14.5 Planetary evolution  (Page 5/17)

Talcott, R. “How the Solar System Came to Be.” Astronomy (November 2012): 24. On the formation period of the Sun and the planets.

Young, E. “Cloudy with a Chance of Stars.” Scientific American (February 2010): 34. On how clouds of interstellar matter turn into star systems.

Websites

Meteors and Meteorites

American Meteor Society: http://www.amsmeteors.org/. For serious observers.

British and Irish Meteorite Society: http://www.bimsociety.org/meteorites1.shtml.

Meteor Showers Online: http://meteorshowersonline.com/. By Gary Kronk.

Meteorite Information: http://www.meteorite-information.com/. A great collection of links for understanding and even collecting meteorites.

Meteorites from Mars: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/. A listing and links from the Jet Propulsion Lab.

Meteors and Meteor Showers: http://www.astronomy.com/observing/observe-the-solar-system/2010/04/meteors-and-meteor-showers. From Astronomy magazine.

Meteors: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/meteors/. A collection of articles on meteor observing from Sky&Telescope magazine.

Nine Planets Meteorites and Meteors Page: http://nineplanets.org/meteorites.html.

Some Interesting Meteorite Falls of the Last Two Centuries: http://www.icq.eps.harvard.edu/meteorites-1.html.

Evolution of the Solar System and Protoplanetary Disks

Circumstellar Disk Learning Site: http://www.disksite.com/. By Dr. Paul Kalas.

Disk Detective Project: http://www.diskdetective.org/. The WISE mission is asking the public to help them find protoplanetary disks in their infrared data.

Videos

Meteors and Meteorites

Meteorites and Meteor-wrongs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQO335Y3zXo. Video with Dr. Randy Korotev of Washington U. in St. Louis (7:05).

Rare Meteorites from London’s Natural History Museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Rsk-ywN44. A tour of the meteorite collection with curator Caroline Smith (18:22). Also see a short news piece about a martian meteorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMR2r53f2s (2:54).

What Is a Meteor Shower (and How to Watch Them): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmgvlwInCA. Top tips for watching meteor showers from the At-Bristol Science Center (3:18).

Evolution of the Solar System and Protoplanetary Disks

Origins of the Solar System: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/origins-solar-system.html. Video from Nova ScienceNow narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson (13:02).

Where Do Planets Come From?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIJUdZWlXo. Public talk by Anjali Tripathi in March 2016 in the Center for Astrophysics Observatory Nights Series (56:14).

Collaborative group activities

1. Ever since the true (cosmic) origin of meteorites was understood, people have tried to make money selling them to museums and planetariums. More recently, a growing number of private collectors have been interested in purchasing meteorite fragments, and a network of dealers (some more reputable than others) has sprung up to meet this need. What does your group think of all this? Who should own a meteorite? The person on whose land it falls, the person who finds it, or the local, state, or federal government where it falls? What if it falls on public land? Should there be any limit to what people charge for meteorites? Or should all meteorites be the common property of humanity? (If you can, try to research what the law is now in your area. See, for example, http://www.space.com/18009-meteorite-collectors-public-lands-rules.html.)
2. Your group has been formed to advise a very rich person who wants to buy some meteorites but is afraid of being cheated and sold some Earth rocks. How would you advise your client to make sure that the meteorites she buys are authentic?
3. Your group is a committee set up to give advice to NASA about how to design satellites and telescopes in space to minimize the danger of meteor impacts. Remember that the heavier a satellite is, the harder (more expensive) it is to launch. What would you include in your recommendations?
4. Discuss what you would do if you suddenly found that a small meteorite had crashed in or near your home. Whom would you call first, second, third? What would you do with the sample? (And would any damage to your home be covered by your insurance?)
5. A friend of your group really wants to see a meteor shower. The group becomes a committee to assist her in fulfilling this desire. What time of year would be best? What equipment would you recommend she gets? What advice would you give her?
6. Work with your group to find a table of the phases of the Moon for the next calendar year. Then look at the table of well-known meteor showers in this chapter and report on what phase the Moon will be in during each shower. (The brighter the Moon is in the night sky, the harder it is to see the faint flashes of meteors.)
7. Thinking that all giant planets had to be far from their stars (because the ones in our solar system are) is an example of making theories without having enough data (or examples). Can your group make a list of other instances in science (and human relations) where we have made incorrect judgments without having explored enough examples?
8. Have your group list and then discuss several ways in which the discovery of a diverse group of exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars) has challenged our conventional view of the formation of planetary systems like our solar system.

Thought questions

Figuring for yourself