Question | Answer |
Space is filled with trillions of what? | Stars |
Groups of stars are called what? | Galaxies |
What do we call the pictures formed in the night sky from connecting the dots formed by visible stars? | Constellations |
What are the two main gases that stars, including our sun, are made from? | Hydrogen and Helium |
Stars are able to produce their own what? | Heat and light |
Where does the heat and light of stars come from? | Nuclear Fusion |
Astronomers have recognized a total of how many different constellations? | 88 |
Because of Earth's _____________ around the sun, different constellations are visible in the night sky at different times of the year. | Revolution |
When you refer to the brightness of a star, you are referring to its what? | Magnitude |
A star's magnitude can be either what or what? | Apparent or Absolute |
What does apparent magnitude mean? | How bright a star appears from Earth |
What does absolute magnitude mean? | How bright a star looks from a set distance |
A star is born from a cloud of gas and dust in space called a what? | Nebula |
Stars are classified in two different ways- according to their what and what? | Size and Color |
The hottest stars are what color? | Blue |
The coolest stars are what color? | Red |
What does the H-R Diagram show the relationship between? | Absolute Magnitude and Spectral Type |
Besides being used to classify stars, what is another use for the H-R Diagram? | To understand how stars change over time |
What does the word "spectral" refer to when we talk about stars? | Color |
Why does our sun have such a bright apparent magnitude when it has suck a dim absolute magnitude? | Because it's closer to Earth |
How many years old is the sun? | 4.5 billion years old |
How many more years should the sun continue to shine? | 5 billion more years |
What is the surface of the sun; what do we see when we look up at the sun? | Photosphere |
Besides making life possible on Earth, the sun also provides us with what? | Heat and Light |
Loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles whose orbits are usually very long, narrow ellipses are called what? | Comets |
What is a comet usually referred to as? | A dirty snowball |
What are the two places called where comets are most found? | Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud |
Where are the most asteroids located? | Asteroid Belt |
What do we call a chunk of rock or dust in space which come from comets and asteroids? | Meteoroids |
A falling star is actually a what? | Meteor |
When a meteor hits the Earth's surface, it is called what? | Meteorite |
A galaxy is a huge collection of what? | Stars, gas, and dust |
Scientists have classified the galaxies according to how many different shapes? | Three |
What is a spiral galaxy? | Shaped like a flattened disk, usually has one or more spiral arms, bulge in the middle, looks like a pinwheel |
What is an elliptical galaxy? | Large, 3-D, very common, resembles a slightly flattened ball |
What is a barred spiral galaxy? | Stars and gases in a central bar; shape due to uneven forces |
What is an irregular galaxy? | Smaller, less common, fainter galaxies, no regular shape, closest neighbors to our galaxy |
What galaxy do we live in? | The Milky Way Galaxy |