...The Milky Way Galaxy * A spiral type of Galaxy * composed of 200 billion stars. * One revolution every ~200 million years. * 100,000 lights years long * 3000 light years wide Our Solar System is mainly composed of: * STARS * PLANETS * SPACE DEBRIS STARS - are luminous heavenly bodies which have their own light. We can see near about 2500 stars on a clear night with our naked eye. But in actual, total no of stars are countless. The star which is nearest to earth is sun. It is the brightest star of all. The second nearest star except sun is Alpha-Centauri. THE SUN * Diameter: 1.4 million km * Age: 4.5 billion years (lifetime 11 billion years) * Mass: 2 x 1030 kg (330,000 x Earths) (99.8% of mass of solar system) * Density: 1.41 (water = 1) * Composition (by mass): Hydrogen: 73%, Helium: 25%, Others: 2% * Distance from Earth: 149.6 million km. * Distance to nearest Star: 9.46 million million km. * Luminosity: 4 x 1026 J s-1 (390 billion billion Megawatts). Solar Cycle: 8 - 11 years. * Temperature at Surface: 5,800°C (10,500 °F). * Temperature of Core: 14 million°C (22.5 million °F) POLARIS - known by many names, is one of the most famous stars in the sky. Polaris is also known as Alpha Ursae Minoris and is part of the constellation Ursa Minor, which is the Little Bear. Polaris is always in the sky; it does not disappear depending on the season, which is one reason why it has been...
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...e,The Solar System * The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects bound to it by gravity, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Of the many objects that orbit the Sun, most of the mass is contained within eight relatively solitary planets whose orbits are almost circular and lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane. THE SUN The Sun is the most prominent feature in our solar system. It is the largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. Did you know? The Sun is big enough to hold over 1 million Earths. Many rituals and monuments are devoted to worshipping the Sun and/or marking important times in the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Mercury * Moon * No satellite * Giovanni Zupi * Has magnetic field * Mariner 10 * Revolution: 88 days * Rotation: 59 days Venus * Earth * No satellite * Galileo Galilei * No magnetic field * Mariner 2 * Revolution : 224.7 days * Rotation : 243 or (242 days) Mercury * Roman messenger of the gods * Smallest planet * Shortest year * Core: iron * Mantle: silicates * Crust: cratered terrain from meteors and small comets. Venus * Roman goddess of beauty * Hottest planet * Longest day * Core: iron and nickel * Mantle: unknown composition * Crust: Silicious...
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...The diameter of the Universe is approximately 91 billion light years. The smaller inner planets are composed of rocks while the bigger outer planets are composed of gases. The giant planets are toward the outside of the solar system because Newton’s second law of motion states that force equals mass multiplied by acceleration and since the giant planets have more mass, their force increases. Orbits get farther and farther apart as you go away from the sun because the sun gives off gravitational force and as a planet moves farther away, the acceleration increases, increasing the gravitational force. To begin, the giant gas planets are toward the outside of the solar system because they have more mass. The pocket solar system model states that the outer planets have more mass than inner planets, as they surround the inner planets (Pocket Solar System Model). Since the giant planets have more mass, their force increases, expanding their orbit range. The Big Bang Theory claims that a huge explosion created the universe, and since the biggest planets have the...
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...The Solar System was formed around 4 billion years ago due to a cloud. It is a part of the Milky Way galaxy and consists of 8 planets. All the planets within the Solar System revolve around a star, known as our sun. The following planets listed are in order from closest to furthest from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Although, there is a dwarf planet named Pluto, which is unofficially the ninth planet in our Solar System. Each planet falls into a certain category, either Terrestrial Planets, or Giant Planets. The reason for the name of the Giant Planets, is because they are either of an ice giant or a gas giant. Mercury, Venus and Mars fall into the Terrestrial Planet category. Meanwhile, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune fall into the Giant Planet category. The reason for...
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...Simulation of a Stirling Engine Solar Power Generation System Using Simulink Mehdi Zareian Jahromi∗ , Mohammad Mehdi Hosseini Bioki† , and Roohollah Fadaeinedjad‡ , Member IEEE ∗† Electrical ‡ Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Kerman Graduate University of Technology, Kerman,Iran. and Computer Engineering Department, Kerman Graduate University of Technology, Kerman,Iran. Telephone: +98-3426226517, Fax: +98-3426226618, Email: rfadaein@ieee.org ‡ International Center for Science, High Technology and Environmental Sciences, Kerman, Iran. could be especially useful in developing countries since they will run on any fuel, including biomass; or when incorporated in parabolic dish systems, they can use solar energy. Cogeneration is possible using the cooling water that maintains the cold sink, so heat-and-power systems for homes are provided. With higher efficiencies, their quiet vibration-free operation, very low emissions when burning natural gas, simplicity, and potentially high reliability could make the Stirling engines an attractive alternative in the near future [6]. Simulation and modeling can be used to evaluate the operation of the solar Stirling engine based power generation systems. Considerable research has been performed on the modeling and control of Stirling engine systems. Most of this research, however, has been done using mechanical and thermal models of Stirling engines that neglects the electrical parts of the system [5], [7], [8]. In this research...
