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Astronomy 101
Study.com
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| X-ray and gamma ray telescopes collect what kind of wavelengths? | very short wavelength light to see the sun, stars and supernovas. |
| radio telescope | collect long wavelength light to investigate diverse things. |
| reflector telescopes use | one mirror, or a combination of mirrors, to reflect light and form an image to the viewer. The design of this telescope allows astronomers to see things way out in space that don't emit much light. Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy rese |
| What type of telescope is the Hubble Space Telescope? | reflector telescope it is also the largest space telescope |
| How large is the Hubble telescope? | 43.5 feet 24,500 lbs |
| Radio telescopes | detect long wavelength light and investigate diverse things. |
| X-ray and gamma ray telescopes | detect very short wavelength of light and look at the sun, stars and supernovas. |
| Reflecting telescopes | see visible light and they see things way out in space. |
| Refracting telescopes | detect visible light; they see things out in space but not as far as reflecting telescopes. |
| Which type of telescope is no longer used much by astronomers? | refracting |
| Which types of telescopes collect light in the visible range? | Optical telescopes: refracting and reflecting |
| What is a primary lens? | A combination of two or more lenses with different indices of refraction (such as a concave lens with a convex lens) that is used to minimize a chromatic aberration. |
| What is reflection? | when light bounces off an object |
| What is refraction? | Bending of light |
| chromatic aberration | the focusing of different colors of light at different distances behind a lens |
| achromatic lens | A combination of two or more lenses with different indices of refraction (such as a concave lens with a convex lens) that is used to minimize a chromatic aberration. |
| The distance between a lens or mirror to its focal point is known as a | |
| galaxy | A huge group of single stars, star systems, star clusters, dust, and gas bound together by gravity |
| Starburst | a galaxy that shines brightly as a result of a rapid and sudden burst of star formation. |
| Collision of Galaxies | star formation bc interstellar gas is compressed by collision |
| Galactic cannibalism | the absorption of small galaxies by larger ones. |
| Bottom-Up Hypothesis | The conjecture that the Milky Way Galaxy and other large galaxies formed mostly by collisions and combination of smaller galaxies and star clusters |
| A galaxy that shines brightly as a results of a rapid and sudden burst of star formation is known as a: | A Starburst Galaxy |
| What will happen after M31 (Amerada) and our galaxy collide? | An elliptical galaxy will form |
| conic sections | four shapes, parabolas, circles, ellipses, and hyperbolas that are formed by the intersection of a plane and a double cone |
| trajectories | the path followed by a projectile flying or an object moving under the action of given forces. |
| The absorption of small galaxies by larger ones is called ________________ __________________. | Galactic cannibalism |
| what are The four conic sections obtained when a cone is sliced with a plane | A circle |
| An ellipse | |
| A parabola | |
| The hyperbola | |
| hyperbola | A hyperbola is a conic section that results when a circular cone is cut by a plane at an angle steeper than the sides of the cone, in order to produce an open curve. A body that is moving with a speed greater than escape velocity has a path that's a hyper |
| A parabola | A parabola is a conic section obtained when a circular cone is cut by a plane parallel to the side of the cone in order to produce an open curve. This means that it doesn't form a closed shape like that of an ellipse or circle. A body following a paraboli |
| A parabola is basically an in-between shape, between that of a closed ellipse and an open hyperbola. | |
| An ellipse | an ellipse is a noun that's defined as a conic section obtained when a right circular cone is cut by a plane that intersects the cone's axis and surface to produce a closed elongated curve |
| A Circle | |
| (I know its a shape and you don't care about the proper definition besides it is eternal and has no sides but they said you have to memorize it. ) | A round plane figure whose boundary consists of points equidistant from the center. |
| Study.com answer: A circle is a kind of curve on which any point is equidistant from the center | |
| Escape velocity | the minimum velocity needed to escape a gravitational field |
