Birth and evolution of The Universe, Stars, The Solar System and the Earth’s Crust
by Pmfias.com
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 These topics are helpful for understanding Space and General Science related current affairs.
 These are high pain – low gain topics.
 Do not dig deep, just skim through the surface.
 Absolutely important facts are highlighted in Blue and Red colors.
1. The Universe................................................ 2
1.1 The Big Bang Theory ....................................... 2
Big Crunch...........................................................4
1.2 Redshift and Blueshift ..................................... 5
1.3 Cosmic microwave background (CMD) ........... 6
1.4 Accelerating expansion of the universe .......... 6
1.5 Dark energy ..................................................... 7
1.6 Dark matter ..................................................... 7
1.7 Anti-Matter ..................................................... 8
1.8 Gravitational waves ........................................ 8
Einstein’s theory of general relativity .................9
2. Star Formation (Stellar Evolution) ...............10
2.1 Nebula ........................................................... 11
2.2 Protostar ....................................................... 11
2.3 T Tauri star .................................................... 12
2.4 Main sequence stars ..................................... 12
Red dwarf .........................................................12
2.5 Red giant ....................................................... 12
Degenerate matter ...........................................13
2.6 Red Supergiant .............................................. 13
2.7 Planetary Nebula........................................... 13
2.8 White dwarf .................................................. 13
Nova..................................................................14
2.9 Supernova ..................................................... 14
Type I supernova or Type Ia supernova (read as
one-a) ...............................................................14
Type II supernova .............................................15
Importance of supernova: Creating and
dispersing new elements ..................................15
2.10 Black dwarf.................................................... 16
2.11 Brown Dwarfs ............................................... 16
2.12 Neutron stars ................................................ 16
2.13 Black holes .................................................... 16
2.14 Galaxy ........................................................... 17
Regular Galaxies ............................................... 18
Irregular Galaxies ............................................. 18
Our Galaxy (the Milky Way) ............................. 18
3. The Solar system ........................................ 19
3.1 Formation of the Solar System: Nuclear Disc
Model (neo-Laplacian model)................................... 19
Formation of the Sun ....................................... 20
The formation of planets.................................. 20
3.2 Components of the Solar System ................. 22
3.3 The Sun ......................................................... 23
3.4 The Sun’s Internal Structure and Atmosphere
24
Photosphere ..................................................... 24
Chromosphere.................................................. 25
Sunspot............................................................. 25
Solar Wind ........................................................ 25
Solar flares ........................................................ 26
Solar prominence ............................................. 27
Corona .............................................................. 27
3.5 Planets .......................................................... 27
Inner Planets .................................................... 30
Outer Planets ................................................... 35
Why are the inner planets rocky while the outer
planets are mostly in gaseous form? ............... 36
3.6 Other Solar System Objects .......................... 36
3.7 Solar System - Relevant Facts ....................... 39
Heliocentric vs Geocentric ............................... 39
Kepler's laws of planetary motion .................... 40
Ecliptic Plane .................................................... 40
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 Heliopause ........................................................40
Distant artificial objects exploring the Solar
System ..............................................................42
What’s the closest star to the Sun? ..................44
How do Astronomers Measure the Distance to
Stars? ................................................................45
4. The Geological Time Scale ...........................45
4.1 Hadean Eon................................................... 48
4.2 Archean Eon.................................................. 49
4.3 Proterozoic Eon ............................................ 49
4.4 Phanerozoic Eon ........................................... 51
Paleozoic Era .................................................... 52
Mesozoic Era .................................................... 56
Cenozoic Era ..................................................... 61

1. The Universe

Cosmos: another word for the universe.

Cosmic: relating to the universe or cosmos.
Cosmic rays: highly energetic atomic nucleus or other particle travelling through space at speed approaching
that of light. Direct exposure to cosmic rays can cause gene mutations resulting in cancer.
Cosmology: the scientific study of the large-scale properties of the universe as a whole ― NASA
Cosmological: relating to the origin and development of the universe.
Astronomy: the scientific study of celestial objects (stars, planets, comets, etc.) and phenomena that originate

outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the solar wind, gravitational waves, etc.) ― Sciencedaily.com

 The Universe is all existing matter & space. It is incomprehensively large (beyond mental grasp).
 The Universe consists of both physical (subatomic particles like electrons, protons to galactic super-clusters)
and non-physical (light, gravitation, space etc.) components.
 Most cosmologists believe that the universe was born about 13.8 billion years ago in an event called as
Big Bang (a gigantic explosion that caused matter to expand in all directions to form galaxies, stars, etc.)
 The universe, at present, is said to possess about 100 billion galaxies, each comprising an average of 100
billion stars.

 In comparison, Milky Way Galaxy is believed to possess 100 billion to 400 billion stars.

1,000,000 = 1 Million = 10 Lakhs; 1,000,000,000 = 1 Billion = 100 Crores; 1000,000,000,000 = 1 Trillion

1.1 The Big Bang Theory

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Time T in ◦c Event

10-43Sec 1032 The cosmos goes through a superfast “inflation,” expanding from the size of
an atom to that of a grapefruit in a tiny fraction of a second.

10-32Sec 1027 Post-inflation, the universe is a seething, hot soup of electrons, quarks and
other particles.

10-6 Sec 1013 A rapidly cooling cosmos permits quarks to clump into protons and neu-
trons.

3 min 108 Still too hot to form into atoms, charged electrons and protons prevent light
from shining: the universe is a superhot fog.

3,00,000 years 10,000 Electrons combine with protons and neutrons to form atoms, mostly hydro-
gen and helium. Light can finally shine.

1 billion years -200 Gravity makes hydrogen and helium gas coalesce to form the giant clouds
that will become galaxies: smaller clumps of gas collapse to form the first
stars.

15 billion years -270 As galaxies cluster together under gravity, the first stars die and spew heavy
elements into space: those will eventually turn into new stars and planets.

 The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the birth of the universe.
 It states that at some moment all of space was contained in a single point of very high-density and high-
temperature state from which the universe has been expanding in all directions ever since.

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 Modern measurements place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago.
 After the initial expansion (inflation), the universe cooled sufficiently to allow the formation of subatomic
particles and later simple atoms.
 The majority of atoms produced by the Big Bang were hydrogen and helium along with trace amounts
of lithium and beryllium.
 Giant clouds of these primordial elements (hydrogen and helium) later coalesced through gravity to form
stars and galaxies.

 According to this theory, the universe, ever since its birth, is expanding in all directions.

By en:User: Fredrik [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

 In 1964, the cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered, which was crucial evidence in fa-
vour of the Big Bang model.
 Other evidence such as cosmological redshift, gravitational waves, etc. have added weight to the big
bang theory.

Big Crunch

 At some point of times, the universe would reach a maximum size and then begin to collapse.
 It would become denser and hotter again, ending with a state similar to that in which it started — a Big
Crunch, the death of the universe.

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1.2 Redshift and Blueshift
 Redshift and Blueshift describe how light changes as objects in space (such as stars or galaxies) move closer

or farther away from us. The concept is key to charting the universe’s expansion.

 Visible light is a spectrum of colours, which is clear to anyone who has looked at a rainbow.
 When an object moves away from us, the light is shifted to the red end of the spectrum, as its wave-
lengths get longer.
 If an object moves closer, the light moves to the blue end of the spectrum, as its wavelength gets
shorter.
 American astronomer Edwin Hubble was the first to describe the redshift phenomenon (galactic redshift)
and tie it to an expanding universe (galaxies are drifting apart).
 Hubble's law: the farther away galaxies are, the faster they are moving away from Earth ― also known as
accelerating the expansion of the universe.

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1.3 Cosmic microwave background (CMD)
 With a traditional optical telescope, the space between stars and galaxies is completely dark.
 However, a sensitive radio telescope shows a faint background glow. This glow is strongest in the micro-

wave region of the radio spectrum, and hence it is called a cosmic microwave background.

Electromagnetic Spectrum (Inductiveload, via Wikimedia Commons)

 CMB has gone from high energy photons (gamma photons or X-ray photons) to low microwave photons
today due to the redshift from the expanding Universe.
 CMD, also known as relic radiation, is almost the same in all directions and it is not associated with any
star, galaxy, or other objects. It is the thermal radiation left over from the “Big Bang”.
 The CMB is fundamental to observational cosmology because it is the oldest light in the Universe and can
be found in all directions.
 As CMB is the radiation left over from an early stage in the development of the Universe, its discovery is

considered a landmark test for the Big Bang model of the Universe.

1.4 Accelerating expansion of the universe

 It is the observation that the expansion of the universe is such that the velocity at which a galaxy is moving
away from the observer is continuously increasing with time (Hubble’s law).
 It implies that the universe will get increasingly colder as matter spreads across in space.
 The accelerated expansion of the universe is thought to have begun since the universe entered its dark-
energy-dominated era roughly 5 billion years ago.

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 The accelerated expansion was discovered in 1998 using distant type Ia supernovae to measure the accel-
eration.

A type Ia supernova is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in
which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller

white dwarf.

 All Type Ia supernovae are thought to have nearly the same maximum brightness when they explode.
 Such consistency allows them to be used as beacons to measure the rate of expansion of the universe.
The weaker the light, the farther away the star is (cosmological redshift).

1.5 Dark energy

 Dark energy is an unknown form of energy which is hypothesised to permeate (spread throughout) all of

space, tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe.

