UNIVERSE

INTRO:
• In the earlier days, before the invention of astronomical instruments, people thought that Earth is the centre of all
the objects in the space.
• This was known as the geocentric model, held by Greek astronomer Ptolemy (2nd Century), Indian astronomer
Aryabhatta (5th Century) and many astronomers around the world.
• Later Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proposed the heliocentric model (helios =Sun), with Sun at the
centre of the solar system.
• Invention of the telescope in the Netherlands, in 1608, created a revolution in astronomy.
• In this lesson, we will study about the building blocks of the universe, Kepler's laws of motion, time period of
satellites and International Space Station (ISS).
BUILDING BLOCKED THE UNIVERSE:
• The basic constituent of the universe is luminous matter i.e., galaxies which are really the collection of billions of
stars.
• The universe contains everything that exists including the Earth, planets, stars, space, and galaxies.
• This includes all matter, energy and even time. No one knows how big the universe is. It could be infinitely large.
• Scientists, however, measure the size of the universe by what they can see.
• This is called the 'observable universe.
• The observable universe is around 93 billion light years (1 light year the distance that light travels in one year,
which is 9.4607 x 10 km) across.
• One of the interesting things about the universe is that it is currently expanding.
• It is growing larger and larger all the time.
• Not only is it growing larger, but the edge of the universe is expanding at a faster and faster rate.
• However, most of the universe what we think of is empty space.
• All the atoms together only make up around four percent of the universe.
• The majority of the universe consists of something scientists call dark matter and dark energy.
AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
• Scientists think that the universe began, with the start of a massive explosion called the Big Bang.
• According to Big Bang theory, all the matter in the universe was concentrated in a single point of hot
dense matter.
• About 13.7 billion years ago, an explosion occurred and all the matter were ejected in all directions in
the form of galaxies.
• Nearly all of the matter in the universe that we understand is made of hydrogen and helium, the
simplest elements, created in the Big Bang.
• The rest, including the oxygen, the carbon, calcium, and iron, and silicon are formed in the cores of
stars.
• The gravity that holds these stars together generally keeps these elements deep inside their interiors.
• When these stars explode, these fundamental building blocks of planetary systems are liberated
throughout the universe.
 GALAXIES
• Immediately after the Big Bang, clouds of gases began to compress under gravity to form the building blocks of
galaxies.
• A galaxy is a massive collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems.
• Scientists believe that there are one hundred billion (10") galaxies in the observable universe.
• Galaxies are also in different shapes.
• Depending on their appearance, galaxies are classified as spiral, elliptical, or irregular.
• Galaxies occur alone or in pairs, but they are more often parts of groups, clusters, and super clusters.
• Galaxies in such groups often interact and even merge together.
• Our Sun and all the planets in the solar system are in the Milky Way galaxy.
• There are many galaxies besides our Milky Way Andromeda galaxy is our closest neighboring galaxy.
• The Milky Way galaxy is spiral in shape.
• It is called Milky Way because it appears as a milky band of light in the sky.
• It is made up of approximately 100 billion stars and its diameter is 1,00,000 light years.
• Our solar system is 25,000 light years away from the centre of our galaxy.
• Just as the Earth goes around the Sun, the Sun goes around the centre of the galaxy and it takes 250 million years to
STARS
• Stars are the fundamental building blocks of galaxies.
• Stars were formed when the galaxies were formed during the Big Bang.
• Stars produce heat, light, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and other forms of radiation.
• They are largely composed of gas and plasma (a superheated state of matter). Stars are built by
hydrogen gases.
• Hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium atoms and in the process they produce large amount of
heat.
• In a dark night we can see nearly 3,000 stars with the naked eye.
• We don't know how many stars exist.
• Our universe contains more than 100 billion galaxies, and each of those galaxies may have more than
100 billion stars,though the stars appear to be alone, most of the stars exist as pairs.
• The brightness of a star depends on their intensity and the distance from the Earth.
• Stars also appear to be in different colours depending on
their temperature.
• Hot stars are white or blue, whereas cooler stars are
orange or red in colour.
• They also occur in many sizes.
• A group of stars forms an imaginary outline or
meaningful pattern on the space.
• They represent an animal, mythological personor
creature, a god, or an object.
• This group of stars is called constellations.
• People in different cultures and countries adopted their
own sets of constellation constellation.
• There are 88 formally accepted constellations.

