AS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, Solar Wind
Document Summary
Comparative planetology seeking to understand the similarities and the differences between and among the planets. Solar nebular theory main theory of formation of our solar system. Imagines that some cataclysmic event initiated the collapse of a nebula that caused material falling inward to some centre converting gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy making the centre, or core, hotter and hotter. Terrestrial planets four inner planets - mercury, venus, earth and mars. Small, dense, rocky worlds with little or no atmosphere. Jovian planets four outer planets jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune. Large, low-density worlds with thick atmospheres and liquid or ice interiors. Mercury and venus have no moons; earth has one and mars has two very small asteroid-like moons. Jupiter is listed as having 6 but it actually has over 60; saturn has almost as many and uranus and neptune have 40 between them. Jupiter, uranus and neptune are made of dark rocky particles.