Related or similar terminology

1.6 Dark matter

 The velocity of rotation for spiral galaxies depends on the amount of mass contained in them.
 But the outer arms of the Milky Way are rotating much too fast to be consistent with the amount of matter
that we know exists in them.
 Such fast rotation is possible only when there is more mass, and that extra mass is believed to come from
the dark matter.
 Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for approximately 85% of the mat-
ter in the universe.
 Dark energy plus dark matter constitutes 95.1% of the total content of the universe (the rest in the
normal matter). In short, we are unsure about what’s there in 95% of the universe!
 The majority of dark matter is thought to be composed of some as-yet-undiscovered subatomic particles.
 The name dark matter refers to the fact that it does not appear to interact with observable electromag-
netic radiation, such as light.
 It is thus invisible (or 'dark') to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, making it extremely difficult to
detect.
 Dark matter interacts with the rest of the universe only through its gravity (that’s how we know it exists).

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1.7 Anti-Matter
 It is hypothesized that every elementary particle in the Universe has a partner particle, known as an ‘anti-
particle’.
 The particle and its antiparticle share many similar characteristics, but many other properties are the
exact opposite.
 The electron, for example, has as its antiparticle the antielectron. They both have the same masses, but
they have exactly opposite electrical charges.
 Most of the human understanding of the antimatter comes from high energy accelerator experiments.
 When a matter particle meets its antimatter particle, they destroy each other completely (i.e. annihilation),
releasing the energy equivalent of their rest masses (following Einstein’s E = mc2).
 For instance, when an electron meets an antielectron, the two annihilate and produce a burst of light which
produces a corresponding energy level equivalent to the masses of the two particles.

1.8 Gravitational waves

 Gravitational waves are 'ripples' in the fabric of space-time caused by some of the most violent and
energetic processes in the Universe. (Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryrZwYguRQ)
 These ripples travel at the speed of light through the Universe, carrying with them information about their
origins.
 Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.
 He observed that massive accelerating objects (such as neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other)
would disrupt space-time in such a way that 'waves' of distorted space would radiate from the source (like
the movement of waves away from a stone thrown into a pond).
 In 2015, LIGO (The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, USA) physically sensed the distor-
tions in spacetime caused by passing gravitational waves generated by two colliding black holes nearly 1.3

billion light-years away!

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 Gravitational waves (NASA)

 While the processes that generate gravitational waves can be extremely violent and destructive, by the time

the waves reach Earth, they are billions of times smaller.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity

 In 1905, Albert Einstein determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating
observers and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers.
 As a result, he found that space and time were interwoven into a single continuum known as space-
time.
 Events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another. This
was the theory of special relativity.
 In 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity. In it, he determined that massive objects distort
space-time, which is felt as gravity.
 Gravitational lensing and gravitational waves are strong evidence for Einstein’s theory of general relativi-
ty.

Gravitational lensing

 Light around a massive object, such as a black hole, is bent, causing it to act as a lens for the things
that lie behind it.
Source: space.com

Importance of gravitational waves

 The gravitational waves can work as sirens to measure the expansion rate of the universe and to under-
stand the origin and the future of the universe.
 Hubble’s Law: the farther away galaxies are, the faster they are moving away from Earth ― accelerating
expansion of the universe).
 Hubble constant: a unit of measurement that describes the rate at which the universe is expanding.
 Two parameters that are essential to estimating the Hubble constant are the distance of the stars from
Earth and how fast they are moving away from us (their velocity).
 But to date, the most precise efforts have landed on very different values of the Hubble constant.
 Scientists have proposed a more accurate and independent way to measure the Hubble constant, using
gravitational waves.

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 A flash of light would give an estimate of the system’s velocity (system: neutron stars or black holes orbit-
ing each other), or how fast it is moving away from the Earth.
 The emitted gravitational waves, if detected on Earth, should provide a precise measurement of the sys-
tem’s distance.
 By knowing the system’s velocity and distance, a precise calculation of Hubble constant is possible.

Which of the following is/are cited by the scientists as evidence/evidences for the continued expansion
of universe?

1. Detection of microwaves in space

2. Observation of redshift phenomenon in space
3. Movement of asteroids in space

4. Occurrence of supernova explosions in space

Select the correct answer using the using the codes:

a) 1 and 2
b) 2 only
c) 1, 3 and 4 only
d) None of the above

Points 1, 2 and 4 are correct. So, answer is d) None of the above. Tough

2. Star Formation (Stellar Evolution)

 Outlined below are the many steps involved in a star’s evolution, from its formation in a nebula, to its
death as a white dwarf or a neutron star.
1. Nebula: a star’s birthplace.
2. Protostar: an early stage of a star formation where nuclear fusion is yet to begin.
3. T Tauri Star
4. Main Sequence Star: E.g. Sun – full of life (nuclear fusion at the core at full swing).
5. Red Giant (in case of a small star) and Red Supergiant (in case of a large star).
6. Planetary Nebula (in case of small star) and Supernova (in case of large star).

7. White dwarf (in case of a small star) and Neutron Star or Black Hole (in case of a large star).

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 Stellar Evolution (Source)

2.1 Nebula
 A nebula is a cloud of gas (mostly hydrogen and helium) and dust in space.

 Nebulae are the birthplaces of stars.

2.2 Protostar
 A Protostar looks like a star, but its core is not yet hot enough for nuclear fusion to take place (nuclear
fusion: the fusion of 2 hydrogen atoms into a helium atom with the liberation of a huge amount of en-
ergy. Nuclear fusion occurs only when the initial temperatures are very high – a few million degree Cel-

sius. That is why it is hard to achieve and control).

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 The luminosity comes exclusively from the heating of the Protostar as it contracts (because of gravity).
 Protostars are usually surrounded by dust, which blocks the light that they emit, so they are difficult to

observe in the visible spectrum.

2.3 T Tauri star

 A very young, lightweight star, less than 10 million years old, that it still undergoing gravitational contrac-
tion; it represents an intermediate stage between a Protostar and a low-mass main sequence star like the
Sun.

2.4 Main sequence stars

 Main sequence stars are stars that are fusing hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their cores.
 Most of the stars in the universe — about 90 per cent of them — are main sequence stars.
 The sun is a main sequence star.
 Towards the end of its life, a star like the Sun swells up into a red giant, before losing its outer layers

as a planetary nebula and finally shrinking to become a white dwarf.

Red dwarf

 The faintest (less than 1/1000th the brightness of the Sun) main sequence stars are called the red dwarfs.
 Because of their low luminosity, they are not visible to the naked eye.

 They are quite small compared to the sun and have a surface temperature of about 4000 ֯C.

 According to some estimates, red dwarfs make up three-quarters of the stars in the Milky Way.

 Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is a red dwarf.

2.5 Red giant

 Red giants have diameters between 10 and 100 times that of the Sun.
 They are very bright, although their surface temperature is lower than that of the Sun.
 A red giant is formed during the later stages of the evolution as it runs out of hydrogen fuel at its centre.
 It still fuses hydrogen into helium in a shell surrounding a hot, dense degenerate helium core.

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 As the layer surrounding the core contains a bigger volume the fusion of hydrogen to helium around the
core releases far more energy and pushes much harder against gravity and expands the volume of the star.
 Red giants are hot enough to turn the helium at their core into heavy elements like carbon (this is how
elements were formed one after the other).
 But most stars are not massive enough to create the pressures and heat necessary to burn heavy elements,
so fusion and heat production stops.

Degenerate matter

 Fusion in a star's core produces heat and outward pressure, but this pressure is kept in balance by the in-
ward push of gravity generated by a star's mass (gravity is a product of mass).
 When the hydrogen used as fuel vanishes, and fusion slows, gravity causes the star to collapse in on itself.
This creates a degenerate star.
 Great densities (degenerate star) are only possible when electrons are displaced from their regular
shells and pushed closer to the nucleus, allowing atoms to take up less space. The matter in this state
is called ‘degenerate matter’.

2.6 Red Supergiant

 As the red giant star condenses, it heats up even further, burning the last of its hydrogen and causing the
star's outer layers to expand outward.
 At this stage, the star becomes a large red giant. A very large red giant is often called Red Supergiant.

2.7 Planetary Nebula

 Planetary nebula is an outer layer of gas and dust (no planets involved!) that are lost when the star changes
from a red giant to a white dwarf.
 At the end of its lifetime, the sun will swell up into a red giant, expanding out beyond the orbit of Venus.
As it burns through its fuel, it will eventually collapse under the influence of gravity.
 The outer layers will be ejected in a shell of gas that will last a few tens of thousands of years before
spreading into the vastness of space.

2.8 White dwarf

 A white dwarf is very small, hot star, the last stage in the life cycle of a star like the Sun.
 White dwarfs are the remains of normal stars, whose nuclear energy supplies have been used up.

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 White dwarf consists of degenerate matter with a very high density due to gravitational effects, i.e. one
spoonful has a mass of several tonnes.

Nova

 Novae occur on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary system.

 If the two stars of the system are sufficiently near to one another, material (hydrogen) can be pulled from
the companion star's surface onto the white dwarf.
 When enough material builds up on the surface of the white dwarf, it triggers a nuclear fusion on a white
dwarf which causes a sudden brightening of the star.

2.9 Supernova
 A supernova is the explosive death of a star and often results in the star obtaining the brightness of 100
million suns for a short time.
 The extremely luminous burst of radiation expels much or all of a star's material at a great velocity, driving
a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium.
 These shock waves trigger condensation is a nebula paving the way for the birth of a new star ― if a
star has to be born, a star has to die!

 A great proportion of primary cosmic rays comes from supernovae.

Supernovae can be triggered in one of two ways:

Type I supernova or Type Ia supernova (read as one-a)

 Occurs when there is a sudden re-ignition of nuclear fusion on the surface of a degenerate white dwarf in
a binary system.
 A degenerate white dwarf may accumulate sufficient material from a companion star to raise its core tem-
perature, ignite carbon fusion, and trigger runaway nuclear fusion, completely disrupting the star.