| What are the open curve shapes? | ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, |
| eccentricity | a measure of how non-circular the orbit of a body is. A particularly eccentric orbit is one that isn't anything close to being circular. |
| What is the equation form of eccentricity | equation form: e = c / a. = 0.444 AU |
| Center of Mass (COM) | the point around which all weight is evenly distributed; also called center of gravity |
| Barycenter | The center of mass of two or more bodies orbiting around each other |
| What is kinetic energy? | energy of motion |
| What is potential energy? | stored energy |
| Aphelion and Perihelion | -Aphelion the sun is farther away from earth. |
| -Perihelion the sun is closer to earth. | |
| gravitational potential energy | Energy stored by objects due to their position above Earth's surface. |
| circular velocity | The velocity an object needs to stay in orbit around another object. |
| When was the earth created according to secular studies? | 4.6 billion years ago |
| When did the universe begin according to secular studies? | 14 billion years ago |
| planetesimals | Small planetary objects that form through the action of gravity during the birth of a solar system |
| How long did it take earth to form according to secular studies? | 10-20 million years though it changes daily |
| mantle | The layer of hot, solid material between Earth's crust and core. |
| Crust | Earth's outermost layer. |
| Core | Center of the earth |
| How was land created? (Secular) | Pressure and heat pushed material from the molten interior of the Earth above water to form land. |
| greenhouse effect and global warming | the process by which heat is trapped in the atmosphere by gases that form a "blanket" around Earth |
| 3 billion years ago what did the world look like (Secular) | It was covered in glaciers and ice as it melted it created valleys and rivers we see today (secular) |
| Summary | The solar system formed from a large, rotating cloud of interstellar dust and gas called the solar nebula. Earth and all the planets were formed from this nebula. Over time, the Earth cooled, and heavier elements sank to its core. Molten liquid formed the |
| Geo | earth, ground |
| hydro | water |
| bio | life |
| atmo | air/vapor |
| geosphere | The mostly solid, rocky part of the Earth; extends from the center of the core to the surface of the crust. |
| hydrosphere | All the water at and near the surface of the earth, 97% of which is in oceans |
| biosphere | Consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere. |
| what is the distance life lives in? | Most of this life exists no deeper than about 10 feet into the ground or about 600 feet above it. |
| biomes | a broad, regional type of ecosystem characterized by distinctive climate and soil conditions and a distinctive kind of biological community adapted to those conditions. |
| what are the four layers of the atmosphere | troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere |
| troposphere | The lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere |
| stratosphere | The second-lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere. |
| mesosphere | 3rd layer of the atmosphere |
| thermosphere | The uppermost layer of the atmosphere, in which temperature increases as altitude increases |
| How far is the troposphere above sea level? | 14.5 kilometers meaning that even while in a commercial airliner, we never leave the troposphere. |
| where does weather take place? | Troposphere |
| Will you see clouds in the stratosphere? | yes, you will see some clouds |
| Where do jets fly? | Stratosphere |
| What is the coldest layer of the atmosphere? | Mesosphere |
| ionosphere | the lower part of the thermosphere, where electrically charged particles called ions are found |
| what's beyond the thermosphere? | exosphere. |
| Capture Theory | The Moon was formed elsewhere in the universe and was captured by the Earth's gravitational field when it came too close. |
| Fission Theory | When the Earth was young, it spun so fast that a piece of it broke off and was flung into space, where it became the Moon. |
| Condensation Theory | The Earth and Moon condensed at the same time from the nebula. |
| Giant Impact Theory | Sometimes called the Colliding or Ejected Ring Theory - The Earth was hit by something huge and a piece of Earth was ejected into space. |
| What does the Giant Impact Theory explain? | Why the Moon is made mostly of rock. |
| Why the Moon is less dense and has less of the heavier elements than Earth does. | |
| Why the Moon is 100 million years younger than Earth. | |
| Why the Moon isn't on the same orbital plane as Earth. | |
