The Sun

OUR STAR

• 34 Earth days to rotate at Poles

• 25 Earth days to rotate at Equator

OUR STAR

• Main Sequence Star

• Spectral Class: G2V

OUR STAR

• Surface temp = 5500°C

• Core temp = 15 million°C

OUR STAR

• Acceleration due to gravity = 274 m/s2

• Compared to Earth’s 9.81 m/s2

OUR STAR

• 1.4 million km diameter

• 750 times the mass of all of the solar system’s planets put together

STUDYING THE SUN

• In 1609 Galileo built his first telescope

• He saw Sunspots

STUDYING THE SUN

• 1960’s

• PIONEER 5 to 9

• Orbited the sun– Solar wind– Solar flares– Magnetic fields

STUDYING THE SUN

• 1974 & 1976

• HELIOS

• High-velocity passes close to Sun’s surface– Solar wind– Magnetic field

STUDYING THE SUN

• 1980

• SOLAR MAXIMUM MISSION– X-rays– Gamma rays– Ultraviolet radiation– From flares and

sunspots

STUDYING THE SUN

• 1990• ULYSSES• primary mission was

to orbit the Sun and study it at all latitudes.

• The last day for mission operations on Ulysses was June 30, 2009

What are the difficulties in studying the Sun?

• Heat

• Light

• Distance

• Angle

• Size

The Moon

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• Earth’s only natural satellite

• Located 384,400 km away from Earth

• Reflects light from the Sun

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• Synodic month: 29.5 days days (new moon to new moon)

• Sidereal month: 27.3 days (360° around Earth)

• Rotational Period: 27.3 days

• We only see one side of the Moon

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• Maximum Surface Temperature:130º C

• Minimum Surface Temperature:-180º C

• thought to have a small Iron core followed by a very thick mantle and a thin crust.

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• The Moon is composed of two major features: – Highlands – Maria

• The Highlands are like our own mountain ranges. Formed from igneous rock.

• The Maria are similar to our oceans, but were formed by past lava flows.

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• g = 1.62 m/s2

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• Diameter = 3,476 km

EARTH’s SATELLITE

• Fission Theory - Earth spinning so fast a piece broke off forming the Moon

• Capture Theory - Moon formed elsewhere and was captured

• Co-Creation Theory - the Earth and Moon formed and evolved together

• Collisional Ejection Theory - a large impact broke off pieces of the Earth and formed the Moon

STUDYING THE MOON

• In 1609 used his first telescope to examine the Moon

• He saw Craters and Mountains

STUDYING THE MOON

• By 1651, Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Riccioli and mathematician and physicist Francesco M. Grimaldi, had completed a map of the moon.

• That map established the naming system for lunar features that is still in use.

STUDYING THE MOON

• First Un-manned Probes:– 1959, probes from Soviet's

Luna spacecraft first flew by and then impacted the Moon's surface.

– NASA's Pioneer 4 passed within 37,000 miles of the Moon

– Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter photographed the lunar surface in preparation for landing astronauts

STUDYING THE MOON

• Manned Landings:– July 20, 1969, Apollo 11

mission successfully lands on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

– 6 manned missions – returned the first scientific

samples from an extraterrestrial body to Earth - nearly 850 pounds of Moon rock

STUDYING THE MOON

• 1994, a tiny spacecraft, Clementine, discovered possible indirect evidence for water ice on the Moon, in a permanently shadowed miles-deep crater at the south pole

• New (Mar 2014) NASA interactive map allows you to explore the Moon created from images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter whiched entered lunar orbit in June 2009

Sources• http://lunar.ksc.nasa.gov/history/moonh.html• http://philosophyofscienceportal.blogspot.ca/2010/04/francesco-mari

a-grimaldigiambattista.html• http://astronomyonline.org/solarsystem/moonintroduction.asp• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aldrin_Apollo_11_original.jpg• http://knlive.ctvnews.ca/new-nasa-interactive-let-s-you-explore-the-

moon-1.1738532• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing• http://www.optcorp.com/articles/galileo-galileis-moon-drawings• http://www.universetoday.com/19718/formation-of-the-moon/