What is Big History?
Big Bang
Stars Light Up
New Chemical Elements
Earth & the Solar System
100
An origin story is ....
an attempt to explain the beginning of humanity and the Universe
100
According to the standard model of Big Bang cosmology, the Universe is approximately _______________________.
13.8 billion years old
100
Which of the fundamental forces pulled together hot, dense areas of matter in the early Universe to begin the process of star formation?
gravity
100
When did the Earth form?
4.5 billion years ago
100
All living organisms possess this molecule, which is the biological blueprint for life.
DNA
200
Moments in the history of the Universe when specific ingredients under the right Goldilocks Conditions are transformed to create something entirely new and more complex are known as ___________________.
thresholds of increasing complexity
200
_______________________ is the fundamental force of attraction between bodies of mass.
Gravity
200
What type of reaction is happening in the core of a star?
Nuclear fusion
200
One byproduct of the Earth’s metallic core is the fact that it creates ________________, which protects the biosphere from the Sun’s powerful radiation.
a magnetic field
200
What was it about the egg that made it critical to the advancement of life on Earth?
It allowed animals to move permanently onto land, where they continued to evolve and grow more complex.
300
What is the matching scientific notation for 100, or one hundred?
10^2
300
Arriving at a conclusion based upon the respectability or credibility of a source is known as _______________. evidence, intuition, logic, or authority
authority
300
What is one of the key ingredients needed to create new chemical elements?
aging and dying stars
300
The Earth’s crust is broken up into dozens of plates, which float upon the slowly moving rock of the ________________.
mantle
300
The extinction of dinosaurs cleared the way for______________.
the emergence of mammals, or the “age of us”
400
Why did most origin stories begin as oral tradition?
Most origin stories were created before the invention of writing and were passed down orally to the next generation.
400
The theory that the Universe is expanding is supported by the _______________________
redshift of light from distant galaxies
400
Dmitri Mendeleev was mainly known for coming up with Correct answer
the periodic table of elements
400
The geological record can tell us about climate patterns on the Earth.
True
400
___________________ is the process by which variations between generations of an organism increase or decrease the chances of survival, eventually resulting in the "survival of the fittest" and the emergence of new characteristics and species over time.
Natural selection
500
_______________________ are a specific set of conditions necessary to enable greater complexity.
Goldilocks Conditions
500
Low-energy radiation pervading the entire Universe, released about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. At this point, the Universe had cooled sufficiently for atoms to form and allow radiation and matter to separate.
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
500
The process of __________ is responsible for the formation of planets.
accretion
500
The early Earth was so hot that it melted. As it did so, the heaviest elements sank to the center, forming the Earth’s _________________, while the lightest ones rose to form its ________________.
core/atmosphere
500
The fossil record shows that in just the last 600 million years, there may have been five ___________________ during which a sharp decrease in the diversity and abundance of living organisms came about.
mass extinction events
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