solar system origins


Why Earth? The Origin of Water in Our Solar System (Spring 2018)

The building blocks of water, along with other minerals, have travelled through the universe on tiny specks of space dust since the big bang. What is really interesting though, is how it managed to arrive in life-giving form to our solar system and our planet. There are many speculated theories as to how water arrived on earth, and it may be any combination of theories that resulted in the massive amount of water on earth specifically. As a general belief, earth likely contained some water at its inception that did not show itself for many years due to the hot volcanic surface that took awhile to cool down and allow earths water, whether in steam or at the core, to arrive at the surface. The rest of our water likely arrived from collisions with compounded space dust, either comets or meteorites from the Oort Cloud. However we are not the only planet in our system that has retained water, others have it in different forms and different amounts. What can be agreed upon, is that we as earth-dwellers are in the most uniquely life-giving position in our solar system.


Planetary Migration (Winter 2018)

The location of a planet at this moment could be deceiving; the spot it is currently in might not be where it always has been, or where it is going to end up. Planetary Migration is the movement of planets in a solar system. There are many different theories and hypotheses on how our solar system came to be; although, planetary migration is one of the most widely-accepted by scientists. There are multiple different types of migration that help to explain the different ways in which this movement is described. The Nice model is currently the best understanding of how the planets have moved throughout time. This model was proposed by an international collaboration of scientists in 2005 and is used to explain the evolution of the solar system. The Nice model suggests that "at the inner edge of the icy disk, some 35 AU from the Sun, the outermost planet began interacting with icy planetesimals, influencing the second sort of migration to occur: gravitational scattering." Planetary migration is a very large topic with many subtopics. We have explored the main topics and subtopics in depth and will be explaining them below.


Theories Through the Ages: How Old is The Solar System? (Fall 2017)

The age of the Solar System has been studied throughout the world for hundreds of years and is a question that will likely never have an answer with complete certainty. Existence as we know it, did not develop from a timeline. Mankind has had an intrinsic motivation to know how we came to be, where we came from, and why we are here existing. Attempts have been made throughout the course of history into how the solar system formed, specifically how long formation would have occurred. Without the use of something convenient such as time travel, academics were restricted to the information available to them. This article will touch on some of the more prevalent theories pertaining to the age of the solar system, and divulge into their utility over the course of human history. Solar System theories will be divided pertaining to age and formation into two categories, early attempts and recent theories. The early attempts such as those from biblical eras, will briefly discuss theories that have been disproven. While more recent theories developed in the latter portion of human existence, will reflect those that are still relevant today. Five main theories presented are; Vortex, Nebular, Patterson, Apollo Missions, and Late Heavy Bombardment. Our team chose to focus on those five because, they each contribute aspects into the general question of the age of the solar system – as well as providing insight into the ever large daunting task of establishing a definitive age with limited resources. Through these theoretical advances, theories are able to be evaluated and reconsidered, allowing progressive understanding in regards to the age of the Solar System.


Courtesy of NASA/ESA/J. Hester/A. Loll

How Do We Know Our Solar System Formed from Stardust? (Winter 2016)

The solar nebular hypothesis is a widely used theory to explain how our solar system formed. By assuming a giant gas cloud condensed to form our solar system the project will then explore where the cloud came from. Assuming the cloud came from and is made up of star dust, which creates the fuel for the solar nebula. To provide supporting truth to this statement the research project will explore the work Cecilia Payne and Arthur Eddington.