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Various astronomy terms

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
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Term
Definition
Celestial sphere   An imaginary, giant, hollow sphere with the earth in the center and the sun, moon, stars, and other planets on it's inner surface.  
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Horizon   The line that separates the visible portion of the celestial sphere from the part we cannot see.  
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Celestial poles   The points on the celestial sphere that are directly overhead at the earth's poles.  
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Circumpolar   Always above the horizon.  
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Zodiac   The imaginary band on which the sun moon and planets appear.  
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Constellation   A group of celestial bodies contained within certain boundaries.  
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Asterism   A small group of stars used to form a picture.  
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Sun   The closest and most important star to us.  
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Core of the sun   The center of the sun.  
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Photosphere   The visible part of the sun.  
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Granule   A convection cell on the surface of the sun about 600 miles long.  
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Supergranule   Convection cells on the sun's surface about 22000 miles long.  
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Sunspots   Cool spots on the sun caused by its magnetic field.  
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Chromosphere   The lowest layer of the sun's atmosphere, called the sphere of color.  
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Spicule   Columns of gas erupting from the chromospere.  
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Solar flares   A tremendous burst of energy caused by magnetic stress within the sun.  
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Solar prominence   Streams of dense gas erupting off the chromosphere and returning in a loop like fashion.  
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transition region   The layer of the sun's atmosphere above the chromosphere.  
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Corona   The outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.  
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Coronagraph   A device that blocks light from the photosphere.  
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Light-year   The distance light travels in one year.  
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Parallax   The change in an object's position caused by an observers change in position.  
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Apparent magnitude   The brightness of a star as it appears from earth.  
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Absolute magnitude   The apparent magnitude viewed from 10 parsecs.  
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Hertzsprung-Russell diagram   A chart used for classifying stars  
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Giants or supergiants   Large cool stars whose brightness is caused by size.  
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Stars of the main sequence   Average stars whose temperature depends on heat.  
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White dwarf   A very hot but dim star due to its size.  
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Binary star   A system in which two stars are bound together by gravity.  
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Optical doubles   Stars that are close on the celestial sphere but far apart in space.  
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Open cluster   Asymmetrical clumps containing tens hundreds or thousands of stars.  
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Globular cluster   Tightly clumped spherical groups of thousands or millions of stars.  
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Nova   An occurrence taking place when a star flares up many times its original brightness.  
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Supernova   A nova resulting in the explosion of a star.  
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Neutron star   The hot core of a star left after a supernova.  
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Pulsar   A rapidly rotating neutron star that emits radio waves.  
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Galaxy   A massive star system containing millions or billions of stars.  
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Clusters   The smallest division in groups of galaxies.  
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Supercluster   A group of several clusters.  
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Spiral galaxy   A galaxy shaped with large arms spiraling from the nucleus.  
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Black hole   An object so large and dense no matter can escape its gravity.  
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Elliptical galaxy   Egg-shaped galaxies.  
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Lenticular galaxy   A flat galaxy with a bulging nucleus.  
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irregular galaxy   galaxies with no definite shape.  
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Quasar   An extremely bright object that emits light and radio waves.  
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Accretion disc   A glowing ring of gas.  
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Nebulae   Large clouds of gas floating in space.  
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Solar wind   A high speed stream of charged particles ejected from the sun.  
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Orbit   Circle around due to gravity.  
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