DARYL JOEH T.

SAGABAEN
BSA 2B

ASSIGNMENT IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE

I.

BIG BANG THEORY

What Is the Big Bang Theory?

-The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its
simplest, it talks about the universe as we know it starting with a small singularity, then
inflating over the next 13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today.
Because current instruments don't allow astronomers to peer back at the universe's
birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang Theory comes from
mathematical theory and models. Astronomers can, however, see the "echo" of the
expansion through a phenomenon known as the cosmic microwave background.
The phrase "Big Bang Theory" has been popular among astrophysicists for decades,
but it hit the mainstream in 2007 when a comedy show with the same name premiered
on CBS. The show follows the home and academic life of several researchers (including
an astrophysicist).

The first second, and the birth of light

In the first second after the universe began, the surrounding temperature was about 10
billion degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius), according to NASA. The cosmos
contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and
protons. These decayed or combined as the universe got cooler.
This early soup would have been impossible to look at, because light could not carry
inside of it. "The free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way
sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds," NASA stated. Over time, however,
the free electrons met up with nuclei and created neutral atoms. This allowed light to
shine through about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

This early light sometimes called the "afterglow" of the Big Bang is more properly
known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). It was first predicted by Ralph
Alpher and other scientists in 1948, but was found only by accident almost 20 years
later.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, both of Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill,
New Jersey, were building a radio receiver in 1965 and picking up higher-than-expected
temperatures, according to NASA. At first, they thought the anomaly was due to pigeons
and their dung, but even after cleaning up the mess and killing pigeons that tried to
roost inside the antenna, the anomaly persisted.
Simultaneously, a Princeton University team (led by Robert Dicke) was trying to find
evidence of the CMB, and realized that Penzias and Wilson had stumbled upon it. The
teams each published papers in the Astrophysical Journal in 1965.

Determining the age of the universe

The cosmic microwave background has been observed on many missions. One of the
most famous space-faring missions was NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
satellite, which mapped the sky in the 1990s.
Several other missions have followed in COBE's footsteps, such as the BOOMERanG
experiment (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and
Geophysics), NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the
European Space Agency's Planck satellite.
Planck's observations, released in 2013, mapped the background in unprecedented
detail and revealed that the universe was older than previously thought: 13.82 billion
years old, rather than 13.7 billion years old.
The maps give rise to new mysteries, however, such as why the Southern Hemisphere
appears slightly redder (warmer) than the Northern Hemisphere. The Big Bang Theory
says that the CMB would be mostly the same, no matter where you look.
Examining the CMB also gives astronomers clues as to the composition of the universe.
Researchers think most of the cosmos is made up of matter and energy that cannot be
"sensed" with conventional instruments, leading to the names dark matter and dark
energy. Only 5 percent of the universe is made up of matter such as planets, stars and
galaxies.

References:
http://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question2321.htm
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/kepler.html
http://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=Meteors+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=Asteroids+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=Comets+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=black+hole+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=Galaxy+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=Star+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=satellite+definition
https://www.google.com.ph/?
gfe_rd=cr&ei=7n0GVtG8BsrU8AeVgYz4AQ#q=planets+definition

II.

