It Goes Bang
The sudden expansion of the extremely hot, extremely dense point, into all things in our universe.
The Big Bang Theory
Until the early 1900's galaxies were thought just to be fuzzy stars called what?
Nebulae
What are the regions of the universe where stars are born called?
Nebula
What force acts on a protostar causing the core to become extremely dense and heat up?
Gravity
The redshift in light from other galaxies allows us to understand what about the universe?
That the universe is continuing to expand.
What four building blocks of our universe came into existence with the Big Bang?
Space, time, matter, and energy
What are the three main types of galaxies?
Spiral, elliptical, and irregular
What must be occurring for a star to be Main Sequence?
Fusion of Hydrogen into Helium in the core.
What process occurs in the core of the star that releases enormous amounts of energy?
Fusion
What faint radiation, detected today in every direction, is leftover evidence of the early, hot universe?
The cosmic microwave background, or CMB.
What were the two main elements formed during the first few minutes after the Big Bang?
Hydrogen and helium
What galaxy contains our solar system, and what type of galaxy is it?
The Milky Way; a spiral galaxy.
What property of a star primarily determines its life span and how it will end its life?
Its mass
In which layer of the Sun does nuclear fusion take place?
The core.
What instrument separates light into a spectrum so scientists can identify elements in distant stars?
A spectroscope or spectrometer
What happens after supermassive stars fuse lighter elements into iron in their core and the core collapses because fusion no longer releases energy?
Supernova
Why does looking at a galaxy millions of light-years away also mean looking into the past?
Its light takes millions of years to reach us, so we see it as it was when that light left.
After a Sun-like star becomes a red giant, what happens to its outer layers and its remaining core?
The outer layers spread out into a planetary nebula, and the core becomes a white dwarf.
On an H–R diagram, a star moves toward the upper right. What happens to its luminosity and surface temperature?
Its luminosity increases, and its surface temperature decreases.
How does the amount of hydrogen and helium in the universe support the Big Bang theory?
The observed amounts closely match the amounts predicted to form in the early, hot universe. (It is so abundant because it is the simplest to form.)
How do you know when Sheldon Cooper is making a joke?
BAZINGA
What force holds a galaxy together, and what object lies at the center of the Milky Way?
Gravity; a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A.*
Why do high-mass stars have shorter lives even though they begin with more fuel?
The core is hotter and burns (fuses) fuel (Hydrogen) much faster.
Why can a red giant give off more total light than the Sun even though its surface is cooler?
Because the surface area emitting light is so much larger.
What is the space probe that was able to detect pathways in the CMB of objects traveling through the universe?
WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe)