VN Cafe: Solar System

Showing posts with label Solar System. Show all posts

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Order from Chaos: The Birth of the Solar System

The solar system formed from a cloud of interstellar gas and dust cloud about 4.6 billion years ago. Life began on earth about 3.5 billion years ago following a period of intense bombardment by asteroid fragments and comets, intense volcanism and finally development of a stable crust and a hospitable atmosphere. Thanks to more powerful telescopes and other state-of-the-art observational methods, we can now see "stellar nurseries" and young stars at various stages of formation. In this talk well learn what triggers star formation in clouds, circumstellar disks and planet formation within the disks, and well discuss early life on earth. Series: Science on Saturday [2/2010]

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Outer Planets

Meet the man who killed Pluto and sparked a controversy. New discoveries regarding the Outer Planets are creating a fundamental rethinking of our solar system.