Newtons Theory of Gravitation

Newton's Gravity

In the 1600s, an English physicist and mathematician named Isaac Newton was sitting
under an apple tree -- or so the legend tells us. Apparently, an apple fell on his head,
and he started wondering why the apple was attracted to the ground in the first place.
Newton publicized his Theory of Universal Gravitation in the 1680s. It basically set forth
the idea that gravity was a predictable force that acts on all matter in the universe, and
is a function of both mass and distance. The theory states that each particle of matter
attracts every other particle (for instance, the particles of "Earth" and the particles of
"you") with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
So the farther apart the particles are, and/or the less massive the particles, the less the
gravitational force.
The standard formula for the law of gravitation goes
Gravitational force = (G * m1 * m2) / (d2)
Gravitational force = (G * m1 * m2) / (d2)
where G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects for
which you are calculating the force, and d is the distance between the centers of gravity
of the two masses.
G has the value of 6.67 x 10E-8 dyne * cm2/gm2. So if you put two 1-gram objects 1
centimeter apart from one another, they will attract each other with the force of 6.67 x
10E-8 dyne. A dyne is equal to about 0.001 gram weight, meaning that if you have a
dyne of force available, it can lift 0.001 grams in Earth's gravitational field. So 6.67 x
10E-8 dyne is a miniscule force.
When you deal with massive bodies like the Earth, however, which has a mass of
6E+24 kilograms, it adds up to a rather powerful gravitational force. That's why you're
not floating around in space right now.
The force of gravity acting on an object is also that object's weight. When you step on a
scale, the scale reads how much gravity is acting on your body. The formula to
determine weight is
weight = m * g

where m is an object's mass, and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Acceleration due
to gravity on Earth, is 9.8 m/s -- it never changes, regardless of an object's mass.
That's why if you were to drop a pebble, a book and a couch off a roof, they'd hit the
ground at the same time.
For hundreds of years, Newton's theory of gravity pretty much stood alone in the
scientific community. That changed in the early 1900s.
III.

Keplers Law of Planetary Motion

In the interplay between quantitative observation and theoretical construction
that characterizes the development of modern science, we have seen
that Brahe was the master of the first but was deficient in the second. The
next great development in the history of astronomy was the theoretical
intuition of Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), a German who went to Prague to
become Brahe's assistant.

Kepler and the Elliptical Orbits

Unlike Brahe, Kepler believed firmly in the Copernican system. In retrospect, the reason
that the orbit of Mars was particularly difficult was that Copernicus had correctly placed
the Sun at the center of the Solar System, but had erred in assuming the orbits of the
planets to be circles. Thus, in the Copernican theory epicycles were still required to
explain the details of planetary motion.
It fell to Kepler to provide the final piece of the puzzle: after a long struggle, in which he
tried mightily to avoid his eventual conclusion, Kepler was forced finally to the
realization that the orbits of the planets were not the circles demanded by Aristotle and
assumed implicitly by Copernicus, but were instead the "flattened circles" that
geometers call ellipses (See adjacent figure; the
planetary orbits are only slightly elliptical and are not as
flattened as in this example.)
The irony noted above lies in the realization that the
difficulties with the Martian orbit derive precisely from the
fact that the orbit of Mars was the most elliptical of the
planets for which Brahe had extensive data. Thus Brahe had unwittingly given Kepler
the very part of his data that would allow Kepler to eventually formulate the correct
theory of the Solar System and thereby to banish Brahe's own theory!

Some Properties of Ellipses

Since the orbits of the planets are ellipses, let us review a few basic properties of
ellipses.
1. For an ellipse there are two points called foci (singular: focus) such that the sum of
the distances to the foci from any point on the ellipse is a
constant. In terms of the diagram shown to the left, with
"x" marking the location of the foci, we have the equation
a + b = constant
that defines the ellipse in terms of the
distances a and b.
IV.

Planets of Solar System

Ever since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, kids grew up learning about the
nine planets of our solar system. That all changed starting in the late 1990s,
when astronomers began to argue about whether Pluto was a planet. In a
highly controversial decision, the International Astronomical Union ultimately
decided in 2006 to call Pluto a dwarf planet, reducing the list of real
planets in our solar system to eight. But many kids (and adults) cling to the
notion of nine planets.
Regardless of your view, heres the order of the eight larger planets, starting
nearest the sun and working outward through the solar
system: Mercury,Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

Terrestrial planets
The inner four worlds are called terrestrial planets, because, like Earth, their surfaces
are all rocky. Pluto, too, has a solid surface (and a very frozen one) but has never been
grouped with the four terrestrials.
Jovian planets
The four large outer worlds Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are known as
the Jovian planets (meaning Jupiter-like) because they are all huge compared to the
terrestrial planets, and because they are gaseous in nature rather than having rocky
surfaces (though some or all of them may have solid cores, astronomers

say). According to NASA, "two of the outer planets beyond the orbit of Mars Jupiter
and Saturn are known as gas giants; the more distant Uranus and Neptune are
called ice giants." This is because, while the first two are dominated by gas, while the
last two have more ice. All four contain mostly hydrogen and helium.

