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 * **ASSIGNMENT 3: Solar System Formation and Leftovers**
 * Directions:** The [|current estimated age]of the known universe is approximately 13.73 billion years old. The current estimated age of our solar system is approximately 4.5 billion years old. Our job as a class is to use our notes and the Internet to EXPLAIN **how our solar system and the planets formed** and to describe the remnants that were left over from those formations. Our EXPLANATION should be sequential (follows the correct series of steps in the actual formation of the solar system). **We will attempt to work as a class on the table below (Note your name next to the item you are responsible for).** Your job is to correctly define the term, insert a supporting image, and to provide more explanation, significance, and/or additional info, data, etc.


 * Note:** Our Solar System (Sun, planets, moons, etc.) are thought to have begun forming just under 5 billion years ago and the big bang theory (origin of the entire universe) is thought to have occurred about 14 billion years ago. Just to gain some perspective, please carefully look at this portion of the [|overall table].

A minute planet; a body that could come together with many others under gravitation to form a planet.
 * **Definition** || **Supporting Image** || **Explanation, Significance, and/or additional info** ||
 * McHugh
 * Nebula**- Interstellar cloud of gas and dust || [[image:http://ncse.com/files/images/607px-Eagle_nebula_pillars.jpg height="247" caption="external image 607px-Eagle_nebula_pillars.jpg"]] || The formation of a star, planets, etc. (a solar system) is thought to begin when gravity begins to pull together material from a nebula. ||
 * Anthony
 * Planetesimal**-

A celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star. ||  ||   || a [|planet] that is primarily composed of [|silicate] [|rocks] and/or [|metals]. Within the [|solar system], the terrestrial planets are the [|inner planets] closest to the [|Sun]. || ||   || The Kuiper Belt is a region just beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is about 30 to 50 AU away from the sun. It is filled with comets that lies just outside of our solar system. ||  ||   || The Oort cloud is an immense spherical cloud surrounding the planetary system and extending approximately 3 light years, about 30 trillion kilometers from the Sun. || || Although its existence has not yet been proven through direct observation, the reality of the Oort Cloud is widely accepted in the scientific community. The Oort Cloud is filled with icy objects composed of ammonia, water and methane. Although a few comets in our solar system come from the Kuiper Belt, most are thought to originate from the Oort Cloud. In fact, the Oort Cloud is composed of the same substances that comets are. ||
 * Planet**-
 * Dinan/Billy
 * **Gas giant**- || [[image:http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/images/full/2010/11/19/52972-new-red-giant-planet-from-another-galaxy-found-in-milky-way.jpg width="304" height="196"]] || A large, massive, low-density planet composed primarily of hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia in either gaseous or liquid state. Gas giants have swirling atmospheres primarily of hydrogen and helium, with no well-defined planetary surface; they are assumed to have rocky cores. Our [|solar system] contains four gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The majority of extrasolar planets discovered so far are the size of the solar system's gas giants, although they orbit their stars much more closely and may differ in composition from ours. ||
 * Hunsicker
 * Satellite (moon)**- ||  ||   ||
 * McHugh
 * Asteroid**- || [[image:http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/asteroid/ida.jpg width="272" height="173"]] ||  ||
 * McHugh
 * Asteroid belt**- || [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/1/18/Asteroid_belt_between_Mars_%26_Jupiter.PNG width="299" height="212" caption="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/1/18/Asteroid_belt_between_Mars_%26_Jupiter.PNG"]] ||  ||
 * Magee
 * Meteor**- bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere. Also called //falling star//, //meteor burst//, //shooting star//. || [[image:http://meteor-shower.net/wp-content/gallery/demo/3.jpg width="400" height="269"]] ||  ||
 * McKay
 * Meteoriod**- ||  ||   ||
 * McHugh
 * Meteorite**- ||  ||   ||
 * Pearyer-Boisvert
 * Comet**- || [[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQkpkgQh2uLLuZHk3c8pRL3z3WV5SQvaZkD92L4BRDluraPlWIZ1w width="287" height="176" link="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/oconnell/astr121/im/ikeya-zhang-MJager-mar02.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/oconnell/astr121/guide21.html&usg=__gw2y0lxic5dtN7QNMXqV6vtnZhU=&h=700&w=1143&sz=94&hl=en&start=194&zoom=1&tbnid=VL6VXexvZQlJhM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=225&ei=CNzCTZjkI5D2tgOn5o3yDw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcomets%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1266%26bih%3D599%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=322&vpy=259&dur=450&hovh=176&hovw=287&tx=157&ty=115&page=11&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:194"]] ||  ||
 * Reyes
 * Nucleus**- ||  ||   ||
 * McHugh **Coma**- ||  ||   ||
 * Talaber
 * Kuiper Belt-**
 * Kuiper Belt-**
 * Tratnyek
 * Oort Cloud**-