Study Questions Chapter 2: Origins (p. 37-51 of Garrison Text)

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

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

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

4) What is a supernova?

5) 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?

6) 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 (see page 41 in text)?

7) After accretion, Earth experienced gravitational compression. What happened to the denser elements like Fe and Ni during this process (Fig. 2.6 page 42)?

8) What is the leading hypothesis regarding the origin of the Moon?

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

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

11) 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?

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

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

14) What is biosynthesis (see page 45)?