The Earth
In I/GCSE Physics, the Earth is one of eight planets orbiting the sun in almost circular paths, together with other smaller objects including asteroids, dwarf planets, comets and moons. The solar system is made.
The smaller masses in our solar system are:
- Planets – eight large masses that orbit (move around the sun)
- Moons – small masses that orbit the planets
- Asteroids – small, rocky masses that orbit the Sun
- Comets – small, icy masses that orbit the sun
- Dwarf planets – small spherical objects that have not cleared their orbits of other objects
Solar system
The solar system was formed over a very long period of time, about 5000 million years ago:
❶ The solar system started as clouds of DUST and GAS, which were pulled together by the force of gravity
❷ Refer to I/GCSE Physics, this created intense heat. Eventually, NUCLEAR FUSION began to take place and a star was born: the Sun
❸ The remaining dust and gas formed smaller masses, which were attracted to the sun
Stars
Our sun is one of thousands of millions of stars which form the Milky Way. There are thousands of millions of galaxies and every galaxy is made up of thousands of millions of stars – all these galaxies make up the UNIVERSE.
- Diameter of the Earth
- Diameter of the Sun
- Diameter of the Earth’s orbit
- Diameter of the Solar system
- Distance from the Sun to the nearest star
- Diameter of the Milky way
- Distance from the Milky way to the nearest galaxy
When it comes to I/GCSE Physics, as stars are so far away, all the evidence we have about distant stars and galaxies come from the RADIATION astronomers can detect. A lot is shown when studying the ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION it emits – e.g. the colour the star appears shows its surface temperature.
That's for the Part 1~ Thanks for watching.
