SPACE PHYSICS

The Solar System

• The Solar System consists of the sun and eight planets together with the moons that
orbit them, comets, asteroids and meteoroids. The planets revolve around the sun in
elliptical orbits. Therefore, the sun is not positioned at the centre of the solar system. It
is only centrally positioned when these orbits are theoretically considered to be circular.
As a planet moves in this elliptical orbit about the sun, it is not at the same distance
from it. Therefore, the average distance of the planet is a more usual measure than the
actual distance about the sun.
• The sun is the biggest body in the solar system; the reason planets orbit it. It is a
medium-sized star, consisting mostly of the elements hydrogen and helium. Like many
stable stars, the energy produced by the sun is due to the fusion of the nuclei of hydrogen
isotopes into helium. The sun is the source of radiant energy in the solar system. It
radiates most of its energy in the infrared, visible and ultraviolet regions of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
• The first four planets from the sun are called inner planets. These planets are Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars. The inner planets are made from rocks, hence have high
densities. The last four planets are called outer planets. These planets are Jupitar,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The outer planets are made principally of gases, hence are
less dense. The inner planets are smaller than the outer planets.
• The gravitational force of attraction between the sun and the planets causes them to
move in their orbits about it. This force is greater if the planet has a big mass or orbits
closely to the sun. When a planet is relatively closer to the sun, it is radiated by the sun;
this increases its kinetic energy. As a result, it travels at a higher speed about the sun.
As its distance from the sun increases, its kinetic energy decreases. The loss in kinetic
energy is a gain in gravitational potential energy of the planet.
• Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and the closest to the sun. It has no
atmosphere.
• Venus, though not a star, is called the morning or evening star due to its beauty owing
to the light it reflects from the sun around these times. It is the hottest planet in the solar
system. It has an atmosphere that retains heat; this is the reason it is the hottest planet
but not mercury, the closest to the sun.

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 • Earth is the only planet that supports life. It has life-sustaining gases such as oxygen,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide and enormous amount of water. The earth has a core made
of Iron and Nickel. This makes it a magnet. Its magnetic south is located at its
geographic north and its magnetic north located at its geographic south.
• Mars is known as the red giant because its surface is made of iron, a reddish-brown
mineral.
• Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is made from gases, mainly hydrogen
and helium.
• Between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt. This belt contains many asteroids. There
are also asteroids that orbit close to the earth.
• Saturn is known for its planetary rings. Planetary rings are a feature of the outer planets.
However, those of Saturn are unique. These rings are made of dust, particles of ice and
pieces of rock. Saturn is also made mainly from hydrogen and helium gases.
• Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants. Their inner layers are made of ice and rocks.
Their outer layers are made from gases. Neptune is the coldest planet in the solar
system.
• All planets but Mercury and Venus have a minimum of one moon orbiting them.
• All planets but Venus and Uranus orbit the sun from west to east.
• The solar system is made of planets whose atmospheres have swallowed them up for
which reason they are classified as dwarf planets. These dwarf planets include Ceres,
Eris, Haumea, Makemake and Pluto.

Moon

• The moon is a celestial body, made from rocks, that orbits a planet. The moon is a
natural satellite because it orbits planets. The earth has one moon and many other
planets in the solar system have more than one moon.

Comet

• A comet is made of ice and dust particles and it is characterised by the production of a
tail of light as it gets closer to the sun. They are less dense compared to the inner planets
and orbit the sun in highly elliptical orbits. When a comet approaches the sun during its
journey around it, it is blown backwards by radiation pressure from the sun. In effect,
it develops a bright head and a long tail away from the sun.

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 • Comets are non-luminous; they reflect light that is incident on them from the sun. Like
planets, comets move in orbits.

Asteroids

Asteroids are pieces of planets, moons or lumps of rock left over when the solar system was
formed. Like the planets, they orbit the sun in elliptical orbits. Many asteroids are found in the
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite

• Meteoroids are solid rocky materials of varying sizes in space. They range from small
grains of rocks to asteroids.
• When meteoroids enter the earth’s atmosphere at high speeds and burn up, the resulting
fireball is called a meteor. These fireballs are often called shooting stars.
• When a meteoroid survives to reach the ground after entering the atmosphere of a
planet, it is called a meteorite.

The Origin of the Solar System

The Solar system of which the Earth is a part, was formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a
dense cloud of gas and dust. This cloud collapsed to form a nebula; a swirling disc of material.
The nebula formed the sun and produced a disc-like matter. The gravitational force of attraction
between the sun and the particles forming the disc caused them to come together and grow in
size to form a rotating accretion disc. It is from this disc that the planets were formed.

