an oval.
OR
An ellipse is the locus of all those points in a plane such that the sum of their distances from two
fixed points in the plane, is constant.

•Thus for all (x, y), d1 + d2 = constant. When talking about an

ellipse, the following terms are used:

The foci are two fixed points equidistant from the center of the
ellipse.
•
The vertices are the points on the ellipse that fall on the line
containing the foci.
•
The line segment or chord joining the vertices is the major axis.
•
The midpoint of the major axis is the center.
•
The axis perpendicular to the major axis is the minor axis.

ORBITS AND ENERGY

KEPLER’S FIRST LAW DESCRIBES THE SHAPE OF AN ORBIT

The orbit of a planet around the Sun (or of a satellite around a planet) is not a perfect circle.
It is an ellipse—a “flattened” circle.
The Sun (or the center of the planet) occupies one focus of the ellipse.
A focus is one of the two internal points that help determine the shape of an ellipse.
The distance from one focus to any point on the ellipse and then back to the second focus is
always the same.

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KEPLER’S SECOND LAW DESCRIBES THE

WAY AN OBJECT’S SPEED VARIES ALONG
ITS ORBIT

A planet’s orbital speed changes, depending

on how far it is from the Sun.

The closer a planet is to the Sun, the

stronger the Sun’s gravitational pull on it,
and the faster the planet moves.

The farther it is from the Sun, the weaker the

Sun’s gravitational pull, and the slower it
moves in its orbit.

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KEPLER’S THIRD LAW COMPARES THE

MOTION OF OBJECTS IN ORBITS OF
DIFFERENT SIZES

A planet farther from the Sun not only has a

longer path than a closer planet, but it also
travels slower, since the Sun’s gravitational pull
on it is weaker. Therefore, the larger a planet’s
orbit, the longer the planet takes to complete it.

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An orbiting satellite has two important forms of energy:

gravitational potential energy[U] and kinetic energy [K].
The sum of these two energies give us what is known as the total mechanical
energy of the system[E].
•Planets orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits
•Total mechanical energy is always constant
•As a planet orbits close to the Sun, the decrease in gravitational potential energy
is balanced by the increase in kinetic energy
•As a planet orbits further away from the Sun, the increase in gravitational
potential energy is balanced by the decrease in kinetic energy

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A planet's orbital radius is its average distance from the sun.

The orbital period is the amount of time ,a given astronomical object takes to complete
one orbit around another object.

Orbital velocity is defined as the minimum speed a body must maintain to stay in orbit

Average orbital speed = distance/time

Average orbital speed= circumference /time
Average orbital speed= 2x π x orbital radius/orbital time period

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Calculate the following :

1.Orbital speed for earth ,if orbital radius of the earth is 149.6 million
km and the orbital time period is 1 year.

2. Orbital time period for Jupiter, if orbital speed is 13.1 km/s and orbital
radius is 778.6 x 10^6 km.

3. Orbital radius for Uranus , if orbital speed is 6.8 km/s and orbital time
period is 30589 days.

4. Calculate the time for the light from the sun to travel –
a. Earth at a distance of 150000000 km [give your answer in minutes].

b. Neptune, at a distance of 4500,000,000km.

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Planetary Patterns
A scatter plot or graph ,uses dots to represent values for two different numeric variables.

The position of each dot on the horizontal and vertical axis indicates values for an individual data point.

Scatter plots are used to observe relationships / correlation /connection between variables.

There is a pattern in this data but not a direct correlation.

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Ms.Sapna Pandey
M.Sc physics,B.Ed
Fravashi International Academy
Looking Beyond………….

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