Solar System Origins
What was the first step of the Solar System formation?
Nebula forms from an exploded star
How many independent variables should a good experiment have?
Only 1
What is the ratio of asteroid to crater size?
1:20
Describe the Capture Theory of Moon formation
An object was captured by earths gravity and became the Moon
What role does gravity play in crater formation?
Craters are formed by asteroids, which are dragged down to earth by the pull of gravity.
What is the final step in Solar System formation?
The planets and the sun began flinging small objects either into the sun or out of the Solar System.
What were the two possible independent variables of your crater experiments?
Height of the marble drop and size of the object dropped
Given the asteroid to crater size ratio, how big of a crater would a 5km asteroid create?
100km wide
Describe the Sister Theory of Moon formation
The Earth and Moon formed at the same time in the early solar system from accreting balls of rock and dust
What role did gravity play in the Capture Theory of Moon formation?
The Moon was caught in the gravitational orbit of the Earth and remained in orbit
Explain how the Sun became so hot using what we learned from the Solar System origin cards.
The mass of the sun gathered in one place due to gravity, and the great mass and pressure created huge amounts of energy and heat, starting nuclear explosions in the Sun.
What are the differences between our flour and marble experiment and actual asteroid impacts?
Actual asteroids explode on impact, also flour is much softer than the moon. The Moon is made of a solid rock
Given the asteroid to crater size ratio, how big would the asteroid need to be to create a 500km wide crater?
25km wide
Describe the Daughter theory of Moon formation.
A chunk of earth broke off due to the earths rotation in the early solar system, creating a daughter moon
How did gravity play a role in the formation of the solar system?
Gravity pulls dust into dense areas in the nebula, helping jumpstart the sun. Gravity also pulls rock and dust together to form the planets
Explain accretion
Accretion is when small particles begin to hit each other and stick together to form larger particles. Then small planetesimals hit each other and turn into larger planetesimals
What is the difference between a simple and complex crater?
Simple crater- bowl shape
Complex- bowl shape with small hill in the middle.
Given the asteroid to crater size ratio, how big of a crater would a 6.8km asteroid create?
136km
Describe the Big Impact Theory of Moon formation
A large object struck the Earth, causing a part of earth to break off and form the Moon
What role does gravity play in the process of accretion?
Gravity pulls small objects together and they stick, forming larger objects. As the objects get bigger, they have a greater gravity and pull more objects in
Fill in the correct steps in the formulation of the Solar System: nebula, contracting, ________, __________, sun turns on, ___________, accreting.
Heating, disk forms, condensing
Why is it important to not have 2 independent variables in an experiment?
Because you will not know which of the two variables caused the change in the result.
The largest confirmed crater on earth is the Vredefort crater in South Africa. It is 2 billion years old and between 160 and 300km across. How big was the asteroid that formed the crater? You need two answers- one for the high end and one for the low end.
8 and 15km
Which of the four theories is correct, and why?
Big Impact- because we find that Moon rocks are very similar to Earth rocks, but they have a few key differences that can only be explained by earth and another object combining to make the Moon
Describe the role of gravity in the Big Impact Theory of Moon formation.
First, gravity pulls a large planetesimal into the Earth, causing a huge chunk of earth to break off and begin to orbit the planet. Gravity slowly pulled these rocks and dust particles together into a rough ball shape, which is the Moon
Explain the role of gravity as the cause of tides.
The moon pulls the earths water towards it, creating a tidal bulge where the water level rises. As the earth rotates, the water level lowers as a spot on earth moves outside of the tidal bulge.