Chapter 2: Solar System Origins
Learning Objectives
By reading this chapter, attending lecture, and reviewing lecture content, you will be able to:
- Recall the age of the universe
- Explain the big bang theory and the evidence used to support it
- Describe the major stages of the universe’s evolution from the inflationary epoch to the modern day (including the formation of the first stars)
- Explain fusion
- Define what a star is and explain the relationship between a star’s mass and its overall fate/lifecycle
- Identify the ways different elements were formed in the universe
- Explain how nebulas turn into an accretionary disk, including the importance of gravity and the conservation of angular momentum
- Identify the variables in Newton’s law of universal gravitation and the law of angular momentum and describe the implication of changing a variable according to the conservation of angular momentum
