Chapter 1-The Grand Overview
Chapter 1
copyright 2008-Roger Weller
last edited: 2/25/08
Big Bang theory
-states that the entire Universe with all the
galaxies, stars and planets
was created in a super explosion about 13.8 billion years ago.
-Big Bang
theory-Opal's Pals
gas giant planets
-are the four largest
planets in the solar system:
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
iron meteorite
-is one of the most
identifiable of the different varieties of meteorites.
Iron meteorites are made
mostly of iron with some nickel.
Often the metal is crystallized and the pattern
can be brought out by etching with acid;
the resulting geometrically arranged
lines are referred to as a Widmanstatten pattern.
-iron meteorite from Argentina
-is the largest planet in
the solar system.
Jupiter is a gas giant whose diameter is ten times the
diameter of Earth.
-is the fourth planet from
the sun.
Mars is smaller than Earth and its orbit lies between the orbits of
Earth and Jupiter.
-is the planet whose orbit is closest to the sun.
meteorite
-is a rock that enters the Earth's atmosphere from outer space and falls to the ground.
-iron meteorites from Argentina
meteorite impact crater
-Large meteorites,
traveling at great speeds, are capable of creating craters when they
strike the
Earth.
plate tectonics
-The surface layer of the
planet is brittle and broken into large pieces called plates.
Convection within
the mantle of the planet moves these plates with respect to each other.
rock cycle
-is a description of
physical processes that relate the formation of igneous rocks, sediments,
sedimentary rocks,
and metamorphic rocks.
solar system
-consists of our sun and all of the planets, asteroids, and comets associated with it.
solar wind
-is made up of high speed subatomic particles ejected from the sun.
stony meteorite
-Most of the meteorites that fall on the Earth are made primarily of silicate minerals.
Sun (Sol)
-is the star at the center
of our solar system.
The diameter of the sun is approximately 100 times greater
than the diameter of the Earth.
terrestrial planets
-are the four inner rocky planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
tektite
-is a glass meteorite;
probably created during a meteorite impact on Earth where some of the
ground was
fused
by the enormous amount of kinetic is converted to heat energy
-is the second planet from
the Sun in our solar system.
It is approximately the same size of the Earth but
is much
hotter and it is wrapped in a carbon dioxide
atmosphere 100 times denser
than the Earth's atmosphere.