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Astronomy vocab 2

TermDefinition
Photosphere The visible surface of the Sun.
Chromosphere Thin layer of the Sun’s atmosphere that lies directly above the photosphere; glows red.
Corona Outermost layer of the Sun; a plasma that extends millions of kilometers into space.
Solar Wind High-speed protons and electrons that fly through the solar system from the Sun. The solar wind extends millions of kilometers out into space and can reach out into the solar system.
Sunspot Cool, dark area on the Sun’s surface that have lower temperatures than surrounding areas; sunspots usually occur in pairs and come and go on an 11-year cycle.
Prominence something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
Solar Flare A violent explosion on the Sun’s surface.
Aurora A spectacular light display that occurs in the ionosphere near the poles.
Nuclear Fusion The merging together of the nuclei of atoms to form new, heavier chemical elements; huge amounts of nuclear energy are released in the process.
Constellation A group of stars that appear to form a pattern in the sky. Most often these stars are unrelated and are not near each other in space. Constellations are used to locate objects in space.
Binary Star A system of two stars that orbit a common center of mass.
Light-year The distance light can travel in one year; 9.5 trillion kilometers.
Apparant Magnitude (astronomy) the magnitude that a star would have if it were viewed from a distance of 10 parsecs (32.62 light years) from the earth
Main-Sequence Star A star that is fusing hydrogen atoms to helium; a star in the main portion of its “life.”
Red Giant Stage in a star's development when the inner helium core contracts while the outer layers of hydrogen expand.
Supergiant an extremely bright star of very large diameter and low density
Supernova A tremendous explosion that occurs when the core of a star is mostly iron.
Cephied variable a variable star having a regular cycle of brightness with a frequency related to its luminosity, so allowing estimation of its distance from the earth.
Nova a star that ejects some of its material in the form of a cloud and become more luminous in the process
Nebulae interstellar clouds of gas and dust.
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram a two-dimensional graph, devised independently by Ejnar Hertzsprung (1873–1967) and Henry Norris Russell (1877–1957), in which the absolute magnitudes of stars are plotted against their spectral types.
Protostar a contracting mass of gas that represents an early stage in the formation of a star, before nucleosynthesis has begun.
White Dwarf A small to mid-sized star that has collapsed.
Neutron star The remnant of a massive star after it explodes as a supernova.
Pulsar a celestial object, thought to be a rapidly rotating neutron star, that emits regular pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation at rates of up to one thousand pulses per second.
Black Hole The super dense core left after a supergiant explodes as a supernova.
Galaxy A very large group of stars held together by gravity; few million to a few billion stars.
Hubble's Law A law of cosmology stating that the rate at which astronomical objects in the universe move apart from each other is proportional to their distance from each other.
Big Bang Theory The hypothesis that all matter and energy were at one time compresses into a very small volume; then there was an explosion that sent everything moving outward, causing the universe to expand.
Absolute Magnitude the magnitude (brightness) of a celestial object as it would be seen at a standard distance of 10 parsecs.
Created by: _i.c.a_
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