Astronomical Case

Be familiar with :

- Ways to Measure astronomical distances

- nothing on test on specific observatories / satellites like Hubble but you should know that diff. frequencies provide diff. aspects of stars / galaxies

- sunspots – what they are; how long are the cycles

- Apparent vs Absolute Brightness

- what happens in the different layers of the Sun

- what the Hertzsprung- Russel Diagram is and

what it is showing & where key parts of star life cycles are on it (main sequence vs red giant vs white dwarf & ~ where our sun is )

- Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis

- how the size of stars (vs our sun mass) affects life cycle / what happens during its last part of "star life"

- the source of the elements (+ how was source of H, He different?)

& how linked to star size

- supernovas and neutron stars and pulsars and black holes

Cosmology

Know about:

- Curtis & Shapley debate – what each believed about size of universe and sun's location in our galaxy the Milky Way

- Edwin Hubble – what he learned about galaxies, red shifts and what Hubble law says

- understand Red and Blue Doppler shift and what each says about direction of motion

- George LeMaitre & his primal atom / big bang idea

-Fred Hoyle view of Universe – Steady state theory- what was it?

- evidence supporting Big Bang Theory

- what is Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) ?

- how are Robt. Dicke & Dave Wilkinson linked to CMB ?

- what about Arnold Penzias & Robt. Wilson of Bell Labs and CMB ?

- understand CMB = "surface of last scattering"

- know about quarks, electrons, protons, neutrons, & neutrinos

- why antimatter required "symmetry breaking"

- COBE results as tiny fluctuations in CBM temperature – why important to find ?

- Inflationary Theory – what does it say?

- formation of H & He from?

- know the order of splitting of original unified forces (which breaks out 1st, 2nd…)

- (skip galaxy structures / clusters / superclusters etc.)

- Dark Matter & Vera Rubin - what evidence did she find? Are there ideas of what it is?

- Dark Energy – what evidence ? Any ideas what it is ?

- % of Universe Dark Matter & Dark Energy and normal matter ?

Plate Tectonics know about:

- early Earth – planetesimal stage and great bombardment phase

- differentiation period and inner structure of Earth

- Difference between S & P waves

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