Download A. Start with a video clip from YouTube

THE BIG BANG AND FORMATION OF THE PLANETS AND SOLAR SYSTEM
Name__________________________________________________Date______________Per_________ST#________
A. Start with a video clip from YouTube:
1. Dust and gas coalesce to create planets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhy1fucSRQI
oops: http://www.space.com/29126-star-wars-generations-new-teaser-bridges-old-and-new-video.html
2. Define coalesce: ________________________________________________________________________
3. Explain what you saw: __________________________________________________________________
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B. Watch the Movie: The History of the Earth in 2 Hours (takes 1.5 hours)
Here’s the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvNV0GdMilA
1. About 13.7 billion years ago, what do we believe the universe was like in the instant just prior to the Big
Bang?
2. In the millionth of a millionth of a millionth, etc of a second after the Big Bang, how big did the universe
get?
3. According to the movie, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the first atoms finally formed. Which
element did those atoms represent? (Hint, it’s still the simplest and most common element in the
universe, and it kind of fun to have at a party.)
4. When Matter and Energy get together, it’s possible to get more __________________ things.
5. 300 Ma after the big bang, H atoms are finally able to cling together by static, and then gravity in
amounts large enough to press them close enough together to begin to form the second element
______________________ from the hydrogen due to everything heating up to about 18 million
degrees F. As a result of the heat and energy, there was now light and the first ______________ has
been formed.
6. These new stars are element factories, and they fuse smaller elements’ nuclei together to form the
____________ most important elements we need in order for life to start. This was already happening
over ________ billion years ago.
7. Stars can’t make elements as heavy as copper for the Statue of Liberty or gold for wedding rings, so we
luck out because some stars explode early-on in the history of the universe, and still explode today.
These exploding stars can make heavier elements and they are called ________________________.
Without them, we would not exist.
8. For about another ______ billion years, the universe continues to have the stars get created and die,
and there are finally enough heavy elements and star dust out there to create our star, the Sun.
9. Our Sun’s tremendous mass gives it so much ___________________________ that it can gather up 99.9
percent of all of the ______________________ in our solar system.
10. The remaining dust and gravity combine to make the earth about ____________ billion years ago.
11. Due to the way the gravity works to accelerate new matter into the earth as it is gathered up, the
earth’s is spinning really fast at first, and its day is only about ________________ hours long.
12. The hellacious scene that is the earth led us to call this first time period the _______________ eon.
13. As the heavy iron and ___________________ sink to make the earth’s core, they continue to move with
convection currents due to their high temperatures, and this gives the earth its __________________
field, which protects us from the sun’s deadly ____________________, and is setting the stage for
__________________ to start on earth.
14. 4.5 BYA, and object the size of ______________ smashes into the earth at about __________ thousand
miles an hour. It fuses with the earth, but some of the magma flies off into space and gathers together
due to gravity to make our _____________________.
15. The moon helps make the earth more hospitable to life because it:
a. Helps keep the earth from wobbling, keeping the climate more stable
b. Leaves the earth tilted on its axis, which allows us to have ____________________
c. Begins to slow our rotation on our axis that causes the length of the day to go to _______ hours
16. The steam in the atmosphere finally cools to a point where we get rain that ultimately forms the
permanent ____________________.
17. The earth needs to become more hospitable to life, and we are lucky that the first life can now form,
about _____________ BYA.
18. In the oceans, six simple elements including ____________________ from the Big Bang, plus Oxygen,
Carbon, and ______________________ from the supernova explosions, combine to start making the
ingredients for life. (I call this CHON)
19. The first creatures that form are ______________________________.
20. About _____________________BYA, the bacteria “figure out” how to harness the sun, and they make
an incredibly important waste product ____________________________.
21. The new bacteria rust the _____________________ out of the oceans, and we now use the BIF (banded
iron formations) to make our cars, buildings, etc.
22. Some bacteria figure out how to use oxygen, for what we now know as aerobic respiration, which is
about __________________ times more efficient that the anaerobic (no oxygen) respiration that the
one-celled creatures had used up to that point.
23. When the earth is about _____________ billion years old, life starts to really get going, and we have the
______________________ explosion of life, only possible due to the presence of _________________
in the atmosphere.
24. From the original fish, which were the first large group of vertebrates, we still share some
_______________ that tells our bodies how to make our skeletons.
End day 1
25. The first organisms to make a big move out of the oceans were the __________________. Later, the
amphibians came out of the oceans.
26. Once eggs with a shell were developed, vertebrate organisms could colonize the rest of the land, and
______________________ developed.
27. In the huge swamps, the plants die, and take the energy from the sun with them as they are buried
farther and farther underground. We get _______________ (and natural gas). In the oceans, the same
plant material makes ________________ and natural gas.
28. Later, over 70% of everything that has managed to get to live on the planet dies off in the
___________________ extinction, or the “Great Dying”. One of ___________ mass extinctions.
29. About __________________ MYA, a 6 mile wide ___________________ hits the earth and everything
over about ____________ pounds dies off, including all of the ______________________, this allows
the mammals to become the dominant class of organisms on the planet. (Kingdom Animalia, Phylum
Vertebrata, Class Mammalia).
30. LATER: The big rock in the in outer space is called an __________________. If it’s icy, it’s called a
_________________. When it enters our atmosphere, it’s called a ____________________ or shooting
star, and when it lands, it’s called a __________________________.
C. Discussion Questions
1. What role does hydrogen play in the universe? Why is it such an important element?
2. What processes take place inside stars? When did stars first appear in our universe?
3. Which six elements combine to make DNA and human life?
4. When do scientists in this documentary say life on Earth first appeared?
5. What was the Cambrian explosion?
6. What are some of the reasons dinosaurs became extinct, and what was the result for humankind?
7. How did the ability to sustain fire help humans thrive?
8. Why were donkey caravans so important?
9. What is the concept of “dispersal” explained in this documentary?
10. What effect did the first Ice Age have on our planet?
11. What were some of the consequences of the mass production of sugar as a commodity?
12. What were the most important developments of the 20th century?
For more info and some interesting lessons on astrophysics from NASA:
http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/.index.html