Constellations
THE SOLAR SYSTEM

• Sun and the celestial bodies which

revolve around it form the solar
system.
• It consists of large number of bodies
such as planets, comets, asteroids and
meteors.
• The gravitational force of attraction
between the Sun and these objects
keep them revolving around it.
THE SUN
• The Sun is a medium sized star, a very fiery spinning ball of hot
gases.
• Three quarters of the Sun has hydrogen gas and one quarter has
helium gas.
• It is over a million times as big as the Earth.
• Hydrogen atoms combine or fuse together to form helium under
enormous pressure.
• This process, called nuclear fusion releases enormous amount of
energy as light and heat.
• It is this energy which makes Sun shine and provide heat.
• Sun is situated at the centre of the solar system.
• The strong gravitational fields cause other solar matter, mainly
planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids and other debris, to orbit
around it.
• Sun is believed to be more than 4.6 billion years old.
FORMATION OF THE SUN

• At the time of the Big Bang, hydrogen gas condensed to form huge clouds, which later concentrated and formed
the numerous galaxies.
• Some of the hydrogen gas was left free and started floating around in our galaxy.
• With time, due to some changes, this free floating hydrogen gas concentrated and paved way for the formation of
the Sun and solar system.
• Gradually, the Sun and the solar system turned into a slowly spinning molecular cloud, composed of hydrogen and
helium along with dust.
• The cloud started to undergo the process of compression, as a result of its own gravity.
• Its excessive and high-speed spinning ultimately resulted in its flattening into a giant disc.
PLANETS
• A planet revolves around the Sun along a definite curved path which is called an orbit.
• It is elliptical.
• The time taken by a planet to complete one revolution is called its period of revolution.
• Besides revolving around the Sun, a planet also rotates on its own axis like a top.
• The time taken by a planet to complete one rotation is called its period of rotation.
• The period of rotation of the Earth is 23 hours and 56 minutes and so the length of a day on Earth is taken
as 24 hours.
• The planets are spaced unevenly.
• The first four planets are relatively close together and close to the Sun.
• They form the inner solar system.
• Farther from the Sun is the outer solar system, where the planets are much more spread out.
• Thus the distance between Saturn and Uranus is much greater (about 20 times) than the distance between the
Earth and the Mars.
• The four planets grouped together in the inner solar system are Mercury, Venus, Barth and Mars.
• They are called inner planets.
• They have a surface of solid rock crust and so are called terrestrial or rocky planets.
• Their insides, surfaces and atmospheres are formed in a similar way and form similar pattern.
• Our planet, Earth can be taken as a model of the other three planets
• The four large planets Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus and Neptune spread out in the outer solar system and slowly orbit
the Sun are called outer planets.
• They are made of hydrogen, helium and other gases in huge amounts and have very dense atmosphere.
• They are known as gas giants and are called gaseous planets.
• The four outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have rings whereas the four inner planets do not
have any rings.
• The rings are actually tiny pieces of rock covered with ice.
• Now let us learn about each planet in the solar system.
MERCURY

• Mercury is a rocky planet nearest to the

Sun.
• It is very hot during day but very cold at
night.
• Mercury can be easily observed
thorough telescope than naked eye
since it is very faint and small.
• It always appears in the eastern horizon
or western horizon of the sky.
VENUS
• Venus is a special planet from the Sun, almost the same
size as the Earth.
• It is the hottest planet in our solar system.
• After our moon, it is the brightest heavenly body in our
night sky.
• This planet spins in the opposite direction to all other
planets.
• So, unlike Earth, the Sun rises in the west and sets in
the east here.
• Venus can be seen clearly through naked eye.
• It always appears in the horizon of eastern or western
sky
EARTH

