Part 1.

EARTH SCIENCE

RIGIN AND STRUCTURE

OF THE EARTH: THE
UNIVERSE AND THE
In this modern age when hi-tech gadgets,
machineries, and devices abound, there are
still many basic questions that linger in our
mind. We continue to look for clearer
explanations to the things that mystify us.
These could be from the simple things that
we usually see and observe every day to
the complex questions about our existence.
We ask ourselves:
*Where am I in this vast world?
*How did the universe originate?
*Where did life start and originate?
*What is so special and interesting about
the universe and the solar system where
we belong?
OBJECTIVES:

In this chapter, learners must be able to:

1. Describe the different hypotheses
explaining the origin of the universe.
2. Explain what the universe is composed of.
3. Describe the different hypotheses
explaining the origin of the solar system.
Theories behind the
Origin of the
Universe
FIRST THEORY
According to this theory developed by various
scientists and philosophers, about 10 to 20
billion years ago, matter and energy were
compressed and condensed in a hot tiny dense
mass. In fact, matter and energy back then were
theorized as the same and indistinguishable
from each other. But due to random fluctuations,
this tiny dense and compact point exploded
tremendously. This explosion is termed as the
Big Bang Theory.
In this theory, energy and matter divided and
became distinct from each other. After that
massive explosion, dust and portion of the
condensed matter and energy started to spread
out. These scattered particles eventually
coagulated and different objects and heavenly
bodies began to form. Soon, stars, solar systems
and galaxies were formed. This is the most
popular theory of the origin of the universe.
SECOND THEORY
This theory has many versions, but the most
popular version is the one proposed in 1948 by
Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Herman Bondi et al. it
states that the universe has been present ever
since and therefore has no beginning and no end,
and has been expanding constantly. This theory,
known as Steady State Theory or Infinite
Universe Theory, is an alternative to the Big
Bang Theory. According to this theory, the density
of matter in the expanding universe remains
unchanged due to a continuous creation of matter,
THIRD THEORY
The Pulsating Universe
combines both the Big Bang and the
Big Crunch as part of a cyclical event.
If this theory holds true, Then the
universe in which we live in exists
between Big Bang and a Big Crunch.
This theory says that universe follows
infinite self sustaining cycles such as
expanding and contracting.
After the universe has contracted to
a certain size, explosion occurs and
the universe will start expanding.
The theory also states that the
universe is “living” and keep
pulsating in and out. The universe
expands at a rapid rate with gravity
and inertia and eventually inertia will
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The Solar System is the
gravitationally bound system
comprising the Sun and the objects
that orbit it, either directly or
indirectly. It is in constant motion,
with the planets and their moons,
comets, asteroids and other space
objects revolving around the Sun.
THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Many scientists have developed

various theories to explain the origin of
the solar system. Rene Descartes, in
the mid 1600’s devised a Theory of
Vortices which postulated that the space
was entirely filled with matter in various
states, whirling about the sun like a
vortex. Descartes explained how the
universe could have started from utter
Once the particles in the chaotic universe began
to move, the overall motion would have been
circular because there is no void in nature. So,
whenever a single particle moves, another
particle must also move to occupy the space
where the previous particle once was. This type
of circular motion, or vortex, would have created
what Descartes observed to be the orbits of the
planets about the sun with the heavier objects
spinning out towards the outside of the vortex
and the lighter objects remaining closer to the
center.
 A hundred years after, Immanuel
Kant suggested that contraction in the
middle of the rotating cloud appeared
and the rest flattened out like a disk,
using Newton’s idea of gravity. In his
“Nebular Hypothesis” on star and
planetary formations, he theorized that
thin, dim cloud of dust and gas out in the
cosmos would collapse in on themselves
under the force of gravity, causing them
to spin to form a disk. From this spinning
 In the year 1700’s, a French
mathematician named Pierre Simon Laplace
proposed a similar model of solar system.
According to his model which is now known as
Laplace’s Nebular Theory, a slowly rotating
nebula (a cloud vast gas and dusts) collapsed
under gravity forming an oblate spheroid due to
the increase in its spin rate. Contraction and
cooling occurred and formed a lens-like structure
leaving detached rings behind, which in the later
process collapsed to form planets considering in
each ring.
 In the mid- 1700’s Georges-
Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
conceived the idea that a comet
collided with the sun sending
matter off to form the planets.
Several theories citing cosmic
catastrophe continued for several
hundred of years after Buffon.
 In the middle part of the 20th century,
scientists were able to find a new source of
data: the chemical composition of space
objects. It was Harold Urey who initially
studied the meteorites and their chemical
analysis. He concluded that meteorites
contain matter that had changed very little
in the early history of the solar system. This
set a new trend in understanding the solar
system whose origin can be based on its
chemical composition.
 More theories regarding the origin of
the solar system were proposed by various
scientists basing their observation on the
space objects and their motion. However,
none of these attempts was successful and it
was not until 1970’s with Soviet astronomer
Victor Safronov that the modern (and widely
accepted) Solar Nebular Disk Model (SNDM)
came into being. According to this model, our
star system was formed 4.568 billion years
ago when a small part of a giant molecular
cloud experienced a gravitational collapse.
Most of the collapsing mass collected in the
 Since the time, our system has evolved
considerably due to collisions between objects,
planetary migration and the capturing of extra-
solar objects by our own sytem. While originally
applied only to our own solar system, the SNDM
has since been used by theorists to explain star
formation throughout the known universe.
Today’s scientists have postulated the
current theory about the beginnings of the sun
and planets using data gathered for over the
past centuries.
 This theory known as the Nebular
Theory. This theory explains that the solar
system evolved from a nebula that
disintegrated due to the fall of its own gravity
about 4.5 billion years ago. This vast cloud of
dust contained light elements with trace
amounts of heavier elements. Cloud
contraction due to gravitational attraction
occurred, forming the denser atoms through
clumping of atoms together. As it happened,
the matter began to move in a giant circular
manner. As the gas cloud continued to spin
and contract, it flattened and became a disk
 A few thousand years after, the sun
and the rest of the disk began to cool down. The
disk’s edge emerged much cooler than the
center of the disk due to great distance from
the sun. with it, various temperatures were
present in the disk causing materials to become
solid, dust-like particles, rocky dust particles, icy
particles containing water and frozen gases. It
took 500 million years for the planets to form in
their current location and orbits,.
 The solar system that we know
today refers to a star and all of the
space objects that travels around it
including planets. Its natural satellites
(moon), comets and asteroids. It is a
part of a spiral galaxy, a very large
group of stars that make up the universe
known as the Milky Way with the sun as
its center holding the planets and
numerous smaller objects in its orbit.
To enhance one’s knowledge about the solar
system, definitions of some of the common space
objects with their visual representation are given
below.

ASTEROID - Basically a chunk of rock that orbits

the sun. Its size can be from a few feet up to
several miles in diameter.
COMET – a cosmic snowball of rocks, dusts,
frozen gases that grow tails as it comes nearer to
the sun. it glows due to the heat of the sun
causing dust and gases to spit from it leaving
trails behind. It is usually visible in the night sky.
METEORS AND METEORITES – small chunks
of debris and rocks in space. A meteor
commonly called “shooting star” falls into the
planet’s atmosphere. It leaves bright trail in
the sky which we usually see. Part of this
chunk of rocks and dusts that hits the ground
is called meteorite.
PLANET – any large heavenly body that
revolves around the sun in the solar system.
MOON – also called as satellite. It is basically
solid body. Only a few have atmospheres
planetary moons are formed from discs of gas