AST251 - Lecture 1

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1. How can we see 8. What are Gamma

protoplanetary Ray Bursts
disks today

with infrared telescopes

2. How do we just remember that the universe is 13.8
convert between billion years old
Gy and Gya
3. How many starts 400 billion
are in the Milky colossally energetic supernova resulting
Way in GRB which would have sterilized any
life that formed on nearby planets
4. How old is the 13.8 billion years (Gy)
Universe 9. What cause the
Great dying
5. How wide is the 100,000 light years
Milky Way
Galaxy?
6. The origin of the
solar system
elements

Eruption of Volcanos for thousands of

years and formation of the Siberian Trap
- lead to catastrophic environmental
changes
7. What are
10. What did stellar enriched with heavy elements (C,N,O
Carbonaceous
winds and etc) and allowed the formation of
Chondrites
supernovae enrich organic molecules such as polycyclic
the gas and dust aromatic hydrocarbons and likely simple
chunks of rock that predate planets in the space with Amino acids
- contain round globules called and what did this
chondrules which are some of the oldest allow
minerals in solar system
11. What happened 15. what happened
9.2Gy after the Big between 3-20min
Bang of the universe
being born

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

- Protons in the hot dense plasma
collide and nuclear fusion reactions
Solar system formation form helium and lithium
- sun condenses from a cloud of gas 16. What happened
and dust during the
- planets form from a spinning Archean period
protoplanetary disk around the young
sun
12. What happened after
400 My in the
universe

- Earliest evidence of life on Earth

(possible fossil of microorganisms in
3.8-4.4Gy old rocks in Quebec)
- Late Heavy Bombardment by asteroids
(migration of planets disturbed the
reservoir of asteroids)
- Definite evidence for life (3.5 Gya)
17. What happened - Moon forms (protoplanet collision with
First Stars and Galaxies form during the Hadean earth )
- gas that filled space cool to the period - Oceans form on earth
point where its own gravity can crush **
portion until it becomes dense water released from interior of earth and
enough to form starts and galaxies deposited by comets
13. What happened after 75% H 18. What happened - Cambrian Explosion (increase in
the Big Bang 25% He during the diversity of organisms)
Nucleosynthesis trace Li Phanerozoic Eon - life moves onto land (500 mya)
(composition of the - The great dying (End permian mass
Universe) extinction)
- Humans diverge from other apes
14. What happened at The temperature throughout the
(6Mya)
the first second universe was billions of degrees
- Humans leave Africa (100000ya)
(beginning of - no stable atoms (only soup of
universe) subatomic particles)
19. What happened during the - Great Oxygenation Event (May have happened long after development of photosynthesis due
Proterozoic period (4) to Fe and S in the crust)
- Eukaryotes Evolve
- multicellular life (high O2 allow for more energy to be derived from aerobic respiration)
- Rise of Ediacarans (organisms with strange body plans -> wiped out by end of proterozoic time)
20. What is one solution to Fermi's Mass Extinction
Paradox - life arises often but is usually wiped out quickly
21. What is the Cretaceous-Tertiary
extinction

K-T impact
- extinction of dinosaurs due to asteroid 10km in diameter
22. What is the Fermi Paradox? Reasonable assumptions predict that a galactic civilization should have already arisen in the
Milky Way. Yet, we have absolutely no evidence for it.
23. When did Supernovae occur and
what did it do

400My
- explosions that would have seeded the universe with the first significant quantities of elements
heavier than helium
24. When was earth formed 4.6 billion years ago (Gya)