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 Image credits: chandra.harvard.edu

The difference between Nova and Type I supernova

Nova Type I supernova

In a nova, the system can shine up to a million times A supernova is a violent stellar explosion that can
brighter than normal. shine as brightly as an entire galaxy of billions of nor-
mal stars.

As long as it continues to take gas from its companion If enough gas piles up on the surface of the white
star, the white dwarf can produce nova outbursts at dwarf, a runaway thermonuclear explosion blasts
regular intervals. the star to bits.

Type II supernova

 Type II supernova is a supernova that occurs by the gravitational collapse of the core of a massive star

(mostly made of iron). E.g. Supernova of a red supergiant.

Importance of supernova: Creating and dispersing new elements

 When a star’s core runs out of hydrogen, the star begins to die out. The dying star expands into a red giant,
and this now begins to manufacture carbon by fusing helium atoms.
 More massive stars begin a further series of nuclear burning. The elements formed in these stages range
from oxygen through to iron.
 During a supernova, the star releases very large amounts of energy as well as neutrons, which allows ele-
ments heavier than iron, such as uranium and gold, to be produced.
 In the supernova explosion, all of these elements are expelled out into space, and new stars are born out of

this matter (recycling of matter in the universe!).

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2.10 Black dwarf
 The last stage of stellar evolution is a black dwarf.
 A black dwarf is a white dwarf that has sufficiently cooled that it no longer emits significant heat or light.
 Because the time required for a white dwarf to reach this state is calculated to be longer than the current

age of the universe (13.8 billion years), no black dwarfs are expected to exist in the universe yet.

2.11 Brown Dwarfs

 Brown dwarfs are objects which are too large to be called planets and too small to be stars.
 Brown dwarfs are thought to form in the same way that stars do – from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust.

 However, as the cloud collapses, the core is not dense enough to trigger nuclear fusion.

2.12 Neutron stars

 These stars are composed mainly of neutrons and are produced after a supernova, forcing the protons and
electrons to combine to produce a neutron star.
 Neutron stars are very dense. (mass of three times the Sun can be fit in a sphere of just 20km in diameter).
 If its mass is any greater, its gravity will be so strong that it will shrink further to become a black hole.

2.13 Black holes

 Black holes are believed to form from massive stars at the end of their lifetimes.
 The gravitational pull in a black hole is so great that nothing can escape from it, not even light.
 The density of matter in a black hole cannot be measured (infinite!).
 Black holes distort the space around them and can suck neighbouring matter into them including stars.
 Gravitational lensing: Light around a massive object, such as a black hole, is bent, causing it to act as a

lens for the things that lie behind it.

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2.14 Galaxy
 Galaxy is a system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational
attraction. They are the major building blocks of the universe.
 The smallest galaxies contain about 100,000 stars, while the largest contains up to 3000 billion stars.

From the billions of galaxies, two basic types have been identified:

 Regular galaxies, and

 Irregular galaxies.

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Regular Galaxies

Spiral Galaxies Elliptical Galaxies

 The Milky Way is an example of disc-shaped spiral gal-  Star distribution is nonuniform.
axy which has a greater concentration of stars near its
centre.
 They consist of populations of old stars in the centre, and
the youngest stars located in the arms.

 Spiral galaxies are well supplied with the interstellar gas in  Most of their member stars are very old
which new bright, young stars form. and no new star formation in them.

 Smaller and less bright  The brightest galaxies in the universe

are elliptical.

Irregular Galaxies

 The irregular galaxies comprise about one-tenth of all galaxies.

 The stars of the irregular galaxies are generally very old.

Our Galaxy (the Milky Way)

 The Milky Way is the galaxy that hosts our solar system. It is shaped like a flat disc with a central bulge.
 Its diameter is between 1,50,000 and 2,00,000 light-years.
 In the nucleus, the thickness reaches 10,000 light years, whereas in the disc it is 500-2,000 light years thick.
 It is estimated to contain 100-400 billion stars.
 The inner stars travel faster than those further out.
 The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm, 26,000 light years from the centre (about one-third from
the centre) of the Milky Way galaxy.
 The Sun completes one lap of the galaxy in about every 220 million years.
 The solar system revolves around the Milky Way with a speed of 285 km per second.
 The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest galaxy (spiral) to us – being 2 million light years away.

1. Which of the following sequences below correctly describes the evolution of the Sun from young to
old?

a) White dwarf, red giant, main-sequence, protostar

b) Red giant, main-sequence, white dwarf, protostar

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c) Protostar, red giant, main-sequence, white dwarf
d) Protostar, main-sequence, red giant, white dwarf

Answer: D

2. A planetary nebula is

a) another term for the disk of gas around a young star.

b) the cloud from which protostars form.
c) a shell of gas ejected from a star late in its life.
d) what is left when a white dwarf star explodes as a supernova.

Answer: C

3. Stars like the Sun probably do not form iron cores during their evolution because

a) all the iron is ejected when they become planetary nebulas.

b) their cores never get hot enough for them to make iron by nucleosynthesis.
c) the iron they make by nucleosynthesis is all fused into uranium.
d) their strong magnetic fields keep their iron in their atmospheres.

Answer: B only bigger stars can form iron cores.

4. As a star like the Sun evolves into a red giant, its core

a) expands and cools.

b) contracts and heats.
c) expands and heats.
d) turns into iron.

Answer: B. At Red Giant Stage the star expands due to heat generated outside the core whereas the core con-

tracts due to the accumulation of heavier elements.

3. The Solar system

3.1 Formation of the Solar System: Nuclear Disc Model (neo-Laplacian

model)
 Nebular Theory of Laplace (1796) tried to explain the formation of the solar system. But it had many draw-
backs as the theory was based on scientifically erroneous assumptions.

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 But one assumption it got right was that the solar system was born from a giant gas of dust called as
nebula.
 A giant interstellar cloud known as the solar nebula (a vast, swirling cloud of gas and dust) gave birth to
our solar system and everything in it.
 The nebula started its collapse and core formation some 5-5.6 billion years ago and the Sun and the plan-
ets were formed about 4.6 billion years ago.

Formation of the Sun

 The nebula began to collapse (gravitational collapse) in on itself after becoming gravitationally unstable.
 This was possibly because of a nearby supernova sending shock waves rippling through space.
 Gravity then caused dust and gas to coalesce to the centre of the nebular cloud.
 As more matter got pulled in, the centre got denser and hotter, increasing the gravity and pulling even
more dust inwards causing a snowball effect.
 About 99.9% of the material fell into the centre and became the protosun (no sunlight yet).
 Once the centre of the cloud became hot enough it triggered nuclear fusion, and the Sun was born.

The formation of planets

 The 0.1% of matter that remained orbited around the Sun, causing the randomly shaped gas cloud to form
a flat disc shape.
 This flat disc, called the protoplanetary disc, was where the planets formed.
 Within the solar nebula, the dust particles in the gas occasionally collided and clumped together.
 Through this process called accretion, the microscopic particles formed larger bodies that eventually be-
came planetesimals (infant stage of a planet) with sizes up to a few kilometres across.
 As the disc continued to cool, the planetesimals grew in size through accretion to form protoplanets.
 Gradually they got larger and larger, sweeping up all the leftover dust, other protoplanets, planetesimals
until they grew into the planets.
 In the inner, hotter part of the solar nebula, planetesimals were composed mostly of silicates and metals.
 In the outer, cooler portion of the nebula, water ice was the dominant component.
 The hot, rocky material near the centre of the solar system gave rise to terrestrial planets with metal cores
(mostly composed of iron and nickel): Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
 And on the cool edges, the gas and ice giants were born: Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus.
 Rocks that escaped the pull of planets were left as asteroids, scattered through the solar system.
 Many of these rocks orbit the Sun in an area between Mars and Jupiter known as the asteroid belt.

20
 Formation of the Solar System: Nuclear Disc Model (Source)

Iron Catastrophe and Planetary differentiation

 When Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it was a uniform ball of hot rock.
 Radioactive decay and leftover heat from planetary formation caused the ball to get even hotter.
 Eventually, after about 500 million years, our young planet’s temperature heated to the melting point of
iron — about 1,538° Celsius.
 This pivotal moment in Earth’s history is called the iron catastrophe.

21
 The iron catastrophe allowed greater, more rapid movement of Earth’s molten, rocky material.
 Relatively buoyant material, such as silicates, water, and even air, stayed close to the planet’s exterior.
 Droplets of iron, nickel, and other heavy metals gravitated to the centre of Earth, becoming the early core.

 This important process is called planetary differentiation.

3.2 Components of the Solar System

 Our solar system consists of the sun, eight major planets, dwarf planets (Pluto, Ceres, Eris etc.), satellites

and countless minor planets, asteroids, meteors, comets and debris.

22
 Components of the Solar System

3.3 The Sun

 Age: 4.6 billion years.
 Diameter: 1.39 million km.
 Temperature: 6000 °C on surface and 16 million °C in core.
 Density: 1.41 times that of water.

Density of water = 999.97 kg/m³ = ~ 1 g/cm3;

Density of Iron = 7870 kg/m³.
That implies Iron is = 7.87 times denser than water. In comparison, earth is about 5.5 times denser than water.

 The surface gravity of the Sun is 274 m/s2 (28 times the gravity of the Earth).
 Comparatively, the surface gravity of the earth and moon are 9.8 m/s2 and 1.62 m/s2 respectively.
 Period of rotation: 25 days 9 hrs.
 Speed of rotation: 7179.73 km/hrs. Comparatively, earth’s rotational velocity is 1675Km/hrs.
 Sun is equivalent to 3,32,900 Earth masses.
 Stars like Sun are rare in Milky Way galaxy, whereas substantially dimmer and cooler stars, known as red
dwarfs, are common.

23
 The Sun is composed of roughly 98% hydrogen and helium.
 The vast majority of the solar system's mass is in the Sun (~99.8%), with most of the remaining mass con-
tained in Jupiter and Saturn.
 Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular momen-
tum due to the differential rotation within the gaseous Sun.
 Sun is rotating in counter-clockwise direction (when viewed from a long way above Earth's north pole).
 Those objects closer to the Sun, which are more affected by heat and light pressure, are composed of ele-
ments with high melting points.

 Objects farther from the Sun are composed largely of materials with lower melting points.

3.4 The Sun’s Internal Structure and Atmosphere

 The solar interior, from the inside out, is made up of the core, radiative zone and the convective zone.
 The solar atmosphere above that consists of the photosphere, chromosphere, and the corona (solar
wind is an outflow of gas from the corona).

The Sun’s Internal and External Structure

Photosphere

 The photosphere is the bright outer layer of the Sun that emits most of the radiation.
 The photosphere is an extremely uneven surface.
 The effective temperature on the outer side of the photosphere is 6000°C.

24
Chromosphere

 Just above the photosphere is the chromosphere.

 It is relatively a thin layer of burning gases.

 The chromosphere is a bit cooler — 4,320 ֯C.

Sunspot

 A dark patch on the surface of the Sun is known as a sunspot.

 Sunspots appear as dark areas because they are about 500-1500°C cooler than the surrounding chromo-
sphere.
 The individual sunspot has a lifetime ranging from a few days to a few months.
 Each spot has a black centre or umbra, and a lighter region or penumbra, surrounding it.
 It has been suggested that the Sun is 1% cooler when it has no sunspot and that this variation in solar

radiation might affect the climates of the Earth.

Solar Wind

 The solar wind is a stream of energised, charged particles, primarily electrons and protons, flowing out-
ward from the Sun at speeds as high as 900 km/s and at a temperature of 1 million degrees (Celsius).

 It is made of plasma (ionised atoms).

Effects of solar wind – Aurora

25
 An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic)
regions. (This is due to magnetic field lines of earth and solar wind)
 Auroras are caused by charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, entering the atmosphere from

above causing ionisation and excitation of atmospheric constituents, and consequent optical emissions.

Effects of solar wind – Some planets have atmosphere whereas others don’t

 As the solar wind approaches a planet that has a well-developed magnetic field (such as Earth, Jupiter
and Saturn), the particles are deflected.
 This region, known as the magnetosphere, causes the particles to travel around the planet rather than
bombarding the atmosphere or surface.
 The magnetosphere is roughly shaped like a hemisphere on the side facing the Sun, then is drawn out in a
long trail on the opposite side.
 The boundary of this region is called the magnetopause, and some of the particles are able to penetrate
the magnetosphere through this region by partial reconnection of the magnetic field lines.
 The solar wind is responsible for the overall shape of Earth's magnetosphere.
 Moreover, planets with a weak or non-existent magnetosphere are subject to atmospheric stripping by
the solar wind.
 Venus, the nearest and most similar planet to Earth in the Solar System, has an atmosphere 100 times

denser than our own, with little or no geomagnetic field. This is a strange exception.

Solar flares

 Solar flares are produced on the sun’s surface due to magnetic anomalies.
 They are magnetic storms which appear to be very bright spots with a gaseous surface eruption.
 As solar flares are pushed through the corona, they heat its gas to anywhere from 10 to 20 million °C.

26
Solar prominence

 An arc of gas that erupts from the surface of the Sun is called solar prominence.
 Prominences can loop hundreds of thousands of miles into space.
 Prominences are held above the Sun's surface by strong magnetic fields and can last for many months.
 At some time in their existence, most prominences will erupt, spewing enormous amounts of solar material
into space.

Corona

 A corona is a distinctive atmosphere of plasma that surrounds the Sun and other celestial bodies.
 The Sun's corona extends millions of kilometres into space and is most easily seen during a total solar
eclipse.

Sun’s Corona visible during Total Solar Eclipse

Plasma

 Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid, liquid, and gas.
 Plasma is ionised gas (atoms and molecules are converted into ions typically by removing one or more
electrons from the outer shell)
 Lightning and electric sparks are everyday examples of phenomena made from plasma.
 Neon lights could more accurately be called ‘plasma lights’, because the light comes from the plasma in-
side of them.

3.5 Planets
 A celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star is known as a planet.
 The planets of our solar system are divisible in two groups:

27
 1. the planets of the inner circle (as they lie between the sun and the belt of asteroids) or the inner
planets or the ‘terrestrial planets’ (meaning earth-like as they are made up of rock and metals, and
have relatively high densities) and
2. the planets of the outer circle or outer planets or the ‘gas giant planets’ or the Jovian planets –
meaning Jupiter-like.
 The inner circle consists of four planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) having smaller and denser bod-
ies while the outer circle comprises four planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) having a larger size
and less dense materials and have a thick atmosphere, mostly of helium and hydrogen
 Jovian planets are more like the sun than like the terrestrial planets.
 If we take Jupiter, the biggest planet, as the centre of the planets of our solar system, the size of the planets
becomes smaller as we go away from either side of Jupiter (Mars being the exception).
 The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects follow

highly elliptical orbits.

An Astronomical Unit (AU) is the average distance between Earth and the Sun, which is about 150 million km.
Planet Surface Period of Period of Revo- Distance from Diameter (km) Size Moons Density Specific grav-

Temp in ֯C Rotation lution Sun (AU) Rank (gm/cm ) 3

ity (m/s2)

1. Mercury +427 58 days 87 days 0.4 4,878 0.38 8 0 5.4 3.7 0.38

2. Venus +480 243 days 224 days 0.7 12,104 0.95 6 0 5.2 8.9 0.9

3. Earth +22 23:56 hrs 365 days 1 12,756 1.00 5 1 5.5 9.8 1

4. Mars -23 1.025 days 687 days 1.5 6,787 0.53 7 2 3.9 3.7 0.38

5. Jupiter -150 9.9 hrs 11.9 years 5.2 1,40,000 11.19 1 79 1.3 24.9 2.53

6. Saturn -180 10.7 hrs 29 years 9.6 1,16,000 9.46 2 62 0.7 10.4 1.06

7. Uranus -214 17 hrs 84 years 19.2 51,000 4.11 3 27 1.3 8.8 0.9

8. Neptune -220 16 hrs 164 years 30.0 48,000 3.88 4 13 1.6 11.1 1.13

Pluto (dwarf) -223 6.39 days 248 years 39.5 2,377 0.18 9 5 1.9 0.6 0.06
Values in the given in the table are not accurate. They are rounded off for obvious reasons.

28
 Major Moons of Various Planets (Source)

Size comparison of largest moons in the Solar System (User:primefac, via Wikimedia Commons)

29
 Size comparison of largest moons with earth

Inner Planets

 The inner Solar System is the traditional name for the region comprising the terrestrial planets and aster-
oids.
 They are composed mainly of silicates and metals.
 The four inner or terrestrial planets have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring sys-
tems.
 They are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form their crusts and man-
tles, and metals, such as iron and nickel, which form their cores.
 Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate
weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift valleys and volcanoes.
 The term inner planet should not be confused with the inferior planet, which designates those planets that
are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus).

30
 The term superior planet designates planets outside Earth's orbit and thus includes both the outer planets
and Mars.

Mercury

 Mercury's surface appears heavily cratered and is similar in appearance to the Moon's, indicating that it has
been geologically inactive for billions of years (because there is no atmosphere on Mercury).
 When viewed from Earth, the planet can only be seen near the western or eastern horizon during the early
evening or early morning.
 It may appear as a bright star-like object but is less bright than Venus.
 Having almost no atmosphere to retain heat, it has surface temperatures that vary diurnally more than on
any other planet in the Solar System (−173 °C at night to 427 °C during the day).
 Mercury is smaller than the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, Ganymede (largest moon of Ju-
piter) and Titan (largest moon of Saturn).
 However, Mercury is massive (has more mass) than Ganymede and Titan.
 Images obtained by MESSENGER spacecraft in 2004 have revealed evidence for pyroclastic flows (vulcanici-
ty) and water ice at Mercury’s poles.

Venus

 Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system and is the third brightest object visible from earth after
the sun and the moon.
 It is the brightest among planets because it has the highest albedo due to the highly reflective sulfuric
acid that covers its atmosphere. It is sometimes visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.
 Venus is sometimes called Earth's sister planet or Earth's twin because of their similar size, mass, proximi-
ty to the Sun, bulk composition and presence of similar physical features such as high plateaus, folded
mountain belts, numerous volcanoes, etc.
 It is radically different from Earth in other respects. The surface of Venus is totally obscured by a thick at-
mosphere composed of about 96% carbon dioxide, covered with clouds of highly reflective sulfuric acid.
 It has the densest atmosphere of the four terrestrial planets. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's
surface is 92 times that of Earth, or roughly the pressure found 900 m (3,000 ft) underwater on Earth.
 Venus is by far the hottest planet in the Solar System, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
 This is because of the greenhouse effect arising from high concentrations of CO2 and thick atmosphere.
 A day on Venus is equivalent to 243 earth days and lasts longer than its year (224 days).
 It rotates in the opposite direction (clockwise) to most other planets.

31
 In the ancient literature, Venus was often referred to as the morning star and evening star.

Moon

 Its diameter is only one-quarter that of the earth.

 It is about 3,84,400 km away from us.
 A ray of light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach the earth. Light takes only a second to reach
us from the moon.
 The moon is tidally locked to the earth, meaning that the moon revolves around the earth in about 27
days which is the same time it takes to complete one spin.
 Tidal locking is the name given to the situation when an object's orbital period matches its rotational
period.
 As a result of tidal locking, only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth.
 The moon is a significant stabiliser of Earth's orbital axis. Without it, Earth's tilt could vary as much as 85

degrees (at present the Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of 23.5֯ relative to our orbital plane).

 Neil Armstrong was the first, and Buzz Aldrin was the second to step on the surface of the moon on 29
July 1969 (Apollo 11 mission).
 Till date, only Twelve astronauts walked on the Moon's surface.

Formation of the moon

 It is now generally believed that the formation of the moon, as a satellite of the earth, is an outcome of ‘gi-
ant impact’ or what is described as ‘the big splat’.
 A body of the size of one to three times that of mars collided into the earth sometime shortly after the
earth was formed. It blasted a large part of the earth into space.
 This portion of blasted material then continued to orbit the earth and eventually formed into the present
moon about 4.44 billion years ago.
 Scientists estimate that a day in the life of early Earth was only about 6 hours long.
 The Moon formed much closer to Earth than it is today.
 As Earth rotates, the Moon's gravity causes the oceans to seem to rise and fall. There is a little bit of friction
between the tides and the turning Earth, causing the earth’s rotation to slow down just a little (1.4 milli-
seconds in 100 years).
 As Earth slows, it lets the Moon move away by a little (four centimetres per year).

32
Colonizing the moon

 Discovery of lunar water at the lunar poles by Chandrayaan-1 has renewed interest in the Moon.
 Locations on the Lunar poles avoid the problem of long lunar nights (350+ hours).
 Exploration of the lunar surface by spacecraft began in 1959 with the Soviet Union's Luna program.
 Luna 2 made a hard landing (impact) into its surface and became the first artificial object on the moon.
 Crewed exploration of the lunar surface began in 1968 when the Apollo 8 spacecraft orbited the Moon.
 The following year, the Apollo 11 Apollo Lunar Module landed two astronauts on the Moon.

 In 2009, the Chandrayaan probe discovered that the lunar soil contains 0.1% water by weight.

Advantages of colonising the moon

 A lunar base could be a site for launching rockets with locally manufactured fuel to distant planets.

There are several disadvantages to the Moon as a colony site

 The long lunar night would impede reliance on solar power.

 The Moon is highly depleted in carbon and volatile elements, such as nitrogen and hydrogen.
 The low gravity on the Moon will have adverse effects on human health in the long term.
 The lack of a substantial atmosphere results in temperature extremes, harmful radiation reaching the sur-
face and increased chances of the colony's being hit by meteors.
 Growing crops on the Moon is difficult due to the long lunar night, extreme variation in surface tempera-
ture, exposure to solar flares, nitrogen-poor soil, and lack of insects for pollination.

Mars

33
 Mars is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because of the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface.
 Mars has a thin atmosphere and has surface features ranging from impact craters of the Moon and the val-
leys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
 Mars is the site of Olympus Mons (shield volcano), the largest volcano and the highest known mountain
(24 km) in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System.
 Mars has two irregularly shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are thought to be captured asteroids.
 Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric pressure (less than 1% of the
Earth's).
 The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water.
 Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
 Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass.
 Landforms visible on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planet's surface.
 Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, possibly because of numerous asteroid strikes, so the solar
wind interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density.
 The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along
with traces of oxygen and water.
 Methane has been detected in the Martian atmosphere (may indicate the existence of life).
 Methane can exist in the Martian atmosphere for only a limited period before it is destroyed — estimates of
its lifetime range from 0.6-4 years.
 Its presence despite this short lifetime indicates that an active source of the gas must be present.
 Geological means such as serpentinization, volcanic activity, cometary impacts, and the presence of meth-
anogenic microbial life forms are among possible sources.
 Of all the planets in the Solar System, the seasons of Mars are the most Earth-like, due to the similar tilts of
the two planets' rotational axes.
 The lack of a magnetosphere and the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars are a challenge: the planet has
little heat transfer across its surface, poor insulation against the bombardment of the solar wind.
 Mars is nearly geologically dead; the end of volcanic activity has stopped the recycling of chemicals and
minerals between the surface and interior of the planet.

Mars Compared to Earth

 53% the diameter of Earth.

 10% the mass of Earth.
 Surface gravity on Mars is only 38% the gravity on Earth.

34
 A day on Mars lasts 1.03 Earth days.

 Axial tilt on Mars is 25.19 degrees. Very close to Earth’s 23.5֯ tilt.

 A year on Mars lasts about twice as long as an Earth year; the seasons are twice as long.

 The atmosphere of Mars (95% carbon dioxide) is less than 1% the thickness of Earth’s atmosphere.

Outer Planets

 Outer Planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf planet – Pluto.
 The four outer planets, called the gas giants, collectively make up 99% of the mass known to orbit the Sun.
 They are composed mainly of hydrogen & helium & lack a solid surface. Their moons are, however, solid.
 The two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed of substances called ices, such as water,
ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as “ice giants”.
 All four gas giants have rings, although only Saturn's ring system is easily observed from Earth.
 The gas giants have a magnetosphere, numerous moons and significant atmospheric activity.
 Neptune has the strongest wind speed (2,100 km/h) followed by Saturn (1,800 km/h).

Jupiter

 It is composed mostly of gas and liquid swirling in complex patterns with no solid surface.
 Jupiter's four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), called the Galilean satellites because
Galileo discovered them.
 Ganymede is the largest natural satellite (5,268 km in diameter) in this solar system and is larger than
Mercury, and three times larger than the earth’s Moon (3,474 km in diameter, the fifth largest moon).
 It is the third-brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus and the fourth brightest
object in the sky after the Sun, the Moon and Venus.
 Because of its rapid rotation (once every 10 hours), the planet's shape is that of an oblate spheroid (slight
bulge at the equator).
 The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands, resulting in turbulence and storms.

 The latest probe to visit Jupiter is Juno.

Saturn

 Saturn's rings are probably made up of billions of particles of ice and ice-covered rocks.
 Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System (larger than Mercury) and it is the only satellite in the
Solar System with a substantial atmosphere (nitrogen-rich).

Uranus

35
 In contrast to all other planets, it is tipped and spin on its sides, that is its axis of rotation lies in nearly the
plane of its orbit. (The poles of Uranus lie in a plane where equators of other planets lie)
 All eight planets in the Solar System orbit (revolve) the Sun in the direction of the Sun's rotation, which is
counterclockwise when viewed from above the Sun's north pole.
 Six of the eight planets also rotate about their axis in this same direction (counterclockwise).
 Venus and Uranus have a strange retrograde rotation (clockwise), i.e., opposite of sun’s rotation.

Neptune

 Uranus and Neptune (the ice giants) are called the twins of the outer solar system.
 They are surrounded by a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium and contains a higher proportion of
"ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane ice giants" to emphasise this distinction.

 Neptune has the strongest sustained winds (2,100 km/h) of any planet in the Solar System.

Why are the inner planets rocky while the outer planets are mostly in gaseous
form?

 The terrestrial planets were formed in the close vicinity of the parent star where it was too warm for gas-
es on the surface to condense to solid particles.
 The solar wind was most intense nearer the sun; so, it blew off lots of gas and dust from the surface of the
terrestrial planets.
 The solar winds were not all that intense to cause similar removal of gases from the Jovian planets.

 The terrestrial planets are smaller, and their lower gravity could not hold the escaping gases.

3.6 Other Solar System Objects

Asteroid belt

 Asteroids are remnants of planetary formation that circle the Sun in a zone lying between Mars and Jupi-
ter. The circular chain of asteroids is called the asteroid belt.
 The remnants of planetary formation failed to coalesce because of the gravitational interference of Jupiter.
 The asteroid belt lies between 2.3 and 3.3 AU from the Sun.
 Asteroids (planetoids ― another term for an asteroid) are composed mainly of refractory rocky and metal-
lic minerals, with some ice.
 Asteroids range in size from hundreds of kilometres across to microscopic.
 All asteroids except the largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies.

 Fragments of asteroids break off to form meteoroids, which can reach the Earth's surface.

36
Ceres

 Ceres (2.77 AU) is the largest asteroid (946 km in diameter), a protoplanet, and a dwarf planet.

 Ceres has a mass large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical shape.

Pluto and Charon

 Pluto (39 AU) is the largest known object in the Kuiper belt. Charon is Pluto's largest moon.
 When discovered in 1930, it was considered to be the ninth planet; this changed in 2006 with the adoption
of a formal definition of a planet.
 International Astronomical Union’s definition of a Planet: a Planet is an object that:
1. orbits the sun;
2. has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium ― a nearly round shape;
3. is not a satellite (moon) of another object, and
4. has removed debris and small objects from the area around its orbit
 IAU’s definition of Dwarf planet: Dwarf planet is an object that meets planetary criteria except that it
has not cleared debris from its orbital neighbourhood.
 Pluto is a part of the Kuiper belt that contains millions of rocky and icy objects. Also, there are numerous
other objects in the Kuiper belt which are of similar size to Pluto. E.g. Eris (diameter: 2,326 km).
 So, if Pluto is considered a plant, then many other objects like Eris will also have to be considered as plan-
ets.
 Hence, Pluto (diameter: 2,377 km) (Kuiper belt) was voted by IAU as a dwarf planet just like Ceres (as-

teroid belt) and Eris (diameter: 2,326 km) (Kuiper belt).

Kuiper belt

 The Kuiper belt is a great ring of debris similar to the asteroid belt but consisting mainly of objects com-
posed primarily of ice.

 It extends between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun.

Comets

 A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, heats up due to the effects
of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus and begins to outgas, displaying a visible atmos-
phere or coma, and sometimes also a tail.
 Comets have highly elliptical orbits, unlike the planets which have near-circular orbits.

37
 They are made of frozen gases (water, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide) which hold together small
pieces of rocky and metallic minerals.
 Short-period comets (orbital period of a few hundred years) originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated
scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.
 Longer period comets, with orbits of thousands of years, come from the more distant Oort Cloud.
 Oort cloud is a giant shell of icy bodies that encircle the solar system occupying space at a distance be-
tween 5,000 and 100,000 AU.
 One of the larger comets is the Halley's Comet. The orbit of Halley's Comet brings it close to the Earth

every 76 years. It last visited in 1986.

Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite

 A meteoroid is any solid debris originating from asteroids, comets or other celestial object and floats
through interplanetary space.
 A meteor is the streak of light that appears in the sky when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere (meso-
sphere) at about 200 km at high speed and burns up because of the friction.
 A meteor is popularly termed a ‘shooting star’ or ‘falling star’.
 In some cases, the meteoroid does not burn up completely and makes its way to the Earth’s surface. The
surviving chunk is called a meteorite.
 The circular depression created on the earth’s surface after the meteorite’s impact is called as a meteorite
crater.
 Meteorite impacts are common on all planets and moons in the solar system.
 The most conspicuous meteorite craters can be found on the surfaces of the Moon and Mercury (because
they are geologically inactive due to negligible atmosphere).
 Largest Meteor Crater: A meteor crater in Arizona (USA) is 1,300 m deep is the largest meteor crater in the

world. It was formed over 10,000 years ago.

38
Chicxulub crater

 Chicxulub crater (Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula) was caused by a meteor impact that is believed to have

wiped out the dinosaurs (mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago).

Meteorite craters in India

 Lonar Lake (1.8 km in diameter) in Buldhana District of Maharashtra

 Dhala crater (14 km in diameter) in Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh and
 Ramgarh crater (3.5 km in diameter) is a potential meteorite crater in Kota plateau in Rajasthan.

3.7 Solar System - Relevant Facts

Heliocentric vs Geocentric

 A heliocentric system is an astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around a relatively
stationary Sun at the centre of the Solar System.
 Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system (Sun at the
centre).
 Ptolemy proposed geocentric model (Earth at the centre).

39
Kepler's laws of planetary motion

1. The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
2. A line segment joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its
orbit.

(Hankwang, from Wikimedia Commons)

Ecliptic Plane

 Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic.
 The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects (like Pluto) are frequently

at significantly greater angles to it.

Heliopause

 What defines the boundary of the solar system? Sun's light, or the influence of the Sun's gravity, or the in-
fluence of the Sun's magnetic field and solar wind?
 There is no definite boundary where the light or gravity stops or where they suddenly get weaker.
 The solar wind is different from light or gravity. As it streams away from the Sun it races out against the in-
terstellar medium ― space between the stars permeated by hydrogen and helium gas).
 Even though the interstellar medium has a low density, it still has a pressure (similar to air pressure). The
solar wind also has a pressure.
 The solar wind blows against the interstellar medium and creates a bubble-like region. This bubble that
surrounds the solar system is called the heliosphere (not a sphere in the true sense).
 Since the Sun is moving relative to the interstellar medium around it, the heliosphere forms a wave or shock
in the interstellar medium like a boat in the ocean. This is called the bow shock or wave.

40
 The region where the solar wind begins to interact with the interstellar medium and begins to slow
down is called the heliosheath.
 The heliosheath has a few parts: the termination shock (the innermost part of the boundary), the heliopause
(the outermost part of the boundary) and the part in between the inner and outer boundary.
 The termination shock is the boundary where the solar wind particles slow down so that the particles are
travelling slower than the speed of sound.
 Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock at 94 astronomical units (AU) and Voyager 2 crossed at 84 AU.
 At the heliopause ― the boundary of the heliosphere, the pressure from the interstellar medium is strong

enough to slow down and eventually stop the flow of solar wind.

Source

Heliosphere (NASA/Walt Feimer, via Wikimedia Commons)

41
 Distance from Sun (NASA / JPL-Caltech, via Wikimedia Commons)

Distant artificial objects exploring the Solar System

 Here are the five artificial objects that have achieved the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the
Solar System.

Space probe Launch year Significant event Objective Current status Distance from

the Sun in AU

Pioneer 10 1972 Flew past Saturn in 1979 Study the asteroid belt, Contact lost ~ 120 AU

the environment around in 2003

Pioneer 11 1973 Flew past Saturn in 1979 Jupiter and Saturn, solar Contact lost ~ 90 AU
wind and cosmic rays. in 1995

Voyager 2 Aug 1977 Passed the heliopause in Explore all four Jovian Active ~ 119 AU

December 2018 to enter planets. (as of Jan 2019)

interstellar space (second

artificial object to leave

the solar system).

Voyager 1 Sep 1977 Passed the heliopause in Explore Jupiter, Saturn, Active ~ 144 AU (as of
2012 to enter interstellar and Saturn's largest Jan 2019)
space (first artificial ob- moon, Titan.

42
 ject to leave the solar sys- Extended mission of

tem). both the Voyagers is to

At a distance of about 143 study the outer reaches

AU Voyager 1 is the most of the Solar System.

distant man-made object
from Earth.

New Horizons 2006 Flew past Pluto in 2015. It is To perform a flyby study Active ~ 42 AU
currently travelling through of the Pluto system in
Kuiper belt. 2015, and a secondary

mission to fly by and

study one or more oth-

er Kuiper belt objects

(KBOs) in the decade to

follow

 Voyagers continue to communicate with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return
data.
 The NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide network of U.S. spacecraft communication facilities,
located in the United States (California), Spain (Madrid), and Australia (Canberra), that sup-

ports NASA's interplanetary spacecraft missions.

Distant artificial objects (NASA, via Wikimedia Commons)

43
 Paths of Voyagers (Source)

What’s the closest star to the Sun?

 You might have heard that Alpha Centauri, the third brightest star in the sky (4.37 light-years away) is the
closest star to the sun.
 But Alpha Centauri isn’t one star, it’s a system of three stars namely Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B
and Proxima Centauri.
 Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are a binary pair, orbiting a common centre of gravity.
 Alpha Centauri A is just a little more massive and brighter than the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B is slightly less
massive than the Sun.
 Proxima Centauri is the faint red dwarf star, and it is the closest star to our Sun (4.24 light-years away).
 Proxima Centauri has been the nearest star for about 32,000 years, and it will hold this record for another
33,000 years.
 After 33,000 years from now, the nearest star will be Ross 248.
 Alpha Centauri is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
 In the Northern Hemisphere, the closest visible star is Barnard’s Star, another red dwarf which is too dim
just like Proxima Centauri to see with the unaided eye.
 The closest star that you can see with the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere is Sirius (Dog Star)
 Sirius is the second brightest star when viewed from the earth, the brightest being the sun.

Closest Stars

1. Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri system – 4.2 light years)

2. Barnard’s Star – 5.9 light years

44
How do Astronomers Measure the Distance to Stars?

 They use a technique called parallax.

Parallax Method (Johan Walden, from Wikimedia Commons)

 To measure the distance to stars, you measure the angle to a star when the Earth is one side of its orbit; say
in the summer. Then you wait six months until the Earth has moved to the opposite side of its orbit, and

then measure the angle to the star compared to some distant reference object.

4. The Geological Time Scale

45
46
 The geological time scale (GTS) divides and chronicles earth’s evolutionary history into various periods from
the beginning to the present based on definite events that marked a major change in earth’s physical,
chemical and biological features.
 Major changes in earth’s physical and biological history stretch over several millions of years and hence in
GTS all the divisions are expressed in ‘million years (mya – million years ago).’
 The primarily defined divisions of time are eons, the Hadean, the Archean, the Proterozoic and the Phaner-
ozoic. The first three of these can be referred to collectively as the Precambrian supereon.
 Each eon is subsequently divided into eras, which in turn are divided into periods, which are further divided
into epochs.

SuperEon  Eon  Era  Period  Epoch

47
4.1 Hadean Eon

 The Hadean eon (4,540 – 4,000 mya) represents the time before a reliable (fossil) record of life.
 Temperatures are extremely hot, and much of the Earth was molten because of frequent collisions with
other bodies, extreme volcanism and the abundance of short-lived radioactive elements.
 A giant impact collision with a planet-sized body named Theia (approximately 4.5 billion years ago) is
thought to have formed the Moon.
 The moon was subjected to Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB – lunar cataclysm – 4 billion years ago).
 During the LHB phase, a disproportionately large number of asteroids are theorised to have collided with
the early terrestrial planets in the inner Solar System, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
 Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean.
 The early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.
 Over time, the Earth cooled, causing the formation of a solid crust, leaving behind hot volatiles which
probably resulted in a heavy CO2 atmosphere with hydrogen and water vapour.
 Liquid water oceans existed despite the surface temperature of 230° C because, at an atmospheric pressure

of above 27 atmospheres, caused by the heavy CO2 atmosphere, water is still liquid.

Is it possible to boil water (change the state of water from liquid to gas) at room temperature?
 Yes, it is possible, by decreasing the ambient pressure.
 Because the boiling point of liquids can be reduced by reducing the ambient pressure and vice versa.
 As ambient pressure decreases, molecules evaporating from a boiling liquid meet less resistance from air
molecules and enter the air more easily.
 Hence, it is possible to convert water to steam at room temperature and keep water in the liquid state even

when the temperature is above 100֯ C, just by altering the ambient pressure.

 As cooling continued, dissolving in ocean water removed most CO2 from the atmosphere.

48
 Hydrogen and helium are expected to continually escape (even to the present day) due to atmospheric
escape.

4.2 Archean Eon

The surface condition during Archean Eon (Tim Bertelink, from Wikimedia Commons)

 The beginning of life on Earth and evidence of cyanobacteria date to 3500 mya.
 Life was limited to simple single-celled organisms lacking nuclei, called Prokaryota.
 The atmosphere was without oxygen, and the atmospheric pressure was around 10 to 100 atmospheres.
 The Earth's crust had cooled enough to allow the formation of continents.
 The oldest rock formations exposed on the surface of the Earth are Archean.
 Volcanic activity was considerably higher than today, with numerous lava eruptions.
 The oceans were more acidic due to dissolved carbon dioxide than during the Proterozoic.
 By the end of the Archaean, plate tectonics may have been similar to that of the modern Earth.
 Liquid water was prevalent, and deep oceanic basins are known to have existed
 The earliest stromatolites are found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia.
 The earliest identifiable fossils consist of stromatolites, which are microbial mats formed in shallow water
by cyanobacteria.

4.3 Proterozoic Eon

49
 Multicellular lifeforms during Proterozoic Eon (Source)

 It is the last eon of the Precambrian "supereon".

 It spans for the time of appearance of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere to just before the proliferation of
complex life (such as corals) on the Earth.
 Bacteria begin producing oxygen, leading to the sudden rise of life forms.
 Eukaryotes (have a nucleus), emerge, including some forms of soft-bodied multicellular organisms.
 Earlier forms of fungi formed around this time.
 The early and late phases of this eon may have undergone Snowball Earth periods (the planet suffered be-

low-zero temperatures, extensive glaciation and as a result drop in sea levels).

Snowball Earth: The Snowball Earth hypothesis proposes that Earth's surface became entirely or nearly entirely
frozen at least once, sometime earlier than 650 Mya (million years ago).

 It was a very tectonically active period in the Earth’s history.

 It featured the first definitive supercontinent cycles and modern orogeny (mountain building).
 It is believed that 43% of modern continental crust was formed in the Proterozoic, 39% formed in the Ar-
chean, and only 18% in the Phanerozoic.

 In the late Proterozoic (most recent), the dominant supercontinent was Rodinia (~1000–750 Ma).

50
 Supercontinent Rodinia (John Goodge, via Wikimedia Commons)

 It was also during the Proterozoic that the first symbiotic relationships between mitochondria (found in

nearly all eukaryotes) and chloroplasts (found in plants and some protists only) and their hosts evolved.

4.4 Phanerozoic Eon

51
 The boundary between the Proterozoic and the Phanerozoic eons was set when the first fossils of animals
such as trilobites appeared.
 Life remained mostly small and microscopic until about 580 million years ago, when complex multicellular
life arose, developed over time, and culminated in the Cambrian Explosion about 541 million years ago.
 This sudden diversification of life forms produced most of the major life forms known today.
 Plant life on land appeared in the early Phanerozoic eon.
 Complex life, including vertebrates, begin to dominate the Earth's ocean.
 Pangaea forms and later dissolves into Laurasia and Gondwana.
 Gradually, life expands to land and all familiar forms of plants, insects, animals and fungi begin appearing.
 Birds, the descendants of dinosaurs, and more recently mammals emerge.

 Modern animals—including humans—evolve at the most recent phases of this eon (2 million years ago).

The Phanerozoic eon is divided into three eras:

1. the Palaeozoic, an era of arthropods, amphibians, fishes, and the first life on land;
2. the Mesozoic, which spanned the rise, reign of reptiles, climactic extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs,
the evolution of mammals and birds; and
3. the Cenozoic, which saw the rise of mammals.
 The Phanerozoic is divided into three eras: the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic, which are further
subdivided into 12 periods.

Paleozoic Era

 There are six periods in the Paleozoic era: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and

Permian.

Cambrian Period

 Spans from 541 to 485 million years ago.

 The Cambrian sparked a rapid expansion in evolution in an event known as the Cambrian Explosion dur-
ing which the greatest number of creatures evolved in a single period in the history of Earth.
 Plants like algae evolved, and arthropods dominated the fauna.
 Almost all marine phyla evolved in this period.

52
 Lifeforms during the Cambrian Period (OpenStax, via Wikimedia Commons)

Ordovician Period

 Spans from 485 million years to 440 million years ago.

 Many species still prevalent today evolved, such as primitive fish, corals, etc.
 The most common forms of life, however, were trilobites, snails and shellfish.
 More importantly, the first arthropods crept ashore (the beginning of terrestrial lifeforms).
 By the end of the Ordovician, Gondwana had moved from the equator to the South Pole.
 The glaciation of Gondwana resulted in a major drop in sea level, killing off all life along its coast.
 Glaciation caused a snowball Earth, leading to the Ordovician-Silurian extinction (First Mass Extinction).

Ordovician–Silurian extinction (First Mass Extinction)

 This is considered as the second deadliest in the history of Earth.

 This event greatly affected marine communities.
 As the southern supercontinent, Gondwana drifted over the South Pole, ice caps formed on it.
 A combination of lowering of sea level and glacially driven cooling were likely driving agents.
 A fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide preceded the late Ordovician glaciation event.
 The dip is correlated with a burst of volcanic activity that deposited new silicate rocks, which draw CO2 out

of the air as they erode.

Silurian Period

 The Silurian spans from 440 million years to 415 million years ago.
 It saw warming from Snowball Earth.
 This period saw the mass evolution of fish.
 The first freshwater fish evolved, though arthropods, such as sea scorpions, remained the apex predators.
 Fully terrestrial life evolved, which included fungi, and centipedes.

53
 The evolution of vascular plants allowed plants to gain a foothold on land.
 During this time, there were four continents: Gondwana (Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India),
Laurentia (North America with parts of Europe), Baltica (the rest of Europe), and Siberia (Northern Asia).

 The recent rise in sea levels provided new habitats for many new species.

Lifeforms during the Silurian Period (livescience.com)

Devonian Period

 Spans from 415 million years to 360 million years ago.

 Also known as the Age of the Fish, the Devonian features a huge diversification in fish.
 On land, plant groups diversified; the first trees and seeds evolved.
 By the Middle Devonian, shrub-like forests of primitive plants existed.
 This event allowed the diversification of arthropod life as they took advantage of the new habitat.
 The first amphibians also evolved, and the fish were now at the top of the food chain.
 Near the end of the Devonian, 70% of all species became extinct in an event known as the Late Devonian
extinction, which is the second mass extinction known to have happened.

Devonian Period ― Age of Fish (Joseph Smit (1836-1929), via Wikimedia Commons)

54
Late Devonian extinction (Second Mass Extinction)

 The Late Devonian extinction occurred about 376–360 million years ago.
 The extinction seems to have only affected marine life.
 The causes of these extinctions are unclear.
 Leading hypotheses include changes in sea level and ocean anoxia (lack of oxygen), possibly triggered by

global cooling or oceanic volcanism.

Carboniferous Period

 Spans from 360 million to 300 million years ago.

 Tropical swamps dominated the Earth, and the large amounts of trees created much of the carbon that
became coal deposits (hence the name Carboniferous).
 The high oxygen levels caused by these swamps allowed massive arthropods, normally limited in size by
their respiratory systems, to proliferate.
 Perhaps the most important evolutionary development of the time was the evolution of amniotic eggs,
which allowed amphibians to move farther inland. (Amniotic fluid is a clear, slightly yellowish liquid that
surrounds the foetus).
 Also, the first reptiles evolved in the swamps.
 Throughout the Carboniferous, there was a cooling pattern, which eventually led to the glaciation of Gond-
wana as much of it was situated around the south pole.

Permian Period

 Spans from 300 million to 250 million years ago.

 At its beginning, all continents came together to form the super-continent Pangaea, surrounded by one
ocean called Panthalassa.
 The Earth was very dry during this time, with harsh seasons, as large bodies of water didn't regulate the
climate of the interior of Pangaea.
 Reptiles flourished in the new dry climate.
 Creatures such as Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus ruled the new continent.

55
 (English Wikipedia)

 The first conifers evolved, then dominated the terrestrial landscape.

 Nearing the end of the period, Scutosaurus and gorgonopsids filled the arid landmass.

(Wikipedia)

 Eventually, they disappeared, along with 95% of all life on Earth in an event simply known as "the Great
Dying", the world's third mass extinction event and the largest in its history.

Permian–Triassic extinction event (Third Mass Extinction)

 The Permian–Triassic (P-T) extinction event is also known as the Great Dying.
 It occurred about 252 Ma (million years) ago, forming the boundary between the Paleozoic and the Meso-
zoic eras.
 It is the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of ter-
restrial vertebrate species becoming extinct.
 It is the only known mass extinction of insects.
 Suggested causes include large meteor impact events, massive volcanism such as that of the Siberian
Traps, runaway greenhouse effect triggered by the sudden release of methane from the sea floor due to
methane-producing microbes known as methanogens.
 Possible contributing gradual changes include sea-level change, increasing anoxia, increasing aridity, and a

shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change.

Mesozoic Era

 Spans from 250 million to 66 million years ago.

 Also known as "the Age of the dinosaurs", the Mesozoic features the rise of reptiles.
 There are three periods in the Mesozoic: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.

Triassic Period

 Spans from 250 million to 200 million years ago.

56
 It is a transitional time between the Permian Extinction and the lush Jurassic Period.
 It has three major epochs: Early Triassic, Middle Triassic and Late Triassic.

Early Triassic

 Spans from 250 million to 247 million years ago.

 Deserts dominated Pangaea (not yet broken up; thus the interior was arid).

