Term | Definition |
Astronomy | study of the universe |
Big Bang Theory | Theory that explains the creation of the universe |
Doppler shift | the apparent change in the wavelength and frequency of sound waves that is could by the movement of the source, observer, or both |
Red Shift | Is when a planet or star gets further away |
Blue Shift | When a planet or star gets closer |
Frequency | the number of waves produced in a given amount of time |
Wavelength | the distance between corresponding points on a waves |
Absolute Brightness (Magnitude) | how bright a star actually is |
Apparent Brightness (Magnitude) | How bright a star looks |
Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) | radiation left over from the big bang |
Universe | All of Space |
Galaxy | A group of stars,gas,dust held by gravity |
Solar System | Planets, suns and other things that rotate the sun |
Star | A ball of hot gas, made up of hydrogen and helium, that undergoes nuclear fusion. |
Planet | An object that orbits a star, is large enough to have become rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the area of its orbit. |
Electromagnetic Spectrum | All of the frequencies or wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation |
AU-Astronomical Unit | Units used to measure the distance of the solar system |
Solar Nebula | the cloud of gas and dust that formed our solar system |
Gas Giant | Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune |
Nuclear Fusion | The process by which two or more small nuclei fuse to make a bigger nucleus |
Convective Zone | hot plasma rises, cools as it nears the surface, and falls to be heated and rise again. |
Photosphere | the luminous envelope of a star from which its light and heat radiate. |
Chromosphere | a reddish gaseous layer immediately above the photosphere of the sun or another star. Together with the corona, it constitutes the star's outer atmosphere. |
Corona | the rarefied gaseous envelope of the sun and other stars. |
Sunspot | a spot or patch appearing from time to time on the sun's surface, appearing dark by contrast with its surroundings. |
Prominence | a stream of incandescent gas projecting above the sun's chromosphere. |
Solar Flare | brief eruption of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface, |
Coronal Mass Ejection | significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the solar corona. |
Light Year | the distance light travels in one year |
Parallax | the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions |
Main Sequence | the location on the H-R diagram where most stars are |
HR-Diagram | Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a graph that shows the relationship between a star's surface temperature and absolute magnitude |
Nebular | the theory that the solar and stellar systems were developed from a primeval nebula. |
Red Giant | a cloud of gas and dust |
White Dwarf | A small, hot, dim star that is the leftover center of an old star |
Nova | a star that gets brighter then fades |
Neutron Star | A star that has collapsed under its own gravity |
Pulsar | A spinning neutron star that produces radio waves |
Black Hole | A star where light cant escape because of the immense gravity that pulls at its surface. |
Constellations | a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure |
Cosmology | the science of the origin and development of the universe. |