The fact that the planets rotate in a single plane is evident that the planets were formed out of
a rotating accretion disc. Planets that are made from solid materials could withstand the
temperature of the sun; the reason they are closer to it. The outer planets have gases that could
not withstand the temperature of the sun; hence their position from it.

The sun accounts for about 99 % of the mass of the solar system. As a result, it exerts a very
high gravitational force of attraction to keep planets orbiting around it.

Motion of The Earth

The earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5 o to the plane of its path around the sun. This is referred
to as the earth’s axis. The earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours. The rotation of the earth
about this axis causes day and night. As the earth rotates on its axis, the part of its surface that
faces the sun experiences day and the part that receives minimum or no light experiences night.
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The tilting of the earth causes difference in hours of day and night in the Northern and Southern
hemispheres. When the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, it has shorter days
and it has longer days when it is tilted towards the sun. On 21st March and 23rd September each
year, both the northern and southern hemisphere experience approximately equal lengths of
day and night, a phenomenon called equinox.

The Earth revolves around the sun from west to east. It takes about 365.25 days to make a
complete revolution about the sun. The revolution of the earth causes changes in the four
seasons; autumn, spring, summer and winter. When the southern hemisphere is tilted away
from the sun, it experiences winter and autumn. At the same time, the northern hemisphere
experiences summer and spring because it is tilted towards the sun.

Places closer to the equator receive a high amount of sunshine throughout the year. As a result,
their average annual temperatures are higher than places in temperate zones. In addition, since
they are evenly illuminated, there is small variation in temperature in equatorial zones. On the
other hand, places in temperate zones are illuminated by different amounts by the light from
the sun. These differences in intensity of light account for the greater variation in temperature
in these places.

Motion of the Moon

The moon revolves around the earth in an elliptical orbit. It is the earth’s natural satellite. The
same side of the moon always faces the earth as it orbits it. This is because the moon’s orbital
rotation is equal to its orbital period about the earth (The time taken to rotate completely about
its axis is equal to the time it takes to revolve around the earth). It takes the moon about 27.3
days to complete a revolution about the earth.

The moon is a non-luminous object; it reflects that light that is incident on it from the sun.
Depending on where the moon is as it orbits the Earth, the shape of the moon changes based
on the light that illuminates it. At full moon, the part of the moon that is illuminated by the sun
is observed. As less of the moon is illuminated by the sun, the moon assumes different shapes
until it is out of the view of observers on Earth (the far side of the moon faces the sun). At this
point, there is a new moon. (NB: Please read on the eight phases of the moon cycle and
watch the video sent to your WhatsApp page as well)

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Orbital Period (T)

It is the time taken by an astronomical object to complete a revolution about an object it orbits.

Orbital Speed (v)

The orbital speed of an astronomical object is the average distance travelled by the object
during its orbit about a star or planet per unit time.

When we assume that the orbit of a planet about a star or a satellite (the moon) about a planet
is circular and the average radius of the orbit is R, then the orbital speed, v is:

v = 2 𝜋R/T (Circumference of orbit/Orbital Period)

The orbital radius of a planet is longer the further away it is from the planet.

Question

The Earth is 150 million kilometres from the sun. It takes 365 days for the earth to orbit the
sun. Calculate the orbital speed of the Earth.

Solution

R =150 000 000 000 m

T = 365×24×60×60 s

v = 2 𝜋R/T

v = = 2 𝜋 × 1.5×1011/ 3.2×107 s

v = 2.9 ×104 ms-1

Stars and the Universe

• A star is a celestial body that produces its own light and heat. Stars are powered by
nuclear reactions that release energy. In stable stars, the nuclear reactions involve the
fusion of hydrogen (fuel) nuclei into a helium nucleus.
• A group of stars is called a galaxy.
• The Earth’s star, the sun, is located in a galaxy called the milky way. It is closest to the
Earth compared to other stars within the milky way.

