Word | Definition |
Section One
Telescopes
Electromagnetic Radiation | Energy that can travel through space in the form of waves |
Visible Light | A type of electromagnetic radiation, this is the light you can see with the naked eye |
Wavelength | The distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of the next |
Spectrum | A range of colors with different wavelengths |
Optical Telescope | A telescope that uses lenses or mirrors to collect and focus visible light |
Refracting Telescope | A telescope that uses a convex lens to gather and focus light |
Convex Lens | A piece of transparent glass, curved so that the middle is thicker than the edges |
Reflecting Telescope | A telescope that uses a curved mirror to gather and focus light |
Radio Telescope, A telescope used to gather radio waves from objects in space | |
Observatory, A building that contains more than one telescope | |
Section 02; Characteristics of Stars - Constellation, A pattern of stars as viewed from Earth | |
Spectograph,A device that breaks light into a spectrum | |
Apparent Brightness, A star's brightness from Earth | |
Absolute Brightness, A star's actual brightness | |
Light-year, The distance light travels in a year | |
Parallex, The apparent change in position of an object when looked at from a different stand-point | |
Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram, A chart that graphs the star's absolute brightness against the star's surface temperature | |
Main Sequence, A "class" of star, most stars belong in this group | |
Section 03; Lives of Stars - Nebula, A large cloud of gas and dust in space | |
Protostar, The earliest stage of a star's "life" | |
Planetary Nebula, A glowing cloud of gas formed by a medium star | |
White Dwarf, The core of a star left behind by a planetary nebula | |
Supernova, The explosion a Supergiant causes when it runs out of energy | |
Neutron Stars, The remains of high-mass stars | |
Pulsars, Spinning neutron stars | |
Black Hole, An object with incredibly strong gravity | |
Section 04; Star Systems and Galaxies - Binary Stars, Star systems that have two stars | |
Eclipsing Binary,A system in which one star periodically blocks the light of the other | |
Open Clusters, Loose, disorganized cluster of stars | |
Globular Clusters Large groupings of older stars | |
Galaxy, A huge group of single stars, star systems, star clusters, dust and gas bound together by gravity | |
Quasars, Young active galaxies with black holes in the middle of them | |
Spiral Galaxies, Galaxies that are shaped like a pinwheel | |
Elliptical Galaxies, Galaxies that are elliptically shaped | |
Irregular Galaxies, Galaxies that do not have regular shapes | |
Universe, All of space and everything in it | |
Scientific Notation, Uses powers of ten to write very large or small numbers in an easy way | |
Section 05; The Expanding Universe - Big Bang, Explosion that created the universe | |
Hubble's Law, States that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving | |
Cosmic Background Radiation, Radiation left from the big bang | |
Solar Nebula, Large cloud of gas and dust | |
Planettesimals, The very first stage of planets | |
Dark Matter, Matter that does not give off electromagnetic radiation | |
Dark Energy, Energy that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate | |