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Space is big Space is dark It’s hard to find A place to park - Burma Shave. From Here to the Solar System. Each new step in the following diagrams is 100x larger than the previous diagram. 1 km 0.000003 light-second.
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Space is big Space is dark It’s hard to find A place to park - Burma Shave From Here to the Solar System Each new step in the following diagrams is 100x larger than the previous diagram.
1 km 0.000003 light-second
100 km 0.0003 light-second
10,000 km 0.03 light-second
1 trillion km 30 light-days
How did it get started? • Star formation proceeds from interstellar gas clouds • Many young stars have the kind of dusty surrounding disks that would make planets • Many nearby sunlike stars have at least giant planets • So the process is a frequent byproduct of starbirth
Milky Way star-forming region NGC 3603
Young stars in the Orion Nebula
Gas disks Gas blown away Protoplanetary Dusty disk
Outer solar system October 2003 With trans-Neptune iceballs
First question of planetary structure: how does its heat get out?
Impact Craters • Explosion craters, not just gouges • Their number tells how old a surface is • Most on Earth have been erased by erosion and crustal movement
Moons • Geologically active (for external reasons) • Possibly active • Formerly active • Dead rock and always been that way (the small ones)
Sure, it’s cold and dry now – but do these look like the signs of a Permanently desert world?
The next generation – launch of one of the two Mars Exploration Rovers (arriving year’s end)
We ain’t seen nothin’ yet! • Cassini orbiter en route to Saturn (arrival next June) with Huygens lander for Titan • Deep Impact full-contact comet probe • Messenger return to Mercury • Mars and more Mars • Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter • Terrestrial Planet Finder