AST-1A Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Accretion Disk, Oort Cloud, Interstellar Cloud
Document Summary
The solar system: is made up of the sun and everything that revolves around it. This includes planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, kuiper belt objects and the. It is believed to have formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud solar nebula of dust and gas approximately 4. 56 billion years ago. Determined by radiometric dating of planets and asteroids. Onset of formation: a large cloud (which is part of a much larger cloud several light years across) is composed of 74% hydrogen, 24% helium 2% all other elements formed from previous generations of stars. Cloud collapse: a supernova is believed to have caused a disturbance that caused the cloud to collapse. Evidence in meteorites (presence fe 60) indicates that a supernova occurred prior to the cloud collapse. The cloud begins collapsing under its own gravity. Matter starts to fall inward and the cloud begins rotating. The cloud spins and flattens into an accretion disc.