Supercontinent Pangea (User: Kieff, via Wikimedia Commons)

 The Earth had just witnessed a massive die-off in which 95% of all life became extinct.
 The most common life on Earth was Lystrosaurus, labyrinthodonts, along with many other creatures that

managed to survive the Great Dying.

57
 (Nobu Tamura, from Wikimedia Commons)

Middle Triassic

 Spans from 247 million to 237 million years ago.

 The Middle Triassic featured the beginnings of the breakup of Pangaea and the beginning of the Te-
thys Sea.
 The ecosystem had recovered from the devastation of the Great Dying.
 Phytoplankton, coral, and crustaceans all had recovered, and the reptiles began increasing in size.
 New aquatic reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, proliferated in the seas.
 Meanwhile, on land, pine forests flourished, as well as mosquitoes and fruit flies.
 The first ancient crocodilians evolved, which sparked competition with the large amphibians.

Late Triassic

 Spans from 237 million to 200 million years ago.

 It featured frequent rises of temperature, as well as moderate precipitation.
 The recent warming led to a boom of reptilian evolution on land as the first true dinosaurs evolved, as
well as pterosaurs.

58
 Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs (Durbed, via Wikimedia Commons)

 By the end of the period the first gigantic dinosaurs had evolved and advanced pterosaurs colonised Pan-
gaea's deserts.
 The climactic change, however, resulted in a large die-out known as the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event
(Fourth Mass Extinction), in which all large amphibians became extinct.

Triassic–Jurassic extinction event (Fourth Mass Extinction)

 It marks the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods, 201 million years ago.
 This event happened in less than 10,000 years and occurred just before Pangaea started to break apart.
 On land, all archosaurs except a few and many of the large amphibians became extinct.
 This event vacated terrestrial ecological niches, allowing the dinosaurs to assume the dominant role.
 Gradual climate change, sea-level fluctuations, oceanic acidification reached a tipping point.
 Massive volcanic eruptions might have caused intense global warming (release of carbon dioxide or sulphur

dioxide) or intense global warming (release of aerosols).

Jurassic Period

 Spans from 200 million to 145 million years ago, and features three major epochs: Early Jurassic, Middle
Jurassic, and Late Jurassic.

59
Early Jurassic

 Spans from 200 million to 175 million years ago.

 The climate was much more humid than the Triassic, and as a result, the world was very tropical.
 In the oceans, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and ammonites dominated the seas.
 On land, dinosaurs and other reptiles dominated the land.
 The first true crocodiles evolved, pushing the large amphibians to near extinction.
 The reptiles rose to rule the world.

 Meanwhile, the first true mammals evolved, but never exceeded the height of a shrew.

Middle Jurassic

 Spans from 175 million to 163 million years ago.

 During this epoch, dinosaurs flourished.
 Many other predators rose as well, such as Allosaurus.
 Conifer forests made up a large portion of the world's forests.
 In the oceans, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs were flourishing.
 This epoch was the peak of the reptiles.

Late Jurassic

 Spans from 163 million to 145 million years ago.

 The Late Jurassic featured a massive extinction of sauropods and ichthyosaurs due to the separation of
Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwana in an extinction known as the Jurassic-Cretaceous extinction.
 The increase in sea-levels opened up the Atlantic seaway which would continue to get larger over time.
 The divided world would give an opportunity for the diversification of new dinosaurs.

Cretaceous Period

 Spans from 145 million to 66 million years ago, and is divided into two epochs: Early Cretaceous, and Late

Cretaceous.

Early Cretaceous

 Spans from 145 million to 100 million years ago.

 The Early Cretaceous saw the expansion of seaways.
 Seasons came back into effect, and the poles grew seasonally colder.
 Since it was too cold for crocodiles, it was the last stronghold for large amphibians.
 In this epoch, Pterosaurs reached their maximum diversity and grew larger.

60
 The first true birds evolved, possibly sparking competition between them and the pterosaurs.

Late Cretaceous

 Spans from 100 million to 65 million years ago.

 The Late Cretaceous featured a cooling trend that would continue into the Cenozoic Era.
 Eventually, tropical ecology was restricted to the equator.
 Dinosaurs still thrived as new species.
 Pterosaurs went into a decline as birds radiated.
 Marsupials evolved within the large conifer forests as scavengers.

 Also, the first flowering plants evolved.

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (Fifth Extinction)

 The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) or Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction, was a sudden mass extinction on
Earth approximately 66 million years ago.
 At the end of the Cretaceous, the Deccan Traps and other volcanic eruptions were poisoning the at-
mosphere.
 As this was continued, it is thought that a large meteor smashed into Earth, creating the Chicxulub Crater
(Yucatan Peninsula Mexico) creating the event known as the K-T Extinction.
 Every living thing with a body mass over 10 kilograms became extinct, and the age of the dinosaurs came
to an end.
 In its wake, many groups underwent remarkable adaptive radiation—sudden and prolific divergence into
new forms and species.
 Mammals in particular diversified in the Paleogene, evolving new forms such as horses, whales, bats,
and primates. Birds, fish, and perhaps lizards also radiated.

Cenozoic Era

 The Cenozoic featured the rise of mammals as the dominant class of animals.

 There are three divisions of the Cenozoic: Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary.

Paleogene Period

 Spans from the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, some 66 million years ago, to the dawn of the Neo-
gene 23 million years ago. It features three epochs: Paleocene, Eocene and Oligocene.

Paleocene

61
 The Early Paleocene saw the recovery of the Earth from the K-T extinction event.
 The continents began to take their modern shape, but all continents were separated from each other.
 The Tethys Sea separated Afro-Eurasia, and the Americas were separated by the strait of Panama, as the
Isthmus of Panama had not yet formed.
 This epoch featured a general warming trend, and jungles eventually reached the poles.
 Sharks dominated the oceans as the large reptiles that had once ruled became extinct.
 Archaic mammals, such as early primates that evolved during the Mesozoic filled the world.

 Mammals were still quite small; meanwhile enormous crocodiles and snakes were top predators.

Eocene

 Spans from 56 million to 34 million years ago.

 In the early Eocene, most land mammals were small and living in cramped jungles, much like the Paleocene.
 Among them were early primates, whales and horses along with many other early forms of mammals.
 Carnivorous flightless birds continued to be top predators, until their extinction in the Quaternary period.
 The temperature was 30 degrees Celsius with a little temperature gradient from pole to pole.
 The circum-Antarctic current between Australia and Antarctica formed which disrupted ocean currents
worldwide, resulting in global cooling, and caused the jungles to shrink.
 This allowed mammals to grow; some such as whales to mammoth proportions.
 The late Eocene Epoch saw the rebirth of seasons, which caused the expansion of savanna-like areas,

along with the evolution of grass.

Oligocene

 Spans from 33 million to 23 million years ago.

 This period featured a global expansion of grass which had led to many new species to take advantage,
including the first elephants, cats, dogs, marsupials and many other species still prevalent today.
 Many other species of plants evolved during this epoch also, such as the evergreen trees.
 The long-term cooling continued, and seasonal rains patterns established.
 Mammals continued to grow larger.
 Paraceratherium, the largest land mammal to ever live evolved during this epoch.

62
 Paraceratherium (ABelov2014, via Wikimedia Commons)

Neogene Period

 Spans from 23.03 million to 2.58 million years ago.

 It features 2 epochs: the Miocene, and the Pliocene.

Miocene

 Spans from 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago.

 Grass spread further across diminishing forests in the process.
 The Tethys Sea finally closed with the creation of the Arabian Peninsula and in its wake left the Black, Red,
Mediterranean and Caspian Seas. This only increased aridity.

 Many new plants evolved, and 95% of modern seed plants evolved in the mid-Miocene

Pliocene

 Spans from 5.333 to 2.58 million years ago.

 The Pliocene featured dramatic climatic changes, which ultimately led to modern species and plants.
 The Mediterranean Sea dried up for several thousand years.
 Australopithecus evolved in Africa, beginning the human branch.

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 Australopithecus. Image Credits: Wikimedia

 The isthmus of Panama formed, and animals migrated between North and South America.
 Climatic changes brought savannas that are continuing to spread across the world, Indian monsoons, de-
serts in East Asia, and the beginnings of the Sahara Desert.
 The Earth's continents and seas moved into their present shapes.
 The world map has not changed much since except for changes brought about by the glaciations of the

Quaternary, such as the Great Lakes.

Quaternary Period

 Spans from 2.58 million years ago to the present day.

 It features modern animals and dramatic changes in the climate.
 It is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene.

Pleistocene

 Spans from 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago.

 Ice ages marked this epoch as a result of the cooling trend that started in the Mid-Eocene.
 There were at least four separate glaciation periods marked by the advance of ice caps as far south as 40
degrees N latitude in mountainous areas.
 Africa experienced a trend of desiccation which resulted in the creation of the Sahara, Namib, and Kalaha-
ri deserts.
 Many animals evolved including mammoths, dire wolves, and most famously Homo sapiens.

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 1,00,000 years ago, marked the end of one of the worst droughts of Africa, and led to the expansion of
primitive man.
 As the Pleistocene drew to a close, a major extinction wiped out much of the world's megafauna, including

some of the hominid species, such as Neanderthals.

Neanderthals (Charles R. Knight, Wikimedia)

Holocene

 The Holocene began 11,700 years ago and lasts until to the present day.
 All recorded history and "the history of the world" lies within the boundaries of the Holocene epoch.
 Human activity is blamed for a mass extinction that began roughly 10,000 years ago, though the species
becoming extinct have only been recorded since the Industrial Revolution.
 This is sometimes referred to as the "Sixth Extinction".

 More than 322 species have become extinct due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution.

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