Big Bang Theory

Components of the universe

The Solar System: View of Galileo and Copernicus

Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang is the theory astronomers use to explain how our universe came into being. The Big
Bang theory is the model that describes the early development of the universe. The universe used to
be nothing and have nothing. It started as a little speck (a tiny spot) of a hot, super-massive, and
super-dense ball. Everything that is currently in the universe came from that speck. Every single
proton, neutron, atom, and so forth came from that ball. About 13.7 billion years ago, BANG! A violent
explosion hurled the material within that ball into all directions of space.

The universe expanded quickly after the Big Bang and continues to expand today. As the universe
expanded and cooled, things started to form, including neutrons, protons, atoms, stars, and galaxies.
All the different elements in the universe that exist today developed from that initial ball 13.7 billion
years ago.
Components of the universe

The universe is unimaginably and infinitely big. It is commonly defined as the totality of everything
that exists or is known to exist. The universe consists of galaxies, planets, stars, meteorites, satellites
and many other things. Our earth is a part of the solar system, which is a part of the Milky way galaxy.

Galaxy: It is a system of millions or

billions of stars, together with gas and
dust, held together by gravitational
attraction. The arrangement of stars
gives galaxies different shapes of
galaxies. There are about 100 billion
galaxies in the universe, some of them
are in the shape of spiral, ring-like or
elliptical. Our Solar System is a part of
the Milky Way Galaxy.

Planet: It is a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit round a star. Earth is one of the planets of the
Solar system. About 15% of the Stars of the Milky Way Galaxy have the planets.
Star: It is a fixed luminous point in the night sky which is a
large, remote incandescent body like the sun. The Star is
made from a Nebula (Cloud of dust), and is converting
Nuclear energy into Heat and Light.

Meteorite: It is a piece of rock or metal that has fallen to the earth's surface from outer space as a
meteor. Over 90 per cent of meteorites are of rock while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron
and nickel.

Satellite: It is a celestial body orbiting any planet. Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.
The Solar System: View of Galileo and Copernicus

The Solar System: It consists of the Sun and other celestial objects present in the space revolving
around the sun. The gravitational attraction between the Sun and these objects keeps them revolving
around it. The various entities like planets, meteors, comets, etc. are part of our solar system.

The eight planets in their order of distance from the Sun are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Solar system’s View of Galileo and Copernicus: It’s not a stretch to say that the Copernican
revolution fundamentally changed the way we think about our place in the universe. In antiquity,
people believed that the Earth was at the center of the solar system and the universe, whereas now
we know we are on just one of the many planets orbiting the sun.

Ancient Greek astronomers produced geocentric (Earth-centered) models of the solar system, which
reached their pinnacle with the work of Ptolemy.

Copernicus’ model for the solar system is heliocentric, with the planets circling the sun rather than
Earth. Perhaps the most elegant piece of the Copernican model is its natural explanation of the
changing apparent motion of the planets.

From 1609, Galileo Galilei used the recently invented telescope to observe the sun, moon and planets.
Galileo provided strong observational evidence that planets orbited the sun.
Formation of the Earth

Approximately 4.6 billion years ago, the solar system was a cloud of dust and gas known as a solar
nebula. Gravity collapsed the material in on itself as it began to spin, forming the sun in the center of
the nebula.

With the rise of the Sun, the remaining material began to clump up. Small particles drew together,
bound by the force of gravity, into larger particles. The solar wind swept away lighter elements, such
as hydrogen and helium, from the closer regions, leaving only heavy, rocky materials to create
smaller terrestrial worlds like Earth. But farther away, the solar winds had less impact on lighter
elements, allowing them to coalesce into gas giants. In this way, asteroids, comets, planets, and
moons were created.

Earth's rocky core formed first, with heavy elements colliding and binding together. Dense material sank to
the center, while the lighter material created the crust. The planet's magnetic field probably formed around
this time. Gravity captured some of the gases that made up the planet's early atmosphere.

Early in its evolution, Earth suffered an impact by a large body that catapulted pieces of the young
planet's mantle into space. Gravity caused many of these pieces to draw together and form the moon,
which took up orbit around its creator.
The flow of the mantle beneath the crust causes plate tectonics, the movement of the large plates of
rock on the surface of the Earth. Collisions and friction gave rise to mountains and volcanoes, which
began to spew gases into the atmosphere.

Although the population of comets and asteroids passing through the inner solar system is sparse today,
they were more abundant when the planets and sun were young. Collisions from these icy bodies likely
deposited much of the Earth's water on its surface. Because the planet is in the Goldilocks zone, the
region where liquid water neither freezes nor evaporates but can remain as a liquid, the water remained at
the surface, which many scientists think plays a key role in the development of life.