Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the First Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 A brief history
- Chapter 2 The universe
- Chapter 3 Stars
- Chapter 4 The solar nebula
- Chapter 5 Composition and chemical evolution of the solar nebula
- Chapter 6 The evidence from meteorites
- Chapter 7 Building planets
- Chapter 8 The giant planets
- Chapter 9 Satellites and rings
- Chapter 10 The refugees
- Chapter 11 The survivors: Mercury and Mars
- Chapter 12 The twins: Venus and the Earth
- Chapter 13 The Moon
- Chapter 14 The role of impacts
- Chapter 15 Epilogue: on the difficulty of making Earth-like planets
- Name index
- Subject index
Chapter 3 - Stars
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the First Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 A brief history
- Chapter 2 The universe
- Chapter 3 Stars
- Chapter 4 The solar nebula
- Chapter 5 Composition and chemical evolution of the solar nebula
- Chapter 6 The evidence from meteorites
- Chapter 7 Building planets
- Chapter 8 The giant planets
- Chapter 9 Satellites and rings
- Chapter 10 The refugees
- Chapter 11 The survivors: Mercury and Mars
- Chapter 12 The twins: Venus and the Earth
- Chapter 13 The Moon
- Chapter 14 The role of impacts
- Chapter 15 Epilogue: on the difficulty of making Earth-like planets
- Name index
- Subject index
Summary
The Sun and the solar system (and ourselves) are latecomers in the universe. The universe was in existence for around ten billion years before the formation of the solar system. Another four-and-a-half billion years passed before Homo sapiens arose to survey the surroundings. When the solar system formed, the universe would have long settled down into its present familiar appearance, complete with galaxies and stars, and would have looked much the same as today. However, due to the slow relative movements of the stars, our familiar constellations, such as Orion the Hunter and his companion, the Great Dog (Canis Major), will be rearranged and replaced by other groupings in the future. Edmond Halley (1656–1742) seems to have been one of the first to have realized this, when he observed that the positions of many stars in the early 18th century differed from those recorded in the catalogue of Hipparchus in the second century BC.
Our nearest star (Proxima Centauri, an 11th magnitude M5 red dwarf and the faintest of a triple-stellar system of which Alpha Centauri is the brightest) is about 4.3 light-years or about 1.3 pc distant from Earth. Although Proxima Centauri is the nearest star at present, the dwarf star Ross 248 will succeed to the title in about 33,000 Earth years [1].
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Solar System EvolutionA New Perspective, pp. 29 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001