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ES 14.3 Stars & ALL
Astronomy terms about the Sun, stars, and the Universe
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| largest object in the solar system containing 99% of its mass | the Sun (Sol) |
| the Sun is about _?_ Earths wide and has a mass of _?_ Earths | 100; 300,000 |
| visible surface of the Sun with temperature around 6000 K | photosphere |
| layer of Sun's atmosphere above its visible surface with temperature about 15,000 and visible during a total eclipse | chromosphere |
| outermost, thickest layer of Sun's atmosphere with temperature over 3 million K | corona |
| charged particles flowing outward from Sun's corona at hundreds of kps | solar wind |
| area in Earth's atmosphere near poles that collects particles from the solar wind | Van Allen belts |
| glow in sky near poles caused by interaction of solar wind particles with atmosphere | aurora (borealis & australis) |
| darker, cooler areas that occur in pairs on the Sun's photosphere | sunspots |
| periodic increase and decrease in sunspot activity that occurs about every 11 years | solar activity cycle |
| area in Sun's corona over sunspots that allows the solar wind & radiation to leave the sun | coronal hole |
| an eruption of particles and/or radiation from the Sun's surface | solar flare |
| an arc of gas ejected from and falling back into the Sun's chromosphere, following magnetic field lines | prominence |
| process that fuels the Sun's energy output | nuclear fusion |
| chief fuel for and product of the Sun's fusion | hydrogen; helium |
| interior area of the Sun that spreads energy by waves | inner radiation zone |
| upper layer of the Sun that transports energy by rising/sinking areas due to gas density differences | outer convection zone |
| what percent of the Sun's energy that strikes Earth's atmosphere reaches its surface? | about 50% |
| complete 'rainbow' of colors of light produced by an ordinary (incandescent) light source | continuous spectrum |
| specific colored lines of light emitted by a glowing gas (light 'fingerprint') | emission (bright-line) spectrum |
| the 'negative' of a bright-line spectrum, produced when light from a source passes through cooler gases and is absorbed | absorption (dark-line) spectrum |
| two most common elements in the Sun (and all stars) | hydrogen (~70%) and helium (~25%) |
| historical grouping of stars, often used by ancient people to identify planting/harvest times and to tell 'stories' about myths & legends | constellation |
| gravitationally bound group of close-spaced stars | star cluster |
| describes a star cluster such as the Pleiades that is not densely packed | open cluster |
| describes a star cluster that is densely, spherically packed | globular cluster |
| 2 gravitationally bound stars orbiting around a common center of mass | binaries |
| how far light travels in 365 days moving at 186,000 miles per second | light-year (ly) |
| 3.26 light-years, another unit for measuring distances in space | parsec |
| shift in position of a star with respect to other stars due to Earth's motion along its orbital path | parallax |
| how bright a star appears to the eye compared to other stars | apparent magnitude |
| brightness of a star if it were placed 10 parsecs (pc) from Earth | absolute magnitude |
| property of a star that can be estimated from its spectral colors | temperature |
| graph used to classify stars based on temperature, luminosity, etc | H-R diagram |
| most common classification of stars on the H-R diagram, which includes the Sun | main sequence |
| cool but very luminous star that must be quite large to be so luminous | red giant |
| hot, massive, but dim star so must be small to be dim despite its high heat | white dwarf |
| the more _?_ a star has, the more gravity it possesses and the hotter it burns | mass |
| the balance between inward gravity and outward heat pressure in a star | hydrostatic equilibrium |
| part of a star in which the fusion takes place | core |
| cloud-like mass of gases and dust from which a star eventually forms | nebula |
| eventual cooled off outcome for a Sun-like star at the end of its life cycle | black dwarf |
| explosive collapse and rebound of a star once its fusion starts forming iron | supernova |
| eventual outcome for the most massive stars, it is an area from which no light escapes due the its powerful gravitational field | black hole |
| barred spiral galaxy to which the Sun (and Earth) belongs | Milky Way |
| ellipsoidal, spiral, and irregular... for example | shapes of galaxies |
| collection of the Milky Way, Andromeda, and about 40 nearby smaller galaxies | the Local Group |
| any galaxy that emits more energy in radio waves than visible light | radio galaxy |
| quasi-stellar radio source... an enormously bright galaxy that may have been common in the early universe | quasar |
| change in wavelength of a sound or light wave source due to motion of the source (or receiver) of the waves | Doppler shift |
| Doppler shift for light that shows spectra of elements closer to the red end of the spectrum than normal | red shift |
| astronomer who discovered that the farther away a galaxy is from Earth, the more it is red shifted (faster it is moving away... EXPANDING UNIVERSE! | Hubble |
| radio waves found everywhere in space that may be the 'echo' of the big bang | cosmic background radiation |
| explanation for universe's red shift that suggests it is expanding away from some initial explosive beginning | big bang theory |
| estimated age of the universe | ~14 billion years |
| describes a universe whose momentum causes it to overcome gravity and continue to expand forever (current models suggest this is what out universe it) | open universe |
| describes a universe whose gravity eventually overcome its momentum of expansion, causing it to collapse upon itself in a 'big crunch' | closed universe |
| as of yet unidentified causes of excessive gravity in and increasing expansion rate of the universe | dark matter and dark energy |
Created by:
goakley
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