Earth And The Solar System - 1041 Words

Each and every planet, moon, and rock in our solar system is different in many different ways. Surprisingly a lot of the known knowledge about our planets comes from guessing. Well not just random guessing smart guessing. Studying Earth can tell us a lot about other planets and what they are made of. Let’s start at the core of planets, literally. Terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars have cores made of Iron. While the Jovian planets like Saturn and Jupiter have rocky cores. Scientists have multiple ways to probe the interiors of planets. The cores of each planet are a mixture of both solid and/or liquid. Planets spin just like a top, they wobble. The wobble in a planet is called precession. If a planet twists as it wobbles chances are it†¦show more content†¦When you fly a spacecraft near a planet you can measure how it is affected by the gravity. When the spacecraft flies closer to a planet it becomes more affected by the inner layers of the planets interior. Chemi cal fractionation is the process early in the formation of a planet that influences its structure of its interior is gravity. Gravity causes heavier elements to sink to the core of a planet. The thickness of a planet s crust is directly proportional to the rate at which the planet cooled in the past. Smaller planets cool faster. The cooling rate is proportional to the total mass of the planet. Large planets cool slower and have thinner crusts. High cooling rates also determine the interior structure. Slower cooling rates implies that planets still have warm interiors now. Warmer interiors imply more a diversified structure. This is why mars is red, since it is smaller it cooled faster and elements like iron stayed on the surface before sinking toward the core, which is why it also doesn’t have a strong magnetic field like Earth. It is also worth noting that a thicker crust means less tectonic activity. The best way to determine a terrestrial planets interior is by using seismology. A device called a seismometer measures sheers from Earth quakes, or Moon/Mars quakes. When a planet quakes it sends waves rippling through the planets interior, the denser the layer the shorter the wavelength. Of course thereShow MoreRelatedThe Formation Of Prebiotic Compounds On Early Earth And The Solar System2316 Words   |  10 PagesThe Formation of Prebiotic Compounds on Early Earth and in the Solar System By Trevor Harrison GE 70A: Evolution of Cosmos and Life Scientists have long sought to understand the origin of prebiotic compounds and its transition into self-replicating biological structures, both as an explanation for life’s emergence on earth and as an assessment of the abundance of life in the solar system and the galaxy. In 1952, Stanley L. Miller and Harold C. Urey performed experiments demonstrating that theRead MoreSome people might know about the Earth, but what about the solar system? 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