IGCSE-Physics by M Saqib

Space Physics
 Motion Of Earth
• Earth not only revolves around sun
in 365 days but it also spins around
its tilted axis (23.5 degrees) in
24hrs/1 day
• The occurrence of day and night is
caused because of axis spin
• The seasons are caused not only by
rotation of earth around sun but
also by the axis tilt.
• Greater the part of hemisphere towards the sun, hotter the
weather and summer, and vice versa
 Motion of the Moon
• Moon, a natural satellite of
earth, revolves around earth in
approximately one month at
around 400,000 Km
• Moon also spins around its
axis in one month, so the same
side of moon is always visible
to us
• Moon is visible to us by
reflected light of sun, so are its
phases
• Orbital Speed = 2πr/T
The Solar System
• Solar system consists of Sun, eight planets, moons,
asteroids, comets and dwarf planets
• The sun is the biggest, containing more than 90% of mass of system
• The four inner planets are small hard and rocky, while the four
outer planets are larger, gaseous and cold with many moons and
rings of icy material, all revolving around sun in elliptical orbits
• Most of dwarf planets orbit sun at greater distance than Neptune.
There are over 2000 trans Neptune objects TNOs made of rock n ice
• Asteroids are rocks orbiting sun between mars and Jupiter. Ceres
the biggest asteroid is classifies as dwarf planet.
• Comets are made of dust and ice, with low density and highly
elliptical orbits, having long tail and bright head near sun. They
move faster closer to the sun and slower when away.
Origin of Sun
• Moons revolve around their planets
• Sun was created by the gravitational attraction of clouds of hydrogen and
dust called nebula, along with the planets from matter left from nebula
nearly 4.5 Billion years ago.
• The heavier elements(Less than 1%) in sun and inner planets came from
exploding supernova
• F=Gm1m2/r2….. Greater the distance of planet from the sun, colder it is
and slower is its orbital speed. The gravitational force provides the
centripetal force required to orbit the sun
Formation of Star
Formation of a star
• Stars are formed from massive clouds of dust and
gas(hydrogen) in space called stellar nebula
• Gravity pulls the dust and gas together to form a
protostar in million of years.
• As the gases come together, they get hot. A star forms
when it is hot enough for nuclear fusion reactions to
start. This releases energy, and keeps the star hot.
• The outward pressure from the expanding hot gases
is balanced by the force of the star’s gravity and it is
now a main sequence star. Our Sun is halfway
through its 10 billion year stable phase.
Life cycle of a Star
Stars about the same size as our Sun:
•follow the left hand path
•main sequence: star → red giant → white
dwarf → black dwarf
Stars much bigger than our Sun:
•follow the right hand path
•main sequence: star → red super giant →
supernova → neutron star or black hole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG-ukUB_sQU
Galaxies
• A galaxy is a large collection of stars,
generally in billions, along with
clouds of gasses like hydrogen and
dust
• Our solar system belongs to a spiral
shaped galaxy called milky way.
• The nearest star from us is alpha
centauri, which is at the distance of
4.3 light years
• One light year is the distance
travelled by light in space in one year
1 light year = 9.5x10^12 Km
The Universe
Doppler's Effect And The Red Shift
• When a source of sound or light moves away from an observer, then the
wavelength of sound or light keeps increasing and vice versa. This is called
dopplers effect.
• Greater the distance of
a galaxy or star from earth,
greater is the redshift of
the radiation spectrum,
showing an increase in
wavelength and hence
distance
Cosmic microwave background radiation CMBR
• Astronomers have discovered a cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). This
comes from all directions in space and has a temperature of about -270 °C.
• This is because over the past 14 billion years or so, the radiation has become redshifted
as the Universe has expanded
• Initially, this would have been high energy radiation, towards the gamma end of the
spectrum
• As the Universe expanded, the wavelength of the radiation increased over time, it has
increased so much that it is now in the microwave region of the spectrum
The Big Bang Theory
• Both redshift and CMBS confirm that universe is expanding
• Going backward, every thing should have to be very close, at
a very small, dense and extremely hot region
• Then there was a giant explosion, which is known as
the Big Bang
• This caused the universe to expand from a single point,
cooling as it does so, to form the universe today
• CMBS was a prediction of big bang theory, which was later
confirmed
Age Of Universe And Hubble's Constant

• Hubble discovered that speed of galaxy v is directly proportional to its

distance from earth d. this is called Hubble's law
v = H x d OR H = v/d
Where H is Hubble's constant having a value of 2.2x10^-18 per second
• Age of universe can be found by rearranging Hubble's law
1/H = d/v = 14 billion years