Year 11 students, check the dates!
Questions about where we are, and where we came from, have been asked for thousands of years. In the past century, astronomers and astrophysicists have made remarkable progress in understanding the scale and structure of the universe, its evolution and ours. New questions have emerged recently. ‘Dark matter’, which bends light and holds galaxies together but does not emit electromagnetic radiation, is everywhere – what is it? And what is causing the universe to expand ever faster?
You should be able to:
State that the material in a star is initially pulled together by gravitational forces.
Describe the formation of a protostar and planets.
Explain why a star radiates light in terms of nuclear fusion.
Describe how evidence for the early solar system is gathered.
Study Resources:
You should be able to:
State that changes in the fusion processes in a star result in changes in its appearance.
Compare the life cycle of small and large stars, identifying the names of the stages (e.g., white dwarf).
Describe the formation of ‘light’ elements by stars in their main sequence.
Describe the forces that are acting when a star is in its main sequence.
Study Resources:
Webb telescope hunts life's icy chemical origins
Brightest and hungriest black hole ever detected
Brightest-ever cosmic explosion solved but new mysteries sparked
You should be able to:
State that the wavelength of a wave is changed by the movement of the source.
State that a galaxy showing red-shift is moving away from us.
Compare galaxies in terms of their red-shift and distance from us.
Explain how red-shift data is used to show that the universe is expanding.
Study Resources:
You should be able to:
State that the currently accepted model for the early universe is the Big Bang model.
Describe the origin of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).
Describe changes in the universe from the time of the Big Bang to the present day.
Discuss how scientists using new evidence have changed their theories about how the universe has evolved over time and how it will change in the future.
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