(TU) The Universe Module Overview

The Universe

There has always been debate about how the universe began. A commonly recognized explanation for how the universe began is The Big Bang Theory. According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 14 billion years ago. How the universe began is only one question scientists seek to answer. The composition of celestial bodies is another question important to explore. Comparing and contrasting celestial bodies, how forces act upon these bodies and how they move are also interesting questions to consider.

Essential Questions

  1. What are the basic historical scientific models that describe our solar system?
  2. How does gravity impact the universe?
  3. What is a star?
  4. How do I identify and describe comets, asteroids and meteors?

Key Terms

  1. Scientific models - is a scientific activity the aim of which is to make a particular part or feature of the world easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate
  2. Geocentric - having or relating to the earth as center
  3. Heliocentric -   having or relating to the sun as center
  4. Big Bang Theory - the Big Bang is a THEORY about the creation of the UNIVERSE
  5. Big Crunch Theory- a theory that says that the universe will stop expanding outward, reverse direction, and pull back on itself to the single point
  6. Nebular Hypothesis - the theory that the solar system evolved from a mass of nebular matter
  7. Milky Way - the galaxy to which Earth and other components of our Solar System belong
  8. Gravity - the force that pulls an apple to the ground, pulls the moon toward Earth, keeps the planets in orbit and attract objects towards each other
  9. Law of Universal Gravitation - states that every object in the universe attracts every other object
  10. Mass - the amount of matter in an object
  11. Weight - the measure of the force of gravity on an object
  12. Comet - a ball of ice and dust who orbits around the sun in a long, narrow ellipse
  13. Asteroids- objects revolving around the sun that are too small and too numerous to be considered planets
  14. Meteors - the streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in Earth's atmosphere
  15. Meteorite-   when a meteoroid burns in the atmosphere and hits the ground
  16. Meteoroid - a chunk of rock or dust in space that comes from comets or asteroids
  17. Planet - any consolidated, large object which orbits a star
  18. Revolution - the movement of one object around another, Earth around the sun, year; 365 1/4 days
  19. Rotation - the spinning of the Earth on its axis, day and night (24 hours)
  20. Celestial Sphere - giant spinning dome that the Greeks thought surrounded the Earth
  21. Core - also called the Solar Core, is considered to extend from the center to about 0.2 to 0.25 solar radius. It is the hottest part of the Sun and of the Solar System. It is approx. 15,000,000°C if we convert that to Fahrenheit that would be 27,000,000°F
  22. Photosphere - the visible surface of the Sun; the upper surface of a connecting layer of gases in the outer portion of the sun whose temperature causes it to radiate light at visible wavelengths; sunspots and faculae are observed in the photosphere
  23. Corona - the outer atmosphere of the Sun made up of thin gases and can only be seen during a solar eclipse without telescopes its temperature is 1 - 2,000,000°C
  24. Chromosphere - the lower level of the solar atmosphere between the photosphere and the corona
  25. Solar Wind - streams of charged particles constantly given off by the Sun

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