{"id":491,"date":"2022-03-01T21:37:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T21:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/?post_type=part&p=491"},"modified":"2022-03-01T21:39:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T21:39:24","slug":"chapter-14-cosmic-samples-and-the-origin-of-the-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"part","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/part\/chapter-14-cosmic-samples-and-the-origin-of-the-solar-system\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 14 Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System","rendered":"Chapter 14 Cosmic Samples and the Origin of the Solar System"},"content":{"raw":"
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\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1275\"]\"A Figure\u00a014.1\u00a0Planetesimals.\u00a0This illustration depicts a disk of dust and gas around a new star. Material in this disk comes together to form planetesimals. (credit: modification of work by University of Copenhagen\/Lars Buchhave, NASA)[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n
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Chapter Outline<\/h3>\r\n
14.1<\/span>\u00a0Meteors<\/span><\/div>\r\n
14.2<\/span>\u00a0Meteorites: Stones from Heaven<\/span><\/div>\r\n
14.3<\/span>\u00a0Formation of the Solar System<\/span><\/div>\r\n
14.4<\/span>\u00a0Comparison with Other Planetary Systems<\/span><\/div>\r\n
14.5<\/span>\u00a0Planetary Evolution<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Imagine you are a scientist examining a sample of rock that had fallen from space a few days earlier and you find within it some of the chemical building blocks of life. How could you determine whether those \u201corganic\u201d materials came from space or were merely the result of earthly contamination?<\/p>\r\n

We conclude our survey of the solar system with a discussion of its origin and evolution. Some of these ideas were introduced in\u00a0Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System<\/a>; we now return to them, using the information we have learned about individual planets and smaller members of the solar system. In addition, astronomers have recently discovered thousands of planets around other stars, including numerous multiplanet systems. This is an important new source of data, providing us a perspective that extends beyond our own particular (and perhaps atypical) solar system.<\/p>\r\n

But first, we want to look at another crucial way that astronomers learn about the ancient history of the solar system: by examining samples of\u00a0primitive matter<\/em>, the debris of the processes that formed the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Unlike the Apollo Moon rocks, these samples of cosmic material come to us free of charge\u2014they literally fall from the sky. We call this material cosmic dust and meteorites.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

This book was adapted from the following: Fraknoi, A., Morrison, D., & Wolff, S. C. (2016). Thinking Ahead In Astronomy<\/i>. OpenStax. https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/14-thinking-ahead under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0<\/a><\/div>\r\n
Access the entire book for free at\u00a0https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/1-introduction<\/a><\/div>","rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"A
Figure\u00a014.1\u00a0Planetesimals.\u00a0This illustration depicts a disk of dust and gas around a new star. Material in this disk comes together to form planetesimals. (credit: modification of work by University of Copenhagen\/Lars Buchhave, NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Chapter Outline<\/h3>\n
14.1<\/span>\u00a0Meteors<\/span><\/div>\n
14.2<\/span>\u00a0Meteorites: Stones from Heaven<\/span><\/div>\n
14.3<\/span>\u00a0Formation of the Solar System<\/span><\/div>\n
14.4<\/span>\u00a0Comparison with Other Planetary Systems<\/span><\/div>\n
14.5<\/span>\u00a0Planetary Evolution<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Imagine you are a scientist examining a sample of rock that had fallen from space a few days earlier and you find within it some of the chemical building blocks of life. How could you determine whether those \u201corganic\u201d materials came from space or were merely the result of earthly contamination?<\/p>\n

We conclude our survey of the solar system with a discussion of its origin and evolution. Some of these ideas were introduced in\u00a0Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System<\/a>; we now return to them, using the information we have learned about individual planets and smaller members of the solar system. In addition, astronomers have recently discovered thousands of planets around other stars, including numerous multiplanet systems. This is an important new source of data, providing us a perspective that extends beyond our own particular (and perhaps atypical) solar system.<\/p>\n

But first, we want to look at another crucial way that astronomers learn about the ancient history of the solar system: by examining samples of\u00a0primitive matter<\/em>, the debris of the processes that formed the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Unlike the Apollo Moon rocks, these samples of cosmic material come to us free of charge\u2014they literally fall from the sky. We call this material cosmic dust and meteorites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This book was adapted from the following: Fraknoi, A., Morrison, D., & Wolff, S. C. (2016). Thinking Ahead In Astronomy<\/i>. OpenStax. https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/14-thinking-ahead under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n
Access the entire book for free at\u00a0https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/1-introduction<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"menu_order":14,"template":"","meta":{"pb_part_invisible":false,"pb_part_invisible_string":""},"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-491","part","type-part","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/part"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/491\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}