• The Earth where we live is the only planet in the solar system
which supports life.
• Due to its right distance from the Sun it has the right
temperature, the presence of water and suitable atmosphere
and a blanket of ozone.
• All these have made continuation of life possible on the Earth.
• From space, the Earth appears bluish green due to the
reflection of light from water and land mass on its surface.
MARS

• The first planet outside the orbit of

the Earth is Mars.
• It appears slightly reddish and
therefore it is also called the red
planet.
• It has two small natural satellites
(Deimos and Phobos).
JUPITER

• Jupiter is called as Giant planet.

• It is the largest of all planets (about 11 times larger
and 318 times heavier than Earth).
• It has 3 rings and 65 moons.
• Its moon Ganymede is the largest moon of our solar
system.
SATURN

• Known for its bright shiny rings, Saturn appears yellowish

in colour.
• It is the second biggest and a giant gas planet in the outer
solar system.
• At least 60 moons are present the largest being Titan.
• Titan is the only moon in the solar system with clouds.
• Having least density of all (30 times less than Earth), this
planet is so light.
URANUS

• Uranus is a cold gas giant and it can be seen only

with the help of large telescope.
• It has a greatly tilted axis of rotation.
• As a result, in its orbital motion it appears to roll on
its side.
• Due to its peculiar tilt, it has the longest, summers
and winters each lasting 42 years.
NEPTUNE

• It appears as Greenish star.

• It is the eighth planet from the Sun and is the windiest
planet.
• Every 248 years, Pluto crosses its orbit.
• This situation continues for 20 years.
• It has 13 moons-Triton being the largest.
• Triton is the only moon in the solar system that moves in
the opposite direction to the direction in which its planet
spins.
OTHER BODIES OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

• Besides the eight planets, there are some other

bodies which revolve around the Sun.
• They are also members of the solar system.
ASTEROIDS

• There is a large gap in between the orbits of Mars and

Jupiter.
• This gap is occupied by a broad belt containing about half a
million pieces of rocks that were left over when the planets
were formed and now revolve around the Sun.
• These are called asteroids.
• The biggest asteroid is Ceres-946 km across.
• Every 50 million years, the Earth is hit by an asteroid
nearing 10 km across.
• Asteroids can only be seen through large telescope.
COMETS
• Comets are lumps of dust and ice that revolve around the Sun in highly
elliptical orbits. Their period of revolution is very long.
• When approaching the Sun, a comet vaporizes and forms a head and
tail.
• Some of the biggest comets ever seen had tails 160 million (16 crores)
km long .
• This is more than the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
• Many comets are known to appear periodically.
• One such comet is Halley's Comet, which appears after nearly every 76
years.
• It was last seen in 1986.
• It will next be seen in 2062
METEORS AND METEORITES

• Meteors are small piece of rocks scattered throughout the

solar system.
• Traveling with high speed, these small pieces come closer
to the Earth's atmosphere and are attracted by the
gravitational force of Earth.
• Most of them are burnt up by the heat generated due to
friction in the Earth's atmosphere.
• They are called meteors.
• Some of the bigger meteors may not be burnt completely
and they fall on the surface of Earth.
• These are called meteorites.
SATELLITES
• A body moving in orbit around a planet is called satellite.
• In order to distinguish them from the man made satellites
(called as artificial satellites), they are called as natural
satellites or moons.
• Satellite of the Earth is called Moon (other satellites are
written as moon).
• We can see the Earth's satellite Moon, because it reflects
the light of the Sun.
• Satellite moves around the planets due to gravity, and the
centripetal force.
• Among the planets in the solar system all the planets have
moons except Mercury and Venus.
 THANK YOU
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