Name: __________________________________ Period: _____ Date: _____________________
Internet Scavenger Hunt: Big Bang
Galaxies
 http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/galaxy.htm
(click through presentation)
1. What is a galaxy?
2. How many stars can be in a galaxy?
3. What three types of galaxies did Hubble identify? Draw as well as name.
4. Hubble further divided the galaxies based on shape (using numbers) Explain how
he did this for each type of galaxy. Drawing may help.
5. What is our galaxy called and what kind is it?
Scientific Laws and Theories
 http://www.wilstar.com/theories.htm
6. True or false…explain your answer. “Theory” means the same to a scientists as to
a regular person?
Define these three words:
7. Scientific Law
8. Hypothesis:
9. Scientific Theory
10. What do laws and theories have in common, in the scientific community?
11. What’s the biggest difference between a law and a theory in science?
How the Big Bang Theory Developed
 http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/101764
(click on specific dots to see times and events in the development of the
Big Bang theory)
12. What contributions did Albert Einstein make and when?
13. What contributions did Georges Lemaitre make and when?
14. What contributions did Edwin Hubble make and when?
15. What is CMB? When was it predicted? When was it discovered and by whom?
16. Who named the theory and when?
17. What are some more recent developments to BBT?
The Big Bang Theory:
 http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm
 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/bang.html
18. About ______ billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of
the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this
event all of the matter and energy of space was contained
___________________________________. What existed prior to this event is
completely _________________________ and is a matter of pure
__________________. This occurrence was not a conventional explosion but
rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic
universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an
explosion of ___________________________________________ unlike an explosion of
a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped
together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe.
19. Who originated (came up with) this theory and based on what observations?
20. How did cosmic background radiation play a role in this theory?
21. What three reasons exist for believing in the Big-Bang theory?
Timeline of the Big Bang:
 http://www.thirteen.org/hawking/universes/my_html/bigbang.html
 http://ssscott.tripod.com/BigBang.html if this doesn’t work, see version
saved in SchoolPointe folder.
22. When everything was compressed into a small ball, what was the ball called?
23. What happened after 10-43 seconds? What was the temperature at this time?
24. What happened during the inflationary epoch?
25. What happened at three minutes?
26. What happened at 300,000 years after the Big Bang? (2 things)
27. When did galaxies begin to form? At what temperature?
28. What’s the temperature like today?
Refinements to the Big Bang Theory:
 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/fried.html
29. What is the Big Crunch?
30. What is the difference between a closed universe and an open universe?
Different versions of the Big Bang:
 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/osci.html
31. What is one implication of the Big-Bang theory?
32. How is an oscillating universe like an idea of a universe without end?
 http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/CosmicMys
teryTour.html
Here is a diagram that shows that breaks the history of the universe
into times and shows how big the universe was at that time.
In the beginning
33. How did the name “Big Bang” get coined?
34. Was the Big Bang really an explosion? Explain.
35. What do we know about before 10
-43
seconds?
36. What happened to the temperature as the universe rapidly expanded?
Quark soup
37. At 10-12 seconds, the four forces finished separating. Gravity is one of those
forces. What are the other three?
38. The universe acts like there’s more matter out there we can’t see. It’s called dark
matter. What source might there be from this time for dark matter?
Big Freeze Out
39. What is the “Era of Nucleosynthesis?” What happened, when was it and how
long did it last?
40. Where did the other elements we know of come from?
Parting Company
41. During this time, pieces of atoms (protons and atomic nuclei) were bounced
around by light (photons). How long did this last?
42. At the end of this recombination, the temperature had dropped to 3000K and
left a “signature.” What is that signature?
Galaxy Birth
43. How did galaxies form and when were the first ones born?
44. What is a quasar and why are they useful?
Today’s Universe
45. What are some limitations (unanswered questions) of the Big Bang Theory?
Other sites:
Foundations of the theory, observational tests and limitations:
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html
Proof:
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/bb_pillars.html
Unanswered questions:
http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/bb_problems.html
pretty simple…good picture…then goes into too many piddly scientists…then to
steady state, Penz & Wils, COBE, DIRBE
http://ssscott.tripod.com/BigBang.html
these are particularly good…look at for next year…
Not bad…pretty simple.
http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/IUP/Big_Bang_Primer.html
Step by step (kind of technical…lead them through it):
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/Cosmos/CosmicMysteryTour.html
and some about theories and laws…
http://www.carlton.srsd119.ca/chemical/Proof/default.htm
http://www.wilstar.com/theories.htm
http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle/0708/theo/
evolution, specifically…. http://www.evolution.mbdojo.com/theory.html
http://www.notjustatheory.com/