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 • The astronomical distances among stars in a galaxy is measured in light-year. One light-
year is the distance travelled by light in one year in space and it is equal to 9.5 × 10 15
m.
Question
The sun is about 149 million kilometres form the Earth. How far is this distance in light-year?
Solution
149 million kilometres = 149 billion metres (1.49 ×1011 m).
1 light-year = 9.5 × 1015 m
1.49 ×1011 m;
= (1.49 ×1011 m /9.5 × 1015 m)
=1.6 × 10-5 light-year

The Life Cycle of a Star

• A star is formed from interstellar clouds of gas such as hydrogen and dust called nebula.
With time, the hydrogen gas in the nebula is pulled together by the gravitational force
of attraction, causing it to rotate. As the speed of rotation of the cloud of hydrogen gas
increases, its temperature increases and a protostar is formed (A protostar is an
interstellar cloud collapsing and increasing in temperature because of its internal
gravitational force of attraction).
• A further increase in the temperature of the protostar causes nuclei of the hydrogen to
fuse into helium and heat is produced. The heat in the core of the protostar generates an
outward force that balances the inward gravitational force of attraction. In effect the
protostar becomes a stable star. It is now a main sequence star, glowing brightly for
many years.
• When a star runs out of hydrogen in its core, less heat is produced from nuclear fusion,
the core contracts and becomes unstable. The outer part of the star, still made from
hydrogen gas, expands. The temperature of the star falls and it glows red. Thus, a red
giant is formed. It is a giant because it has expanded and red because it has less energy
to sustain its brightness. More massive stars become red supergiants. In red a
supergiant, helium fuses into carbon.
• A red giant from a less massive star (about the size of the sun) forms a planetary nebula
with a white dwarf star at its centre. Eventually, the white dwarf cools to become a
black dwarf. A red supergiant explodes as a supernova, forming a nebula containing

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 hydrogen and new heavier elements such as iron, gold, silver and uranium, leaving
behind a neutron star or a black hole at its centre. The nebula from a supernova may
form new stars with orbiting planets.

The Universe
• The milky way is one of the millions of galaxies that make up the Universe. Its diameter
is about 100, 000 light-years.
• The Universe is expanding; the light from stars in distant galaxies is shifted towards the
red end of the visible light spectrum. If a galaxy is receding from the Earth, the light
emitted by a star relative to the Earth has a longer wavelength characteristic of red light.
This process is called redshift.
• Redshift is a consequence of the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect refers to the change
in the wavelength (or frequency) of a wave when there is relative motion between the
source of the wave and an observer. The phenomenon also occurs in sound waves. It
explains the rise or fall in the pitch of sound produced by the siren of an ambulance
when it moves towards or passes an observer.
• The extent to which the light from a star is redshifted determines the speed at which the
galaxy it is associated with is receding.
• The redshift in the light from distant galaxies provides evidence that the Universe is
expanding and gives support to the Big Bang Theory.
• The Big Bang Theory postulates that the Universe was created in a single massive
explosion that led to the existence of most of the matter available presently and the
physical laws that govern it. The fact that galaxies are receding means that their
components originated from a common source.
• The Big Bang produced cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). This
radiation has a specific frequency and is present at all points in space around us. This
radiation has been expanded into the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum
as the Universe expanded.
• The speed, v at which a galaxy is moving away from the Earth can be found from the
change in wavelength of the galaxy’s starlight due to redshift. The distance of a far
galaxy, d can be determined using the brightness of a supernova in that galaxy.
• Edwin Hubble discovered that the speed of recession, v of a galaxy is directly
proportional to its distance away from the point at which it is observed.

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 vαd
v = Hod
Ho = v/d
Where Ho is the Hubble constant.
Hubble constant is the ratio of the speed at which a galaxy is moving away from the
Earth to its distance from the Earth. Its S.I unit is per second (s-1). The current estimate
of the Hubble constant is 2.2××10-18 s-1.
• The ratio d/v = 1/Ho provides an estimate of the Universe. From this equation, the age
of the Universe is approximately 4.5 ×1017 s (1/ is 2.2××10-18). 1 year is approximately
equal to 3.2×107 s (365×24×60×60). Thus, the universe is approximately 14 billion
years old (4.5 ×1017/ to 3.2×107).

Question
The Hubble constant H0 is equal to 2.2 × 10-18 s-1. A galaxy is moving from the Earth at a speed
of 2.4 × 105 ms-1. Calculate the distance from the Earth of the galaxy in;
(a) Metre per second
(b) Light-year
Solution
(a) v = Hod
d =v/Ho
d = 2.4 × 105 /2.2 × 10-18
d = 1.1 × 1023 m

(b) 1 light-year = 9.5 × 1015 m

1.1 × 1023 m;
= (1.1 × 1023 m /9.5 × 1015 m)
= 1.2 ×107 light-year