Universe Formation
What theory explains the origin of the universe?
Big Bang Theory
What was the first element to form?
Hydrogen
What telescope orbits Earth and detects radiant energy?
Hubble Space Telescope
What is cosmic microwave background radiation?
Radiation leftover from the early universe / CMB
What does redshift indicate?
Object is moving away from us
How old is the universe according to the theory?
13.8 billion years
What process joins protons and electrons to form atoms?
Nucleosynthesis
What kind of telescope listens for radio waves?
Radio Telescope
What happens to light in a dense cloud of particles?
Light cannot escape or is scattered
What does blueshift indicate?
Object is moving toward us
What happened in the first second of the universe?
Universe was hot, dense, filled with subatomic particles
What element cannot be fused in a star?
Iron
How is the distance to nearby stars measured?
Parallax
What spectrum is used to identify elements at a distance?
Emission Spectrum
What does Hubble's Law show?
Universe originated from a single point and is expanding
What is nucleosynthesis?
Process of forming new atomic nuclei from protons and neutrons
What elements heavier than iron are formed in star death?
Gold, platinum, uranium, radioactive isotopes
What instrument showed galaxies 10 billion light years away?
Hubble Space Telescope
Why can we only see a small part of the EM spectrum?
Only visible light is detectable by the human eye
What is the relation between galaxy speed and distance?
The farther the galaxy, the faster it moves away
What happened 380,000 years after the Big Bang?
Atoms formed and light could travel freely
What happens when hydrogen runs out in a star?
Helium fuses into heavier elements, star collapses
How do we calculate distance using apparent and absolute magnitudes?
Compare absolute magnitude with apparent magnitude
What was discovered in 1965 related to the Big Bang?
Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB)
What shows that the universe is expanding?
Redshift and CMB evidence