STELLAR POWER PLANTS
This process powers stars, squishing hydrogen atoms together to make helium.
What is nuclear fusion?
This theory describes the origin of the universe about 13.8 billion years ago.
What is the Big Bang Theory?
This type of spectacular event, the source of many heavy elements, happens when two neutron stars slam into each other.
What is a supernova merger?
This colorful cloud of gas and dust in space is often called a "stellar nursery" where new stars are born.
What is a nebula?
This is the lightest and most abundant element in the universe, with just one proton and one electron.
What is hydrogen?
This is the heaviest element that can be forged in the core of a large star through fusion.
What is iron?
During the first few minutes of the universe, this process created almost all the helium and hydrogen we see today.
What is Big Bang nucleosynthesis?
Elements like gold, platinum, and uranium are thought to be primarily formed in these violent cosmic events.
What are supernova mergers (or neutron star mergers)?
A supernova explosion can blow the outer layers of a star away, helping to form one of these gas clouds.
What is a nebula?
Along with hydrogen, this was the other primary element created in the Big Bang, making up about 25% of the universe's mass.
What is helium?
This is the name for the process where elements are created inside stars.
What is stellar nucleosynthesis?
True or False: Heavy elements like iron and carbon were created during the Big Bang.
What is False? (They were made later in stars and collisions).
The collision of two neutron stars is also known by this two-word term, which is a key category for today's game.
What is "Supernova Merger"?
If the core left behind after a supernova is more than about three times the sun's mass, it will collapse into one of these.
What is a black hole?
Its atomic symbol is "Fe," and it represents the end of the line for energy production in a star's core.
What is iron?
When a high-mass star runs out of fuel, its core collapses, leading to this gigantic explosion.
What is a supernova?
The only elements formed in significant amounts during the Big Bang were hydrogen, helium, and tiny traces of this third element.
What is lithium?
These incredibly dense objects, the remnants of massive stars, are what collide in a supernova merger.
What are neutron stars?
The Crab Nebula is a famous example of one; it's the expanding remnant of this type of stellar explosion.
What is a supernova?
This element, a building block for all life on Earth, has the atomic number 6.
What is carbon?
This specific type of stellar explosion, in a binary star system, is also a standard candle for measuring cosmic distances.
What is a Type 1a supernova?
This term describes the early, rapid expansion and cooling that allowed protons and neutrons to form and later fuse.
What is cosmic inflation? (or What is the primordial fireball?)
In addition to heavy elements, a neutron star merger also blasts out a tremendous amount of this type of precious metal.
What is gold?
This term describes a region of space with such intense gravity that not even light can escape it.
What is a black hole?
This element, with the atomic number 2 and a full first electron shell, is the second lightest and second most abundant.
What is helium?