Big Bang+Cosmic Inflation
The ______ is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature.
What is the Big Bang Theory?
What mysterious component makes up a majority of the universe's energy and causes the expansion of the cosmos to accelerate?
What is dark energy?
This era lasted from recombination until first starlight, spanning about 100-200 million years post-Big Bang.
What are the Cosmic Dark Ages?
This element, the lightest and most abundant in the universe, made up most of the first stars.
What is hydrogen?
This process, occurring 150-800 million years after the Big Bang, saw neutral hydrogen get split back into protons and electrons.
What is reionization?
All ______ of the universe, was packed together into one small, extremely dense, hot mass under pressure.
This famous NASA telescope before JWST also helped study early galaxies (launched in 1990).
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
What is the Cosmic Dark Ages characterized by?
What is the lack of light-emitting objects?
Roughly how many years after the Big Bang did the first stars begin to form?
What is 200 million years after the Big Bang?
This cosmic event, occurring around 380,000 years post-Big Bang, made the universe transparent by releasing the CMB.
What is recombination?
As measured via CMB and Hubble’s Law, the universe is ____ years old.
What is 13.8 billion?
After reionization, matter began to clump together due to ________.
What is gravitational attraction?
The Dark Ages ended when this dramatic event occurred.
What is reionization?
Roughly how many years after the Big Bang did the first galaxies begin to form?
What is 500 million years after the Big Bang?
Scientists study reionization using this 'baby picture' of the universe from 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
What is the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)?
This theoretical period of exponential expansion occurred just 10⁻³⁶ to 10⁻³² seconds after the Big Bang.
What is cosmic inflation?
Most astronomical objects, including galaxies, stars, and planets, are formed through processes of _______.
What is accretion and angular momentum?
In this period, the universe was filled with _______ and ______?
What is neutral hydrogen and dark matter?
What were the first stars known as?
What are Population III stars?
The light from the first stars and galaxies is stretched into this part of the spectrum by the expanding universe.
What is infrared?
What are the 3 problems the Inflation Theory solves?
What are the Horizon, Flatness, and Monopole Problems?
What is the thermodynamic fate of the universe if dark energy's acceleration continues without stopping?
What is the big freeze/heat death?
What is the quantum phenomenon from inflation that seeded all future cosmic structures during the dark ages?
What are primordial density fluctuations?
What is a characteristic of Population III stars?
Massive, high luminosity, short-lived, metal-free, etc.
What are two objects that were the main drivers of reionization?
What are early galaxies, population III stars, and quasars?