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Characteristics of the Universe
Objective: Students will describe
characteristics of the universe.
The universe is composed of all the
matter in space. Scientists do not know
where the boundaries of the universe
are, or even whether the universe has
boundaries at all.
There are many theories about the
origin of the universe, however, most
scientists accept the Big Bang Theory
which hypothesizes that
the universe began with
a violent explosion.
Matter was thought to be compacted
together into an extremely small and dense
ball of energy that suddenly exploded.
Some of the rapidly expanding energy
turned into matter which formed ….
galaxies
nebulas
stars and planets
_________________________
and other celestial bodies.
Careful measurements indicate that the
universe is still expanding today.
Quiz Time
1. What is the universe composed of?
2. What is the Big Bang theory?
3. How is the universe currently changing?
Universe Structure
UNIVERSE’S STRUCTURE
While there are MANY unanswered
questions about the universe, scientists do
understand much of its structure. The
universe is mostly composed of
________.
space!
Throughout the universe there are
billions of …………
galaxies
stars
A galaxy is a large group of ______,
_____________
solar systems and associated _______
gases and
dust that are bound together by _________.
gravity
_______
Galaxies are classified by shape and are shown
in the table on your note-taking worksheet.
Spiral Galaxies
Elliptical galaxy
Irregular Galaxy
Quiz Time
1. What galaxy does Earth belong to? What
is the shape?
2. What kind of stars are found in elliptical
galaxies?
3. What is a galaxy composed of?
4. Put these parts of space in order from MOST
vast to LEAST vast.
____ solar system ____ universe
___ galaxy
5. What is in most abundance in the universe?
MILKY WAY GALAXY STRUCTURE
The Milky Way galaxy is a revolving spiral
galaxy that is thought to contain as many as
sun
a 100 billion stars, including our _____.
All the _______
stars you see in the night sky
belong to the Milky Way Galaxy. The
bright band of stars in our night sky is one
small section of one spiraling arm of the
_______
Milky Way Galaxy.
billions
Our sun is a star similar to the _________
of other stars in our galaxy.
Our SUN!
1. When we look out in the night sky, which part of
the Milky Way Galaxy do we see ?
Orion’s Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy
A STAR’S STRUCTURE
Stars are believed to
form from a large cloud
of dust and gas called
nebula . As the
a ________
particles of gas and dust exert a
gravitational force on each other,
the nebula contracts.
Hydrogen gas undergoes nuclear fusion, a
process that releases vast amounts of
__________.
During fusion, hydrogen atoms
energy
join to form helium atoms. Hydrogen fusion is
light _______,
heat and other
the source of _______,
radiation from a star, like our Sun.
Stars are not all created equally and vary in
mass _____
age and intensity of
their _______,
_______.
Terms such as Red Giant,
light
Supernova, White dwarf and
Black Holes are all associated
with a star’s lifecycle.
Name three forms of energy found in stars.
STRUCTURE of our SOLAR SYSTEM
Orbiting the Sun, our solar system
contains many celestial bodies such as
planets and their moons, the asteroid belt,
Oort Cloud, comets and meteoroids.
Planets
Planets vary is size, temperature and
distance from the sun. They are classified as
INNER planets which are _______
solids and
gases
OUTER planets composed of ______.
Moons
Moons orbit around various
planets as the planets orbit the Sun.
________,
Moons are composed of rocks and minerals,
have an atmosphere and varying amounts
of ________.
gravity
Sketch a planet and it’s moon(s).
Asteroids
rocky and usually
Asteroids are ______
orbits around the sun.
follow regular _______
One area between Mars and Jupiter
contains a large number of asteroids
asteroid belt
known as the ________________.
Comets
Comets are large dirty snowballs of
frozen ______
When
rock and _____.
ice
their orbits take them close to the Sun,
dust and ice heat up and
produce a _____
tail behind the
comet.
Comets
Surrounding our solar system beyond
Pluto is a large group of comets known as
Oort Cloud.
the _____
Make a sketch of a comet!
Meteoroids
comet
Meteoroids are small pieces of _______
that move through space. As a meteoroid
moves through Earth’s atmosphere it is
meteor
referred to as a ________.
Meteoroids
Meteorites are meteoroids that
impact Earth’s surface.
Put the parts of the Universe in
order from most vast to least vast!
galaxy
planet
Solar System
star
UNIVERSE
Name the Component of the Solar System
Answer as we go.
1. What are these?
2. What is this?
3. What is this?
4. This forms into a new solar system.
What is it called?
5. What are these?
6. What is this called?
7. What is this?
8. This is found at the center of our
solar system. What is it?
9. Called a falling star….what are these?
10. These orbit the planets.
BONUS
What is the majority of the universe
composed of?