| Sedimentary rocks | rock that forms when sediments such as muds, sands, or gravels are compressed by overlying sediments |
| Igneous rocks | Form directly from cooling of magma or lava. Ex: granite (magma) and obsidian (lava) |
| Metamorphic rocks | Made when heat, pressure, or fluids change one type of rock into another type of rock |
| Lunar | relating to the moon |
| what is the lunar atmosphere made of? | Mainly helium, neon, argon, and hydrogen but it also includes molecules of ammonia, methane, potassium, sodium, and carbon dioxide. |
| Has the moon's atmosphere been affected by our exhaust? | Yes, not only do factories, cars, boats, airplanes and many other everyday world items drastically change the world around us but it also goes into space and affects the moon. |
| How often does the moons atmosphere change? | Constantly |
| surface boundary exosphere | Is the most common atmosphere in our universe; |
| the thin, collision-free atmosphere found on the moon and bounded by its surface. | |
| waxing moon | When the Moon appears to get bigger (A helpful tip to remember wax ON) |
| Waning moon | When the Moon appears to get smaller (Helpful tip Waning means not ganing) |
| What are the moon phases in order? | new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent |
| New Moon | the phase of the moon when it is in conjunction with the sun and invisible from earth, or shortly thereafter when it appears as a slender crescent. |
| The Moon | A natural satellite that revolves around a planet. |
| Synchronous Rotation | The state at which the Moon's orbital and rotational periods are equal. |
| Why is a new moon invisible? | |
| angular diameter | A measure of the size of an object in the sky; numerically equal to the angle in degrees between two lines extending from the observer's eye to opposite edges of the object. |
| sidereal month of moon | 27.3 days |
| synodic month | The period of revolution of the Moon with respect to the Sun; the length of one cycle of lunar phases; 29 1/2 Earth days. |
| Moonrise | the rising of the moon above the horizon. |
| Moonset | the setting of the moon below the horizon. |
| third quarter moon | The phase of the moon when it is three-quarters of the way through its orbit, and we see half of the moon lighted |
| What is the solar system? | the sun, along with all the planets, moons, asteroids, and meteoroids, held by the sun's gravitational field. |
| Sun | A typical star that is the source of light and heat for the planets in the solar system. |
| catastrophic hypothesis | Explanation for natural processes that depends on dramatic and unlikely events, such as the collision of two stars to produce our solar system |
| evolutionary hypothesis | Explanation for natural events that involves gradual changes as opposed to sudden catastrophic changes-- for example, the formation of the planets in the gas cloud around the forming sun. |
| solar nebula theory | the theory that posits that the planets and sun in the solar system formed from the solar nebula. The solar nebula is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that condensed to form the entire solar system, including the sun and planets. |
| Why do move the way they do? | |
| what are the exceptions for the solar nebula theory? | Venus & Uranus |
| Revolution | The movement of an object around another object |
| Which of these do you think revolves around the other? | |
| The moon around the Earth or | |
| The Earth around the sun | Both, actually! When viewed from the north, nearly all of the moons in our solar system revolve in a counterclockwise motion around their respective planets, and all of the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun in a counterclockwise motion. |
| Temperature | A measure of how hot or cold something is. |
| Mass | A measure of the amount of matter in an object |
| Diameter | A straight line passing from side to side through the center of a circle or sphere. |
| jovian planets | Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune |
| thermal equilibrium | The state of two or more objects or substances in thermal contact when they have reached a common temperature |
| blackbody | A hypothetical object that absorbs all of the radiation that strikes it. It also emits radiation at a maximum rate for its given temperature. |
| solar constant | the rate at which radiant solar energy is received at the outer layer of the earth's atmosphere |
| What is Albedo | the fraction of light that's reflected by a body. So, for a perfectly white object, the albedo is 1 and for a perfectly black object or surface, the albedo is 0. Snow and ice will be closer to 1 since they reflect a lot of sunlight and a blacktop will be |
| Geology | Study of the earth |
| Planetary geology | The extension of the study of Earth's surface and interior to apply to other solid bodies in the solar system, such as terrestrial planets and jovian planet moons. |
| Inner Planets/terrestrial planets | Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars |
| Mercury (planet) | closest planet to the sun; shortest period of revolution (88 days) |
| What's the temperature of Mercury? | |
| Venus (planet) | "most beautiful"; Earth's twin due to similar density, mass size, and gravity; 477°C due to CO2 (greenhouse effect) and covered w/ clouds raining sulfuric acid; the brightest planet; albedo is 0.76; third brightest object in our sky (after sun and moon); |
| Atmosphere of Venus | almost all dense carbon dioxide |
| The Surface of Venus | has two mountainous regions on a smooth plain but no long, connected mountain ranges such as are seen on Earth. |
| plate tectonics | The theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle. |
| Mars | The gas planet named after the roman god of war. (Ares) |
| What are the Four Giants? | Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,Neptune |
| Jupiter | largest planet named after the Roman lighting god (Zeus) |
| liquid metallic hydrogen | form of hydrogen with both liquid and metallic properties that exists as a layer in the Jovian atmosphere. |
| magnetosphere | the area surrounding Earth that is influenced by Earth's magnetic field |
| Galilean moons | The four largest and brightest moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo |
| When did they find out Jupiter has rings? | 1979 |
| Saturn's Ears | |
| Gravitational collapse | a process whereby a growing celestial body captures gas from the solar nebula through gravity. |
| Liquid metallic hydrogen | form of hydrogen with both liquid and metallic properties that exists as a layer in the Jovian atmosphere. |
| What is the core of Jupiter composed of? | |
| Titan | Saturn's largest moon |
| Magnetosphere | the area surrounding Earth that is influenced by Earth's magnetic field |
| solar wind | the continuous flow of charged particles from the sun that permeates the solar system. |
| magnetotail | the region where the magnetosphere is stretched out like a giant tail |
| Inner Magnetosphere | the dipole region of the Earth's magnetosphere |
| Ionized Gas | made up of ions and electrons, called a plasma |
| methane | A gas produced by bacteria from hydrogen and carbon dioxide |
| What is IAU | International Astronomical Union |
| occultation | The hiding of a celestial body when another celestial body passes in front of it. |
| The Great Dark Spot on Neptune | disappeared sometime between the Voyager flyby in 1989 and when the Hubble Space Telescope photographed Neptune in 1994. |
| Convection | Process by which, in a fluid being heated, the warmer part of the mass will rise and the cooler portions will sink. |
| Nereid | One of Neptunes moons (One of Poseidons flings) |
| Neptune | 8th planet from the sun named after the Roman god of the sea (Poseidon) |
| Triton | Largest moon of Neptune |
| How many moons does Neptune have in total? | 13 |
| satellites | any object that revolves around another object in space |
| regular satellites | satellites having orbits of low eccentricity near the equatorial plane of their planet |
| formed in the "sub-nebula" surrounding the planet | |
| prograde | the counterclockwise spin of a planet or moon as seen from above the planet's North Pole; rotation in the same direction as the sun's rotation |
| irregular satellites | satellites having orbits of LARGE eccentricity, high inclination or both |
| Captured from elsewhere | |
| shepherd satellites | small moons that orbit near the outer edges of rings or within gaps in the rings |
| The Jovian Moons | These moons are like little planets and the only thing that distinguishes these from terrestrial planets is where they formed. Instead of forming in orbit around Sun, they formed in orbit around Jovian planets. |
| The Jovian Satellites | 65 satellites total and counting |
| tidal heating | A source of internal heating created by tidal friction. It is particularly important for satellites with eccentric orbits such as Io and Europa. |
| orbital resonance | When two orbiting bodies exert a gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. |
| convection | Process by which, in a fluid being heated, the warmer part of the mass will rise and the cooler portions will sink. |
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Bibliophies_4_Eva
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