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Tutorial Course

GCSE Astronomy — Exploring the Solar System

Led by Christiaan Huygens

1 modules ~9 hours of tutorial Physics & Astronomy Updated today

Module 11 of Edexcel GCSE Astronomy — the largest module in the entire course at 32 spec points. Led by Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan, identified Saturn's rings, and gave the first sensible estimate of the distance to a star. The student surveys the full Solar System inventory and the optical instruments used to examine it.

Exploring the Solar …11
  1. Module 11

    Exploring the Solar System

    Led by Christiaan Huygens

    The question

    What are the bodies of the Solar System, where are they, what are their principal characteristics, where do comets come from, how was the absolute size of the Solar System first established, where did Earth's water come from, and how does a telescope actually work? The spec covers thirty-two points spanning the full inventory of Solar System bodies, the comet reservoirs (Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud), the Halley transit-of-Venus method for the AU, the main theories for the origin of Earth's water, and the optics of telescopes.

    Outcome

    the student can identify and characterise every category of Solar System body, describe comet structure and the orbital reservoirs, account for planetary characteristics in the spec's six-fold scheme, describe the Halley transit method for the AU, account for theories of Earth's water, and explain the optics of refractors and reflectors. *(Edexcel 1AS0 Paper 2 — Topic 11, spec points 11.1–11.16)*

    Sub-units

    1. ○ 11.1 The inventory: planets, dwarf planets, small bodies
    2. ○ 11.2 Comets: structure, short-period and long-period orbits
    3. ○ 11.3 Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, heliosphere
    4. ○ 11.4 Principal characteristics of the planets
    5. ○ 11.5 Gas-giant formation and current position
    6. ○ 11.6 Meteoroids, meteorites, and the ecliptic plane
    7. ○ 11.7 The Halley transit-of-Venus method for the AU
    8. ○ 11.8 Origin of Earth's water
    9. ○ 11.9 Telescope optics: objectives, eyepieces, refractors and reflectors