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Earth & Space
vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| light year | the distance light travels in one year |
| astronomical unit | the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, about 150 million km |
| apparent magnitude | a measure of how bright it appears from Earth |
| luminosity | the true brightness of an object |
| galaxy | a huge collection of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity |
| dark matter | matter that emits no light at any wavelength |
| big bang theory | the universe began from one point billions of years ago and has been expanding ever since |
| theory | an idea intended to explain something |
| spiral galaxy | type of galaxy that forms arm structures |
| irregular galaxy | type of galaxy that has no regular or symmetrical structure |
| elliptical galaxy | type of galaxy shaped like a spheroid, or elongated sphere |
| hertzsprung-russell (H-R) diagram | a graph that plots luminosity v. temperature of stars |