Key Milestones in Space Exploration History

First man-made objects in space

V2 Rockets from the Nazis in WWII

First artificial satellite

Sputnik (USSR)

First animal in space

Dog named Laika (USSR)

First human in space

Yuri Gagarin (USSR)

First US manned spaceflight program

Mercury

Goal of the Gemini program

To learn to live and work in space

Number of astronauts a Gemini capsule held

2

President who challenged NASA to go to the Moon

JFK

What happened to Apollo 1 and its crew

Died in a fire during a ground test

How NASA prevented Apollo 10 from landing on the Moon

The lander didn't have enough fuel to land and return from the Moon's surface

Year Apollo 11 landed on the Moon

1969

First 2 men to walk on the Moon

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin

What happened to Apollo 13

An oxygen tank exploded and they had to do emergency repairs and return to Earth without landing on the Moon.

Number of people who have walked on the Moon

12

What NASA focused on after going to the Moon

Space stations and the space shuttles

What happened to the Challenger Space Shuttle

Exploded during launch, killing the crew

Initially wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope

Mirror was the wrong shape

What happened to the Columbia Space Shuttle

Broke apart during reentry, killing the crew

Largest man-made object in space

International Space Station (ISS)

Age of the Universe

13.8 Billion years old

Why we can't see back to the Big Bang

CMB blocks us, before then the Universe was opaque

Composition of the Universe and their percentages

Dark energy 70%, Dark Matter 25%, Regular Matter and Energy 5%

What is the Big Crunch

Gravity wins or time reverses and everything collapses back into a singularity

What is the Big Rip

Dark energy/expansion wins and everything expands apart on faster and smaller scales until even the smallest particles are ripped apart.

What is the Big Freeze

Entropy/Time wins and all useful energy decays until everything just fades away

Lorentz Factor and its effects

How relativity dilates time, contracts lengths, and increases inertia (mass)

What powers Active Galaxies

Supermassive Black Holes (smbh)

Main types of Active Galaxies

Seyfert, Radio, and Quasar

Raw materials required for life

Liquid water, organic compounds, and an energy source

Where on Earth is life found

Everywhere with liquid water

What is an extremophile

An organism that lives in an extreme environment (temperature, salinity, acidity, etc.)

Rare Earth Hypothesis

The Earth and its life is unique, the conditions for life are very specific and just being close won't work

Mediocrity Principle

The Sun, Earth, and requirements for life are common so life should be too

Standard Candle

Type 1a supernova (any object of known brightness), and by comparing apparent and absolute brightness distance is calculated with the inverse square law.

Hubble's Law

Universe expands at an increasing rate, shows the Universe is expanding and had a beginning.

When Hubble's Law doesn't apply

Whenever objects are gravitationally bound.

Galactic Growth

Through galactic cannibalization and mergers.

Types of Galaxies

Spiral - spirals with a mix of old and young stars and moderate dust reserves for making new stars; Elliptical - range from spherical to disk shape with mostly old stars and little gas and dust left; Irregular - no defined shape, small, but with high gas and dust content.

Apparent Magnitude

Moving a star closer to the Earth would cause its apparent magnitude to increase, but its absolute magnitude would stay the same.

Factors of Luminosity

Size and temperature.

Parsec

3.26 light years or about 19 trillion miles.

Surface Temperature of a Star

By its color.

Hershel's Garnet Star

Hershel's is much larger, making it visible with the naked eye, yet its companion can only be seen with a telescope.

Composition of Stars

Most stars are made up of 71% hydrogen and 27% helium.

Fundamental Force for Star Formation

Gravity.

Energy Production in Stars

Stars resist the crush of gravity by producing energy through nuclear fusion.

Main Sequence

Stars spend the majority of their time in the main sequence.

Most Common Type of Star

Red Dwarf.

Stellar Remnant of Sun-like Stars

White Dwarf.

Iron Fusion in Massive Stars

When massive stars begin to fuse iron, they become unstable and start to collapse.

Source of Elements Heavier than Iron

Supernova and mergers of neutron stars.

Sun's Diameter

The Sun's diameter is about 109 times bigger than the Earth's.

Sun's Mass Compared to Earth

Approximately 330,000 times more mass than the Earth.

Age of the Sun

4.5 billion years old.

Approximate Lifespan of the Sun

10 billion years.

Energy Travel Time from Sun's Core to Earth

On average, it takes 100,000 years.

Light Travel Time from Sun to Earth

Just over 8 minutes.

Neutrino

Small, electrically neutral particles produced in the Sun's core during nuclear fusion and detected by large arrays buried deep underground.

Space Weather

Caused by the chaotic changes and interactions of the Sun's magnetic field.

Diameter of the Observable Universe

96 billion light years.