The Universe and the Solar System

Flashcards covering the origins of the universe, the Big Bang timeline, models of the solar system, and planet classifications based on the lecture notes.

The observable universe is believed to be at least __________ in diameter and has been constantly expanding since the big bang $13.8$ billion years ago.

$93$ billion light years

The Big Bang Model describes the universe as originating in an infinitely tiny, infinitely dense point or __________ between $13$ to $14$ billion years ago.

singularity

The essential statement of the Big Bang theory is usually attributed to the Belgian Roman catholic priest __________ in 1927.

Georges Henri Joseph Edouard Lemaitre

During the __________ Epoch ($10^{-35}$ s - $10^{-33}$ s), the universe expanded from the size of an atom to around $10\,cm$, or the size of a grapefruit.

Inflationary

By the first seconds of the universe's formation, it was made up of fundamental particles and energy: quarks, electrons, __________, and neutrinos.

photons

The process where protons and neutrons combine to form hydrogen nuclei, which then combine in pairs to form helium nuclei, is called __________.

nucleosynthesis

The __________ is the cooled remnant of the first light that could ever travel freely throughout the Universe, discovered by chance in 1965.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation

During the stage of __________, which occurred around $300,000$ years after the Big Bang, lithium atoms began to form and electrons joined with nuclei to make neutral atoms.

Matter domination

The __________ model, proposed by Claudius Ptolemy, states that the earth is at the center of the Solar System.

geocentric

The __________ model, proposed by Nicholas Copernicus, states that the sun is at the center of the Solar System.

heliocentric

The quantity of rotation of a body, which is the product of its moment of inertia and its angular velocity, is known as __________.

Angular momentum

The __________ hypothesis, proposed by Immanuel Kant and Pierre-Simon Laplace, presumes that the Solar System began as a cloud of dispersed interstellar gas called a nebula.

nebular

__________ planets, also known as rocky planets, are the first four planets in our solar system inside the asteroid belt.

Terrestrial

The __________ planets, also known as the Gaseous Planets, are located outside the asteroid belt and are composed mainly of gasses with a metallic core.

Jovian

One of the three criteria of the IAU for a full-sized planet is that it has __________ around its orbit.

cleared the neighborhood