Skip to main content

Why aren’t our Solar System’s planets and moons made from the same material?

Why aren’t our Solar System’s planets and moons made from the same material?

the solar system formed from the collapse of a molecular cloud consisting mostly of hydrogen, but also containing heavier elements. As the cloud collapsed, its central region began to heat up until eventually the hot ‘proto-sun’ was formed. the planets formed by the accretion of material from within this cloud. due to their high boiling points, only metals and silicates could exist in solid form in the hot, inner regions of the early solar system. More volatile elements either remained
gaseous or were blown away by the sun’s energy. since this heavy material existed mainly in the inner regions of the solar system, the planets that formed there are small and rocky. in the cold outer reaches of the solar system, compounds with low melting points could remain in solid form. these ices were also much more abundant than the heavier elements. the outer planets were therefore able to grow much larger, and held onto large atmospheres of hydrogen and helium gas. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do different countries use different mains voltages?

Why do different countries use different mains voltages? the biggest disparity is between the usA on 110V and most of the rest of the world on 230V. America’s lower voltage goes all the way back to thomas edison, who introduced direct current (dC) mains electricity at 110V. edison’s rival nikola tesla showed that long power lines transmitted alternating current (AC) more efficiently than dC. His AC approach won out, but he stuck with edison’s 110V. But by the time electrification spread to europe early in the 20th Century, lamps had filaments that could give out more light and handle greater power loads. so the Berliner elektrizitätswerke company in Germany established 230V as the standard. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Ten most dangerous animals in the world.

10 DANGEROUS ANIMALS 10 Poison dart frog (phyllobates terribilis)  Human deaths/year: Unknown living in the rainforest of colombia, this frog’s skin is coated with enough batrachotoxins to kill at least ten men. 09 Box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) human deaths: at least 60 since 1883 each of the sea wasp’s tentacles is armed with about 5000 stinging cells. 08 sloth bear (Melursus ursinus)  Human deaths/year: <2 like other bear species, sloth bears don’t predate humans, but chance encounters can result in deaths. 07 Great white shark (carcharodon carcharias)  Human deaths/year: <30 unprovoked shark attacks on humans are extremely rare – and fatalities even rarer. Great white, tiger and bull sharks are responsible for most. 06 lion (panthera leo) Human deaths/year: ≤100 lion attacks on humans often occur during harvests, but rare outbreaks of mass ‘maneating’ also occur. 05 African elephant (Loxodonta africana)  Human deaths...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do video games change the brain?

Do video games affect behaviour? Video games are likely able to affect the way we behave in a number of ways. For instance, there’s concern about whether violence in games makes young people more violent. It’s not uncommon for news outlets to blame games every time a crime happens, but how true is that claim? This is controversial even within the scientific community. Yes, exposure to violence seems to affect the brain, but studies have also found that we’re good at distinguishing between real and virtual violence, and aggressive behaviour is better explained by other, mainly socio-economic factors. Numerous studies about the effects of games on the brain had been published, but all that information had not been put together until now. How did you review the research?  We gathered all scientific articles to date and compared results. In total, we found 116 experiments, the first from the 1980s. Many compared regular video game players with people who had never played; other...
Post a Comment
Read more