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...On september 23rd, 1846 two astronomers John Couch from Britain, And Urbain Le Verrier from France joined together and used calculations to find the exact location of of Neptune. They both claimed they found it and it lead to an national dispute. Neptune is the eighth planet the solar system. Uranus is in front and Pluto is behind it. The planet takes 15 hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds to fully rotate. That is a little faster than Earth's rotation. Now before you see how many miles large it is I will tell you that it is three point nine times larger than earth. It is 5,299 miles. And its mass is 17 times larger than Earth's mass, Its gravity is 11.15 m/s. So if you weigh 100 pounds on earth you would weigh 110 pounds on Neptune. Its takes...
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...Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun in the solar system. It has the third largest mass in the solar system. It was William Herschel who discovered Uranus in 1781. In two years William thought it was a star or a comet. But then Uranus was accepted as a planet because of Johann Elert Bode’s observations. William wanted the planet to be called Georgium Sidus because of the king George III. But the planet was called Uranus after the Greek god of sky. It takes Uranus 17 hours and 14 minutes to to rotate 1 time and it takes 84 earth years to spin around the sun 1 time. It has got 27 moons and they are divided into three different groups: thirteen inner moons, five major moons and nine irregular moons. The moons are named after characters...
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...Our Solar System. It’s crazy to think that our Solar System was formed over five billion years ago. The formation of our Solar System is fascinating. In this essay i used the article ‘How our Solar System formed’ by Cynthia Brown and the video ‘How did the Earth and Solar System formed?’You will read about the creation of the Sun, our planets, and Earth The Sun. The Sun is the main part of our Solar System. The Sun is the reason we even have a planet to call “Earth.” This is why the Sun plays the most important role in our Solar System. The Sun was created by a cloud called nebula collapsed. After the collapse the atoms in the nebula started to gain heat. Soon enough the atoms had so much heat that they started to fuse together. Therefore, the Sun was created. I found this information in the article How Our Solar System Formed by Cynthia Brown. Another key point in why the sun plays an important role in our solar system is that the sun gives us light and heat and without that the human population wouldn’t be able to...
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...Life on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life in our solar system 2. Explain the theories for the genesis of life. There are many cultures and religions explaining their version of the theories for the genesis of life. Back in Medieval times some Europeans believed that small creatures appeared without apparent external cause or reason from garbage or old clothes. An Italian physician named Francesco Redi proved this belief to be wrong. He proved that maggots came from flies that laid their eggs, rather than appearing without apparent external cause from garbage or old clothes. Genesis of life came from sunlight. An experiment was conducted by a student of Physics testing energy for rearranging atoms and molecules into organic forms. The student Stanley Miller filled a closed glass container with a mixture of gases. A reservoir of boiling water was at the bottom and above it was an apparatus that caused sparks to pass through the gas mixture. Amino acids and other organic chemicals formed from the gases and water. Since then, there has been other more sophisticated research has been conducted synthesizing additional amino acids and even nucleic acids. These molecules organize into DNA and RNA encoding the genetic information of organisms. The origin of Life - science.jrank.org/ 3. Explain the theory of natural selection. There was a time when scientist believed that species developed gradually from...
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...Final Report Project Title: Solar Panel Enhancement System Executive Summary The project is to enhance the functionality of the solar panels. Our project is divided onto three main parts. Snow and dust can prevent the solar panels to receive direct sun light. This can decrease the amount of power received. First part is preventing high voltage by detecting high very high temperature and humidity. Second part is cleaning project that clean what’s blocking the light from the panel by reading power measurement. The last part is detecting damage by reading the power measurement coming from the panel and the battery. Home photovoltaic system must be cleaned regularly to achieve maximum efficiency. To achieve this, surface of the solar panels must be free from dust, sand, snow, and more. Dirty solar panels lower power generation efficiencies and the solution for this is to design and create a brush that can be activated to clean unwanted substance from the panel. Table of Contents: 1- Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 4 2- Design Objectives ................................................................................................................... 5 3- Ideal System Definition.............................................................................................................. 7 4- System Prototype Definition........................
