Study Questions Chapter 2: Origins

1) What are the general concepts regarding the Big Bang? What is singularity?

2) Stars use Hydrogen as a primary fuel. True or False.

3) Nuclear fusion takes place within stars. What is nuclear fusion?

4) Up to what atomic number can be formed by nuclear fusion?

5) What is a supernova?

6) Will our sun go to supernova? If not, what will it become and when will this happen?

7) Does energy have to be put into atoms with atomic number greater than 26? What happens when you spilt atoms heavier than atomic number 26?

8) Our solar system started out as a Solar Nebula. Where did the raw material (debris, gas, rocky material) come from to start our Solar System?

9) Earth formed by the accretion of planetesimals. Planetesimals are small planet-size or meteor size rocky debris that formed part of the Solar Nebula. What is accretion?

10) After accretion, Earth experienced gravitational compression. What happened to the denser elements like Fe and Ni during this process?

11) What is the leading hypothesis regarding the origin of the Moon? What criteria do we use about this to support this hypothesis?

12) What was Earth’s first atmosphere? What happened to this atmosphere?

13) What is “outgassing” and how is it related to our atmosphere and ocean?

14) What was Earth’s second Atmosphere?

15) Outgassing produced some of the oceans water; however, recent research has shown that some of the water on this planet was brought here by__________.

16) Beginning at about 2.0 million years ago, the first ancestral plants began to pump oxygen into the atmosphere via photosynthesis. How did this process affect Earth’s atmosphere (becomes Earth’s third atmosphere)?

17) What are the three hypotheses regarding the origin of life?

18) Where did life originate?

19) What are archea? Where do they live? What do they do to get energy?

20) What is biosynthesis (see page 12)?