EARTH SCIENCE the oscillating universe deemed, the inflation never

- Includes all fields of natural science related to stops.

the planet Earth.
- This is a branch of science dealing with the ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
physical constitution of the Earth and its
atmosphere. Encounter Hypothesis
- Earth science is the study of our planet's physical As the name suggests, the encounter
characteristics, from earthquakes to raindrops, hypothesis states that the sun encountered a rogue
and floods to fossils. star. Upon the encounter, hot gas was removed from
both stars due to their gravitational interaction. The
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE hot gas then accumulated and formed the planets.
The material from the less dense rogue star formed
Big Bang Theory the outer planets, while that from the sun formed the
The big bang is the event about 13.7 billion inner planets.
years ago when time, space, matter and energy
came into existence. This event started from a hot, Protoplanet Hypothesis
dense state that has undergone inflation- a short but The protoplanet hypothesis suggests that a
rapid expansion- to become the universe that is cloud of gas and dust, about 10 million kilometres in
known today. diameter, rotated slowly. Then either because of its
The idea of the big bang started in 1927 own gravity or by the explosion of a passing star, the
when Georges Lemaitre deduced that if Einstein’s cloud of gas and dust began to collapse. The
general theory of relativity was true, the universe collapse reduced the size of the cloud, resulting to its
must be expanding. Not many scientist took notice increased rotation. The compression made the
of his work, so when Edwin Hubble discovered that interior of the cloud hot, resulting to a hydrogen
the galaxies are moving away from each other at fusion which formed the sun. Surrounding the sun was
high speeds, Lemaitre used Hubble’s discovery to a great plate-like disk containing a huge whirlpool
support his theory. And from the discovery of the (eddies) where matter accumulated due to friction.
expanding universe, he hypothesized that there was The whirlpool or eddies shrank into compact masses,
once a primordial atom that contained everything in forming the protoplanets that later became the
the universe. planets and moons.

Steady State Theory Nebular Hypothesis and Solar Nebula Theory

During the time when the big bang theory Out of many proposed theories for the
was still being established, Fred Hoyle and his formation of the Solar System, the nebular hypothesis
colleagues, Herman Bondi and Tommy Gold, that was first proposed by Immanuel Kant and Pierre
proposed another theory on the origin of the Simon Laplace was the most favoured model.
universe. The steady state theory assumed that the According to this hypothesis, the Solar system was
universe has always been and will always be the formed from a slowly-rotating cloud of gas or nebula
same. This idea was based on the cosmological that collapsed and flattened. Its hot central region
principle that the universe is uniform in space and became the sun, while its surrounding materials
has unchanging time. The proponents also believed became the planets and other objects. But
that new matter is created as the universe expands according to calculations, the solar nebula would
(keeping the density the same) and that the age of not be able to form the rings nor the planets. Thus, a
stars will stay the same. more sophisticated version of the nebular hypothesis
The steady state theory was tested and was was developed wherein interstellar dust is included.
compared to the big bang theory. One of its This is called the solar nebula theory. This idea
advantages over the big bang theory is the combined the idea of a flattening solar nebula with
calculation that the universe is only a few billion that of a condensing interstellar dust as the nebula
years old-almost as old as the Solar System- which is cooled, which serves as a condensation nuclei
not possible. This was disproved because several where matter accumulated.
evidence suggested that the universe is in fact
changing.
EARTH AS THE ONLY HABITABLE PLANET
Oscillating Universe and Eternal Inflation Theory
The big bang theory implies that the universe The solar system is composed of the sun and the
may end someday. From this implication, the eight planets revolving around it. Among all those
oscillating universe theory proposed that the eight planets, only one can support life: Earth. But
universe currently exists between the big bang and how come Earth can support life while the other
the big crunch, one of the predicted ends of the planets cannot?
universe. The theory also believes that the current There are two major requirements for a
universe is just one of the many series of universe planet to become habitable. First, the star should
created by a cycle of big bangs and big crunches. survive long enough for its planets to develop life.
On the other hand, the eternal inflation theory Second, the planet should exist in a region where
supposes that instead of ending in a big crunch as water could remain liquid. The first requirement
indicates that massive stars would have the least Geosphere
possibility to be habitable since they can only live for Beneath the atmosphere is the solid region of
a relatively short period. Compared to medium-mass the Earth-geosphere. It does not only comprise the
stars, such as the sun, which can survive long enough visible solid layer, it also extends to the center of
for life to develop. Earth. It is divided into different layers: crust, mantle,
outer core, and inner core.
EARTH SPHERES
Earth is the third planet from the sun and the only Biosphere
planet in the solar system that can sustain life. The biosphere is the biological component of
Pictures taken from space describe Earth as “the Earth. It includes all of the microbes, plants, and
blue marble”, since what is mostly seen is the vast animals that can be found 1 km above sea level
oceans of the Earth that has a far larger area than down to the deepest parts of the oceans. It extends
the land. With these, it can clearly be seen that Earth to any place where life of any kind might exist. Under
is divided into different spheres: hydrosphere, the the biosphere is the anthroposhere of the “human
water portion; the atmosphere, the gaseous sphere.”
envelope; the geosphere, the solid components;
and the biosphere, the living component of Earth.

Hydrosphere
Earth is sometimes called the blue planet or
the blue marble because of its water component.
Water is unique because it exists naturally in three
phases. Water is such an important component to
sustain life on Earth. The hydrosphere makes up 71%
of Earth’s surface, most of it is saltwater found in the
oceans. It also includes freshwater found in glaciers,
rivers, streams, lakes, and underground aquifers and
streams. It is the freshwater part of the hydrosphere
that is important to living things. Groundwater is the
largest reservoir of water available to humans.

Atmosphere
The atmosphere is the tin, life-giving gaseous
envelope of Earth. Its composition is divided into the
major components and the variable components.
The major components includes the gaseous
compounds nitrogen and oxygen along with the
trace gases.
Water vapour and aerosols are the variable
components responsible for weather and climate.
Water vapour is needed for cloud formation and
atmospheric heat retention. Aerosols serve as
condensation nuclei for the water vapour because
it can absorb, reflect, and scatter incoming solar
radiation. Ozone is another variable component of
the atmosphere that protects Earth from harmful
ultraviolet radiation of the sun.
The atmosphere is divided into four different
layers: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and
thermosphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of
the atmosphere where temperature decreases with
altitude. It is about 11 km thick. All weather
phenomena occur in this layer. The boundary
between the troposphere and nest layer is called
tropopause.
Stratosphere is about 11 to 48 km from Earth’s
surface. Stratopause is the boundary between the
stratosphere and the next layer, the mesosphere. At
the mesosphere, temperature once again
decreases with altitude, reaching up to about – 90’C
(the coldest temperature in the atmosphere). The
mesopause separates the mesosphere and the layer
above it, the thermosphere. The thermosphere starts
at about 55 km and has no definite limit.