The broadest classification of life splits all organisms into three groups called domains. The three domains of life are bacteria, archaea and eukaryota.

The gene is the base unit of inheritance and is contained within DNA. A gene may come in several varieties (alleles) and there are a pair of alleles for every gene. If the alleles are alike, a person is homozygous for that gene. If the alleles are different, heterozygous.

The Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old and its history is divided into time periods based on the events that took place and the forms of life that were dominant during those periods. The largest graduation of time is the eon and each eon is subdivided into eras, eras into periods, periods into epochs, and epochs into ages.

In contrast to the solid terrestrial planets, the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) consist of hydrogen and helium gas and water.

The four planets closest to the Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) are called terrestrial (Earth-like) planets because, like the Earth, they're solid with inner metal cores covered by rocky surfaces.