S6E1. Students will explore current scientific views of the universe and how those views evolved. a. Relate the Nature of Science to the progression of basic historical scientific models (geocentric, heliocentric) as they describe our solar system, and the Big Bang as it describes the formation of the universe. b. Describe the position of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy and the universe. c. Compare and contrast the planets in terms of Size relative to the earth Surface and atmospheric features Relative distance from the sun Ability to support life d. Explain the motion of objects in the day/night sky in terms of relative position. e. Explain that gravity is the force that governs the motion in the solar system. f. Describe the characteristics of comets, asteroids, and meteors.

1. Did it start as a bang!
1B

2. The Expanding Universe
A. The Big Bang Theory:
Idea that all matter began in an
infinitely small point and
exploded out in all directions
1B

3. 1B

4. Galaxies: _____________________
Billions of stars,
_____________________________
dust, and gas held
______________________________
together by gravity
Edwin Hubble
________________ was an astronomer in the 1920s who
gathered many pictures of galaxies
• noticed they all didn’t look alike
• decided to classify them by the way they looked into
3 types
Elliptical
• “E” or _____________________
1B
Spiral
• “S” or _____________________
Barred Spiral
• “SB” or ____________________

5. A. Earth’s Galaxy—and Others
• Galaxies are grouped • Cluster of galaxies
together in clusters.
• The cluster the Milky
Way belongs to is
called the Local
Group.
• Three types of
galaxies:

6. Galaxy Morphological Revisted
Spiral Irregular
Elliptical
The Hubble
Tuning Fork

7. Spiral Galaxies
• Spiral Galaxies: • Two spiral galaxies!!
Circular galaxies
that have arms
curve outward
from a central hub.
– Arms are made
up of stars and
dust

8. Illustration/draw and label:

9. halo
disk
bulge
Spiral Galaxy

10. Elliptical Galaxies
Most common type of galaxy; large three-dimensional
football shaped galaxies.
-Contain mostly older and dimmer stars.
Vary in shape from completely round to extremely
elongated ovals. Unlike spiral galaxies
No bright nucleus at their center. Elliptical galaxies are
represented by the letter E
Divided into seven subgroups according to their shape.
These subgroups are labeled E0 to E7. E0 galaxies
nearly circular in shape while E7 galaxies are
extremely elongated or stretched out.

11. Illustrate / Draw Elliptical

12. Irregular Galaxies
• Come in many different
shapes and are smaller
and less common
• Irregular Galaxies - No
regular shape, includes
nebulas, with no central
bulge or spiral arms.

13. Illustrate/ Draw:

14. Earth’s Galaxy
• Galaxy: A large group of • Spiral Galaxies
stars, gas, and dust held
together by gravity.
• Milky Way: Our galaxy
which contains about 200
billion stars and many
nebulas

15. The Milky Way Galaxy
• The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar
System which is just one of the several galaxies of the
universe.
• . This name derives from its appearance as a dim
"milky" glowing band arching across the night sky, in
which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars.
• 100,000 light years in diameter
• Our sun orbits the center of the galaxy once every 240
million years
• A barred spiral galaxy
• Contains over 200 billion stars
• Its where we live!!!!!

16. Solar System
Our star (Sun), the planets, many
moons, and other small bodies that
ALL travel around the Sun

17. Solar System

18. What do we see in the sky?
• The stars move in the sky but
not with respect to each other
• The planets (or “wanderers”)
move differently from stars
– They move with respect to the
stars
– They exhibit strange
retrograde motion
• What does all this mean?
• How can we explain these
movements?
• What does the universe 1B
look like?

19. The Great Debate!
•Heraclides (330 B.C.)
developed the first Solar
System model, beginning of
the geocentric versus
heliocentric debate
1B

20. Timeline Galileo
1564-1642 Newton
1642-1727
Tycho
Copernicus 1546-1601
Kepler
1473-1543
1571-1630
1B

21. Geocentric (Ptolemaic) System
•The theory (in Greek, geo
means earth), which
maintained that Earth was the
center of the universe, usually
referring to the system of
Claudius Ptolemy.
1B

22. Geocentric
(Ptolemaic) System
• The accepted model for
1400 years
• The earth is at the center
• The Sun, stars, and
planets on their spheres
revolve around the earth: explains daily movement
• To account for unusual planetary motion epicycles were
introduced
• Fit the Greek model of heavenly perfection – spheres are the
perfect shape, circular the perfect motion
1B

23. Illustrate/ Draw model:
1B

24. Heliocentric (Copernican) System
• The word "helios" in Greek
means "sun." Heliocentric
means that the sun is at the
center. A heliocentric system is
one in which the planets revolve
around a fixed sun. Thus
Mercury, Venus, the Earth,
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all
revolve around the sun. The
moon is the only celestial sphere
in this system which revolves
1B
around the earth, and, together