Dwarf planets
The new IAU definition of a full-fledged planet goes like this: A body that circles
the sun without being some other object's satellite, is large enough to be rounded by its
own gravity (but not so big that it begins to undergo nuclear fusion, like a star) and has
"cleared its neighborhood" of most other orbiting bodies. Yeah, thats a mouthful.
The problem for Pluto, besides its small size and offbeat orbit, is that it shares its space
with lots of other objects in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune. Still, the demotion of Pluto
remains controversial.
The IAU planet definition puts other small, round worlds in the dwarf planetcategory,
including the Kuiper Belt objects Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.
Also now a dwarf planet is Ceres, a round object in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and
Jupiter. Ceres was actually considered a planet when discovered in 1801 and then later
deemed to be an asteroid. Some astronomers like to consider Ceres as a 10th planet
(not to be confused withNibiru or Planet X), but that line of thinking opens up the
possibility of there being 13 planets, with more bound to be discovered.

The planets
Below is a brief overview of the eight primary planets in our solar system, in order from
the inner solar system outward:

Mercury
The closest planet to the sun, Mercury is only a bit larger than Earth's moon. Its day
side is scorched by the sun and can reach 840 degrees Fahrenheit(450 Celsius), but on
the night side, temperatures drop to hundreds of degrees below freezing. Mercury has
virtually no atmosphere to absorb meteor impacts, so its surface is pockmarked with
craters, just like the moon. Over its four-year mission, NASA's MESSENGER

spacecraft has revealed views of the planet that have challenged astronomers'
expectations.

Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye

Named for: Messenger of the Roman gods

Diameter: 3,031 miles (4,878 km)

Orbit: 88 Earth days

Day: 58.6 Earth days

Venus
The second planet from the sun, Venus is terribly hot, even hotter than Mercury. The
atmosphere is toxic. The pressure at the surface would crush and kill you. Scientists
describe Venus situation as a runaway greenhouse effect. Its size and structure are
similar to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway "greenhouse
effect." Oddly, Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets.
The Greeks believed Venus was two different objects one in the morning sky and
another in the evening. Because it is often brighter than any other object in the sky
except for the sun and moon Venus has generated many UFO reports.

Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye

Named for: Roman goddess of love and beauty

Diameter: 7,521 miles (12,104 km)

Orbit: 225 Earth days

Day: 241 Earth days

Earth
The third planet from the sun, Earth is a waterworld, with two-thirds of the planet
covered by ocean. Its the only world known to harbor life. Earths atmosphere is rich in
life-sustaining nitrogen and oxygen. Earth's surface rotates about its axis at 1,532 feet

per second (467 meters per second) slightly more than 1,000 mph (1,600 kph) at
the equator. The planet zips around the sun at more than 18 miles per second (29 km
per second).

Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)

Orbit: 365.24 days

Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes

Mars
The fourth planet from the sun, is a cold, dusty place. The dust, an iron oxide, gives the
planet its reddish cast. Mars shares similarities with Earth: It is rocky, has mountains
and valleys, and storm systems ranging from localized tornado-like dust devils to planetengulfing dust storms. It snows on Mars. And Mars harbors water ice. Scientists think it
was once wet and warm, though today its cold and desert-like.
Mars' atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist on the surface for any length of
time. Scientists think ancient Mars would have had the conditions to support life, and
there is hope that signs of past life possibly even present biology may exist on the
Red Planet.

Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye

Named for: Roman god of war

Diameter: 4,217 miles (6,787 km)

Orbit: 687 Earth days

Day: Just more than one Earth day (24 hours, 37 minutes)

Jupiter
The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is huge and is the most massive planet in our solar
system. Its a mostly gaseous world, mostly hydrogen and helium. Its swirling clouds are
colorful due to different types of trace gases. A big feature is the Great Red Spot, a giant
storm which has raged for hundreds of years. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and
with dozens of moons, it looks a bit like a miniature solar system.

Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye

Named for: Ruler of the Roman gods

Diameter: 88,730 miles (428,400 km)

Orbit: 11.9 Earth years

Day: 9.8 Earth hours

Saturn
The sixth planet from the sun is known most for itsrings. When Galileo Galilei first
studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an object with three parts. Not
knowing he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped astronomer entered a small
drawing a symbol with one large circle and two smaller ones in his notebook, as a
noun in a sentence describing his discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan
Huygens proposed that they were rings. The rings are made of ice and rock. Scientists
are not yet sure how they formed. The gaseous planet is mostly hydrogen and helium. It
has numerous moons.

Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye

Named for: Roman god of agriculture

Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km)

Orbit: 29.5 Earth years

Day: About 10.5 Earth hours

Uranus
The seventh planet from the sun, Uranus is an oddball. Its the only giant planet whose
equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit it basically orbits on its side. Astronomers
think the planet collided with some other planet-size object long ago, causing the tilt.
The tilt causes extreme seasons that last 20-plus years, and the sun beats down on one
pole or the other for 84 Earth-years. Uranus is about the same size as Neptune.
Methane in the atmosphere gives Uranus its blue-green tint. It has numerous
moons and faint rings.

Discovery: 1781 by William Herschel (was thought previously to be a star)

Named for: Personification of heaven in ancient myth

Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)

Orbit: 84 Earth years

Day: 18 Earth hours

Neptune
The eighth planet from the sun, Neptune is known for strong winds sometimes faster
than the speed of sound. Neptune is far out and cold. The planet is more than 30 times
as far from the sun as Earth. It has a rocky core. Neptune was the first planet to be
predicted to exist by using math, before it was detected. Irregularities in the orbit of
Uranus led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest some other might be exerting
a gravitational tug. German astronomer Johann Galle used calculations to help find
Neptune in a telescope. Neptune is about 17 times as massive as Earth.

Discovery: 1846

Named for: Roman god of water

Diameter: 30,775 miles (49,530 km)

Orbit: 165 Earth years

Day: 19 Earth hours

Pluto (Dwarf Planet)

Once the ninth planet from the sun, Pluto is unlike other planets in many respects. It is
smaller than Earth's moon. Its orbit carries it inside the orbit of Neptune and then way
out beyond that orbit. From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had actually been the eighth
planet from the sun. Then, on Feb. 11, 1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again
became the solar system's most distant planet until it was demoted to dwarf planet
status. Pluto will stay beyond Neptune for 228 years. Plutos orbit is tilted to the main
plane of the solar system where the other planets orbit by 17.1 degrees. Its a

cold, rocky world with only a very ephemeral atmosphere. NASA's New Horizons
mission performed history's first flyby of the Pluto system on July 14, 2015.

Discovery: 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh

Named for: Roman god of the underworld, Hades

Diameter: 1,430 miles (2,301 km)

Orbit: 248 Earth years

Day: 6.4 Earth day

DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Planets - a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.
2. Satellite - an artificial body placed in orbit around the earth or moon or another
planet in order to collect information or for communication.
3. Star - a fixed luminous point in the night sky that is a large, remote incandescent
body like the sun.
4. Galaxy - a system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held
together by gravitational attraction.
5. Black Hole - a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no

6.

matter or radiation can escape.

Comets - a celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when

7.

near the sun, a tail of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun.
Asteroids - a small rocky body orbiting the sun. Large numbers of these, ranging in size
from nearly 600 miles (1,000 km) across (Ceres) to dust particles, are found (as the
asteroid belt ) especially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, though some have
more eccentric orbits, and a few pass close to the earth or enter the atmosphere as
meteors.

8. Meteors - a small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth's
atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of friction and appearing as a
streak of light.