You will now create an outline for your final assignment.
In this lesson you’ve learned the basics of our solar system, how gravity played a leading role in the creation of it and the movements that continue, the differences among our planets, and how we’ve explored our little corner of the cosmos. Through space exploration, humans have unraveled mysteries, from understanding planet compositions to discovering distant galaxies. But what will we learn next?
You took notes on almost every page of the lesson, and now it’s time to use them as well as any other evidence presented. You’ll compose your own multimedia project, or write a final essay, in which you describe and summarize all of the stellar knowledge you’ve collected by embarking on a journey beyond our solar system. Describe your adventure, detailing how you would get there and what you might encounter upon your arrival.
Use Organize It to outline your ideas. You can review your notes in “My Work” as well as any of the following videos and glossary terms.
Organize It!: Your work has been submitted.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Beyond making things go round, gravity– the invisible force that attracts mass to mass– had a starring role in the origin story of our solar system.
Back at the birth of our solar system, gravity formed our sun by condensing gas & dust (ie. mass) into a central location. That star grew in mass, which increased the gravity, which attracted more mass, until it became the sun we know today.
Meanwhile, in the outer regions, gas & dust formed into a spinning disk. Within this disk, debris accumulated (yes, due to gravity) and formed the planets. Born from the same spinning disk, all of the planets revolve in the same direction and on the same plane.
What the planets are made of is also due to gravity. Our mass greedy sun sucked up most of the gas and matter around it. This allowed formation of smaller, heat tolerant, dense (ie. terrestrial) planets closer in, while in the cooler regions, gas & ice formed the outer planets (ie. gas giants).
So as we approach our 4.571 billionth birthday, we can celebrate gravity- our founding force- and all it’s done to make our solar system go round.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Our little corner of the galaxy is home to 8 planets and each has individual features that make it unique (composition, size, density, movement).
When it comes to what they are made of, our planets come in two main “flavors”.
The small, rocky, terrestrial planets hang out close to the sun, while the gas giants occupy the outer regions.
Planets also come in different sizes- the smallest is a little bigger than Earth’s moon (Mercury), and the largest would fit 1,000 Earths inside (Jupiter).
Density- how much mass is packed into a certain space– also differs from planet to planet. The terrestrial planets are more dense, while the larger gas giants are less dense.
And finally, the planets differ in how they move. The further out the planet is in our solar system, the longer it takes to make a trip around the sun. And each planet has a unique rotation- some spin faster than Earth, some spin slower.
All of this makes for a pretty fun neighborhood, but one planet stands out.
Because of our composition and distance from the sun, Earth has a particular balance of liquid water, atmosphere, and temperature. Because of that, we steal the show with our variety, abundance and the, well, existence of life. Our biology is by far, the coolest party trick on the block.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Humans have been gazing up at the sky for as long as we’ve been human, and through the millenia, we’ve figured out a lot of details about our solar system. (ex. Images of early cultures: Mesopotamia, Greek, Egypt, Islamic age, Chinese, Mayans)
But only recently with the advent of modern science have we graduated from observing,
calculating and philosophizing to actively exploring our solar system, our galaxy, other galaxies, and the larger universe.
In just the past century…
We’ve gazed deeper into space (examples: Hubble Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope)
We’ve sent satellites and probes to and past other planets (examples: Curiosity/Perseverance rovers (Mars), Voyager (outer planets))
We’ve traveled to and lived in space (examples: Saturn V rocket, Apollo 11 Moon Landing, International Space Station)
Space exploration has done more for us than just simply making us feel really small, slightly insignificant, and seemingly alone… The inventions we needed to do all this exploration of space has changed how we live. From the lenses in telescopes, to more modern conveniences (ex. calculator, satellites, AppSTAR radio, camera phones) space science inventions have made it into our daily lives.