25. Heliocentric (Copernican) System
• Sun at center (heliocentric)
• Uniform, circular motion
– No epicycles (almost)
• Moon orbited the earth, the earth
orbited the sun as another planet
• Planets and stars still on fixed
spheres, stars don’t move
• The daily motion of the stars
results from the Earth’s spin
• The annual motion of the stars
results from the Earth’s orbit 1B

26. Please Illustrate
1B

27. Our Solar System
A Write On Activity

28. Our Solar System
Our solar system is
made up of:
 Sun
 Nine planets
 Their moons
 Asteroids
 Comets
 Meteoros

29. Inner Planets
The inner four rocky / Terrestrial
planets. These planets have
hard rock crusts, and dense
rock and metal cores are:
 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars

30. Mercury
• Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
• Mercury rotates the Sun in only 88 days.
• Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis with
one day taking 58 Earth days.
• Mercury barely has any atmosphere, but does
have glaciers.
• Called a morning star. This is because
Mercury shines brightly in the early morning
just before the sun rises. It has also been
called an evening star for the same reason.
Mercury is often visible for a brief period of
time just after the Sun sets.
1B

31. Venus
 Sister planet to Earth Size and
structure is VERY similar to Earth,
often called "Earth's Twin"
 Has no moons or rings
 Hot, thick atmosphere
 Brightest object in sky besides sun
and moon (looks like bright star)
 Covered with craters, volcanoes, and
mountains

32. Earth
 Third planet from sun
 Only planet known to have life and
liquid water
 Atmosphere composed of composed of
Nitrogen (78%), Oxygen (21%), and
other gases (1%).

33. Mars
 Fourth planet from sun
 Appears as bright reddish color in the
night sky Called "the Red Planet"
because it surface is covered with iron
oxide- RUST! Proves that Mars once
had free oxygen molecules in its
atmosphere.
 Surface features volcanoes and huge
dust storms
 Has 2 moons: Phobos and Deimos

34. Outer Planets
 A gas giant (sometimes also known as a
jovian planet after the planet Jupiter, or
giant planet) is a massive planet with a
thick atmosphere of hydrogen and
helium
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune

35. Jupiter
 Largest planet in solar system
 Brightest planet in sky
 60+ moons, 5 visible from Earth
 Strong magnetic field
 Giant red spot
 Rings have 3 parts: Halo Ring,
Main Ring, Gossamer Ring

36. Saturn
 6 th planet from sun
 Seven thin, flat rings not solid but
made up of particles of ice, dust and
rocks
 31 moons
 Largest moon, Titan,
 Easily visible in the night sky
 A lightweight planet and it spins so
fast
 Voyager explored Saturn and its

37. Uranus
 7 th planet from sun
 Has a faint ring system
 27 known moons
 Covered with clouds
 Sits and spins on its side with
the north and south poles
sticking out the sides.

38. Neptune
 8 th planet from sun
 Discovered through math
 7 known moons
 Triton largest moon
 Storm called the "Great Dark
Spot" because it appears as a
dark oval shape on the surface of
the planet.
 Great Dark Spot thought to be a
hole, similar to the hole in the
ozone layer on Earth

39. Pluto our dwarf
 Pluto, the outermost planet, is a
small, icy "dwarf planet“ it is smaller
than the Earth's Moon.

40. Pluto
 9 th planet from sun
(usually)
 Never visited by
spacecraft
 Orbits very slowly
 Moon, Charon, is
very close to Pluto
and about the same
size

41. Comet- chunks of ice and dust
• Has an elliptical orbit around Sun
• Has a head (nucleus and coma) and
tail.
• Tail always points away from sun.

42. Comets: Orbit

43. Asteroids-
 Larger chunks of rock
 Vary in size and shape
 In Asteroid Belt between
Mars and Jupiter
 Revolve around sun in 3-6
years

44. Asteroids: Illustrate /draw

45. Meteoroids- smaller chunks of rock and
dust in space.
1. randomly move about space ; no
specific orbit
2. come from remains of comets
and asteroids
• Meteor- a meteoroid that burns in
the atmosphere- produces a streak
of light.
nickname: “ Shooting
star ”
•MeteoriTe- a meteoroid that doesn’t
burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. It
T ouches Earth.

46. Writing Activity
Which does not describe the difference
between Gas Giants and Terrestrials?
A. Terrestrials are closer to the sun than
gas giants.
B. Terrestrials are denser than Gas Giants.
C. Gas Giants rotate faster on their axis
then Terrestrials.
D. Terrestrials have rock and metal in their
core and Gas Giants do not.

47. Solar System
Activities
 Order the Planets
 Fun with Planets
 Constellations of the Northern
Sky
 Planets
 Solar System