SCIENCE 10

2 ND
LONG EXAM REVIEWER
NOVEMBER 6-10, 2023

MODULE 3: FORMATION OF STARS

SOLAR SYSTEM 101 VIDEO

 The solar system came into being about 4.5 Billion years ago when a cloud of interstellar
gas and dust collapsed resulting in the solar nebulla (a swirling disc of material that
collided to form the solar system).
 The solar system is located in the Milky Way’s Orion star cluster.
 Only 15%of stars in the galaxy host planetary systems, and one of that is the sun.
 There are 8 planets that revolve around the sun. The planets are divided into two
categories based on their composition, TERRESTRIAL (mercury, venus, earth, mars)
and JOVIAN (jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune).
 Planets mercury, venus, earth, mars are part of terrestrial because they are made of rock
material, their surfaces are solid, they don’t have ring systems, they have very few or no
moons, and are relatively small.
 Mercury: smallest planet, shortest orbit in the solar system in about 3 earth months.
 Venus: hottest planet of up to 867 degrees Fahrenheit due to atmosphere of carbon
dioxide and extensive lava flows.
 Earth: Water systems help create only known environment to sustain life.
 Mars: might have also supported life about 3.7 billion years ago, when the planet had a
watery surface, and moist atmosphere.
 Gas giants jupiter, saturn are predominantly made of helium and hydrogen
 Ice giants uranus, neptune contain rock, ice, and mixture of water, methane, and
ammonia.
 All Jovian planets has multiple moons, support ring systems, has no solid surface, and
are immense in size.
 Jupiter: largest jovian and planet
 Saturn: second largest, rings are wide enough to fit earth and the moon but barely a
kilometer thick (.62 miles).
 Uranus: rotating on its side
 Naptune: outer most planet and one of the coldest (-353 degrees Fahrenheit)
 Asteriod belt: orbiting the terrestrial planets, a flat disc of rocky objects full of remnants
from the solar system’s formation (microscopic to dust particles) to the largest known
object the dwarf planet Ceres.
 Kuiper Belt: disc of space debris that orbits the Jovian planets, home of the dwarf planet
Pluto and birthplace of many comets.
 Oort Cloud: Beyond the Kuiper belt, a vast, spherical collection of icy debris, edge of the
solar system since here ends the gravitational and physical influences of the sun.
FORMATION OF STARS
 “The First Stars in the Universe,” Richard Larson and Volker Bromm (2009): The
universe was featureless and dark for a long stretch of its early history – the
Cosmic Dark Ages. The first stars did not appear until perhaps 100 million years
after the Big Bang, and nearly a billion years passed before galaxies proliferated
across the cosmos. Using sophisticated computer simulation techniques,
cosmologists have devised models that show how the density fluctuations left
over from the Big Bang could have evolved into the first stars. The new models
indicate that the first stars were most likely quite massive and luminous and that
their formation was an epochal event that fundamentally changed the universe
and its subsequent evolution. These stars altered the dynamics of the cosmos by
heating and ionizing the surrounding gases. The earliest stars also produced and
dispersed the first heavy elements, paving the way for the eventual formation of
solar systems like our own. And the collapse of some of the first stars may have
seeded the growth of supermassive black holes that formed in the hearts of
galaxies and became the spectacular power sources of quasars. In short, the
earliest stars made possible the emergence of the universe that we see today –
everything from galaxies and quasars to planets and people.

 The first small systems capable of forming stars appeared between 100 million
and 250 million years after the Big Bang. These first protogalaxies consisted
mostly of dark matter, a type of matter which does not interact with the
electromagnetic force. This means it does not absorb, reflect, or emit light,
making it extremely hard to detect. Researchers have been able to infer the
existence of dark matter from the gravitational effect it seems to have on visible
matter. Dark matter seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making
 up about 27% of the universe. The matter we know and that makes up all stars
and galaxies only accounts for 5% of the content of the universe.
 The first protogalaxies also contained no significant amounts of any elements
besides hydrogen and helium. The Big Bang produced hydrogen and helium, but
most of the heavier elements are created only by the thermonuclear fusion
reactions in stars, so they would not have been present before the first stars had
formed. The very first generation of stars, called Population III stars, were stars
with no metals at all. The old metal-poor stars are called Population II stars,
while young metal-rich stars are called Population I.
 Protogalaxies were 100,000 to one million times more massive than the sun and
would have measured about 30 to 100 light-years across. In the absence of
metals, the physics of the first star-forming systems would have been much
simpler than that of present-day molecular gas clouds. In contrast, the stars that
arise from molecular gas clouds are born in complex environments that have
been altered by the effects of previous star formation.

COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THE FORMATION OF STARS AND PLANETS

1. Solar Nebula. Around 4.6 billion years ago, a vast cloud of gas and dust, called the
solar nebula, existed in space. This cloud was composed mostly of hydrogen and
helium, with traces of heavier elements. A disturbance, possibly from a nearby
supernova or shockwave, caused the nebula to begin collapsing due to gravity.

2. Nucleosynthesis. Inside the collapsing nebula, nuclear fusion reactions and other
processes began, leading to the formation of heavier elements from lighter ones.
Elements such as carbon, oxygen, iron, and others were formed through
nucleosynthesis within stars or in stellar explosions (supernovae).

3. Formation of Old Stars. As the nebula continued to contract, the center became
dense and hot enough to initiate nuclear fusion, creating the first stars in the universe.
These early stars synthesized more complex elements through their life cycles before
eventually exhausting their nuclear fuel and dying, sometimes in supernova
explosions, scattering these heavier elements back into space.

4. Formation of the Sun. Within the solar nebula, a concentration of gas and dust
formed a protostar at the center. Gravitational forces caused it to grow, and as it
accumulated more mass, the pressure and temperature at its core increased. Around
4.6 billion years ago, the Sun was born as a stable, main-sequence star, generating
energy through nuclear fusion at its core.

5. Formation of Planets. The remaining material in the solar nebula started to form
protoplanetary disks around the Sun. These disks contained gas, dust, and debris.
Particles began to collide, sticking together and growing into planetesimals, which
further accumulated to form planets. The inner planets, including Earth, were mostly
composed of rocky materials, while the outer planets were made of gases and icy
compounds.

6. Formation of Earth and the Moon. A hypothesized event called the Giant Impact
Hypothesis suggests that the Moon was formed when a Mars-sized object collided
with the young Earth, ejecting debris that eventually coalesced to form the Moon.
This collision also contributed to the Earth's formation and might explain the Moon's
relatively low density compared to Earth.
MODULE 4: NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

 Nucleosynthesis is the formation of elements.

Big bang Nucleosynthesis:

After the Big Bang, the universe cooled and expanded forming the first elements.
These are just the nuclei of the element not full atoms (ions or missing electrons).
The nuclei formation of hydrogen and helium started 3 minutes after the Big bang.
The first elements to form was hydrogen and helium. After more cooling and
expansion, helium nuclei were able to attract and hold on to electrons. This allowed
them to from full neutral atoms took until 300,000 years after Big bang.

There was a key ratio that happened of 75% hydrogen and 25% helium until today
which serve as key evidence of the Big Bang. The formation of hydrogen and helium
no longer takes place in larger events so all hydrogen and helium all came from the
big bang.

Stellar Nucleosynthesis:

This takes place to the process of fusion (extremely hit and lot of pressure) in the
center of the stars and is responsible in the formation of elements from Helium to Iron.
This match up smaller elements to form large ones. Young stars use hydrogen and
helium to fuel fusion in their cords. The hydrogen and helium are smashed within the
center of the stars at high temperature (15 million degrees) and force that allows the
elements to stick together. As it uses hydrogen and helium to fuel, it will eventually
collapse on itself increasing temperature and pressure following the collapse of star
and now fuse heavier elements.

Note: No stars can fuse elements heavier than iron. It is because there is not enough
neutrons in their core.

Supernova nucleosynthesis:

The rest of heavier elements than iron are formed in supernova nucleosynthesis.
These elements were formed during the very violent explosions that happen in
supernova. After the collapse of stars, it pushes away elements inside of it out into
the space.

2 key characteristics in forming heavier elements than iron are

Supernova tempertaure can reach 100 billion degrees Celsius, 600x the sun and
supernova explosions have extreme numbers of neutrons which allows heavier
elements than iron to form or all other natural elements found in the periodic table.