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...developing countries like Nigeria. Excessive demand of power is always difficult to meet and as a result national economy is being hampered severely due to this deregulation of electricity. Alternative power sources that can deliver output currents in absence of grid supply are now automatic choices in home grid-connected system. In urban areas, IPS (Instant Power Supply) system is being used massively to cope up with load shedding. Increasing interest and investment in renewable energy give rise to rapid development of high penetration solar energy. There are multiple ways to interface PV arrays with the power grid. Solar energy has become a promising alternative source because it has many advantages such as abundance, pollution free and renewability. The solar photovoltaic (PV) power will play an important role in alleviating the energy crisis and reducing the environmental pollution and has a bright prospect of applications. Due to the nonlinear relationship between the current and the voltage of the photovoltaic cell, it can be observed that there is a unique maximum power point (MPP) at a particular environment, and this peak power point keeps changing with solar illumination and ambient temperature. In recent years, a large number of techniques have been proposed for maximum power point tracking (MPPT), such as the constant voltage tracking (CVT), the incremental conductance (INC) method, the perturb-and-observe (P&O or hill-climbing) method (Basso, 2008). Perturbation and Observation...
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...A Domestic Solar Hot Water System for Southern Ontario Submitted by: Steve C. Wyndham A.Sc.T. OACETT Membership #: 0856807 Submitted to: OACETT 10 Four Seasons Place, Suite 404 Toronto, ON M9B 6H7 Discipline: Environmental Date Submitted: August 15, 2014 Declaration of Sole Authorship I, Steve Wyndham, confirm that this work submitted for assessment is my own and is expressed in my own words. Any uses made within it of the works of any other author, in any form (ideas, equations, figures, texts, tables, programs), are properly acknowledged at the point of use. A list of the references used is included. Signature: Date: August 18, 2014 Acknowledgments The author would like to acknowledge the use of the Queen’s University On-line Library for access to Research Journals. Abstract Global warming is one of the most potentially disastrous issues facing mankind in the early 21st century, considered to be caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately 30% of the man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions causing global warming is created by the burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity or used as a direct energy source. The use of solar energy to pre-heat water for industrial, commercial and institutional and residential purposes can reduce electricity usage by up to 2% to 6% in southern Ontario. Adding the emissions from using natural gas directly to heat water a figure of 5% to 17% reduction in CO2 emissions can be derived by the...
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...Solar System Our understanding of the Solar System has changed over time. For over one thousand years the widespread belief was that the earth was stationary and at the center of the universe. Since that time, through a series of discoveries it has been proved that the earth not stationary and it is not at the center of the universe. The Ptolemaic system was developed early in the first century by Claudius Ptolemy who believed like most Greek Scholars in the geocentric view that the earth was stationary and at the center of the universe. Over one thousand years later, Nicolas Copernicus, a mathematician and astronomer believed in the heliocentric theory that it was not the earth, but the sun that was the center of the universe. His book, “On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres” laid the groundwork for future observations and discoveries and his work became known as the Copernican model. Galileo’s observations through the use of a telescope he built, was able to provide the evidence needed to support the heliocentric theory. In 1572 Tyler Brahe discovered a new star and after sixteen months it disappeared from site. This discovery conflicted with earlier views that the stars were fixed. (Space Discovery website, n.d.) Based on his observations and measurements of our solar system, Brahe proposed a model that fell in between the Ptolemaic and Copernican models. (The Obervations of Tycho Brahe, n.d.) His discoveries and writings were central to the advancement in...
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...Power Systems Mounir Bouzguenda, Abdelkader Tami, Azzeddine Ferrah, and Jihad Al-Khalaf Faculty of Engineering, Sohar University PO Box 44 PC 311 Sohar-Oman Tel: +968-820-101 ext 233 Email:m.bouzguenda@soharuni.edu.om Abstract--The interest in off-grid photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems in villages and remote areas is increasing. This interest stems from several factors such as improvement in living standards, reduced capital cost, stricter environmental constraints, and national programs that encourage renewable energy systems. To promote the usefulness of such renewable energy systems, a simple design and cost analysis method was developed. Its purpose is system sizing and life cycle cost analysis. Key parameters such as energy consumption, storage requirements, solar resources and financing options are entered into the program. Results such as system size and project cost are computed. For the financial analysis, Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period are used as project evaluation techniques. The method was tested for four PV systems with different geographical conditions and energy consumption profiles. Results show that the PV systems can be attractive on economic basis if governments provide sufficient funding and incentives. 1. INTRODUCTION Photovoltaics offer consumers the ability to generate electricity in a clean, quiet and reliable way. Because the source of energy is usually the sun, the electricity produced by PV systems is an...
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...SOLAR PANEL SYSTEMS: Importance of solar panels With the earth's natural resources dwindling quickly we were on the verge of running out of power. Electricity bills are rising day in and day out. In such a scenario, finding alternative sources of energy had become mandatory. Focus shifted to using renewable and inexhaustible sources to fulfill the energy needs. Solar energy emerged as a potential option. Other than saving the nation’s resources, solar energy has benefitted its users at the basic grass root level. It has now been touted as the major power source worldwide. 1. Save on electricity bills: By installing solar panels on your roof, you ensure that every sunray that hits the panels lowers...
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