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This is a sandbox.

This is a sandbox.

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Mystery: How Our Solar System Formed

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Our solar system is clearly able to be broken down into three main types of planets.

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==Terrestrial Planets==

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Terrestrial Planets are small planets are found near to the sun orbiting within ~1.7 AU at speeds under 779 days/orbit. They are made mostly of rocky or metallic substances.

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Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are Terrestrial Planets in our solar system. 

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==Gas Giants==

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Gas Giants are very large planets found fairly far away from the sun orbiting further than 5 AU and orbiting at slowly at speeds from over 4000 days/orbit. They are very massive having 100-300 earth masses. Formed mainly of Hydrogen and Helium, and are theorised to have a small, dense solid core in the center.

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Jupiter and Saturn are traditional Gas Giants in our solar system.

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==Ice Giants==

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Ice Giants are really sub-class of Gas Giants, they orbit further out than the traditional gas giants, over 10 AU and slowly at speeds of 30-60,000 days/orbit. Their composition is distinctly different too, whilst still formed mostly of Hydrogen and Helium like the traditional Gas Giants they also contain an unsual amount of ice particles of materials like water, ammonia and methane.

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==Formation of the Solar System==

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So what can we learn from the differences and similarities of the the various planets in our solar systems about the formation of our solar system? The first interesting and noticable thing about the solar system is the materials from which it is made. 71% of the system is hydrogen, 28% is Helium

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Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe however helium is almost entirely created within the fusion reaction that powers stars. The fact that our solar system is composed of 28% hydrogen suggests that the material that created our solar system was created within a star. Large giant stars with a masses over 8 times the mass of our suns burn very bright, this can lead to their hydrogen being (relatively) quickly burn and converted to helium. When the hydrogen is used to a certain critical amount, and the power of the nuclear fusion in the core cannot maintain the balance of force with the massive gravity of the sun the core begins to crush in on itself. This crushing massively increases the heat of the core, from tens of millions of degrees kelvin, to hundreds of millions of degrees kelvin.

User:SCarter/GaseousPlanetFormation - Revision history

SCarter: work in progess

SCarter: New page: This is a sandbox.

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:36, September 7, 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
	This is a sandbox.		This is a sandbox.
		+
		+	Mystery: How Our Solar System Formed
		+
		+	Our solar system is clearly able to be broken down into three main types of planets.
		+
		+	==Terrestrial Planets==
		+	Terrestrial Planets are small planets are found near to the sun orbiting within ~1.7 AU at speeds under 779 days/orbit. They are made mostly of rocky or metallic substances.
		+	Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are Terrestrial Planets in our solar system.
		+
		+	==Gas Giants==
		+	Gas Giants are very large planets found fairly far away from the sun orbiting further than 5 AU and orbiting at slowly at speeds from over 4000 days/orbit. They are very massive having 100-300 earth masses. Formed mainly of Hydrogen and Helium, and are theorised to have a small, dense solid core in the center.
		+	Jupiter and Saturn are traditional Gas Giants in our solar system.
		+
		+	==Ice Giants==
		+	Ice Giants are really sub-class of Gas Giants, they orbit further out than the traditional gas giants, over 10 AU and slowly at speeds of 30-60,000 days/orbit. Their composition is distinctly different too, whilst still formed mostly of Hydrogen and Helium like the traditional Gas Giants they also contain an unsual amount of ice particles of materials like water, ammonia and methane.
		+
		+	==Formation of the Solar System==
		+	So what can we learn from the differences and similarities of the the various planets in our solar systems about the formation of our solar system? The first interesting and noticable thing about the solar system is the materials from which it is made. 71% of the system is hydrogen, 28% is Helium
		+
		+	Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe however helium is almost entirely created within the fusion reaction that powers stars. The fact that our solar system is composed of 28% hydrogen suggests that the material that created our solar system was created within a star. Large giant stars with a masses over 8 times the mass of our suns burn very bright, this can lead to their hydrogen being (relatively) quickly burn and converted to helium. When the hydrogen is used to a certain critical amount, and the power of the nuclear fusion in the core cannot maintain the balance of force with the massive gravity of the sun the core begins to crush in on itself. This crushing massively increases the heat of the core, from tens of millions of degrees kelvin, to hundreds of millions of degrees kelvin.