Planets
This planet has a day (rotation period) longer than its year.
What is Venus?
This diagram classifies stars by luminosity and temperature.
What is the HR Diagram (Hertzsprung-Russel)
The Milky Way is this general type of galaxy.
What is a spiral galaxy?
This theory explains that the universe is expanding from an initial hot, dense state.
What is the Big Bang theory?
This NASA telescope was famous for detecting thousands of planets by looking for tiny dips in starlight.
What is Kepler?
This planet’s large storm system, known as the Great Red Spot, has lasted for centuries.
What is Jupiter?
This is the approximate surface temperature of the Sun.
What is about 5,800K?
This dense region at the center of the Milky Way hosts a supermassive black hole.
What is the Galactic Center? (Or Sag A*)
The leftover glow of the early universe, now cooled to just a few Kelvin, is known as this.
What is the cosmic microwave background?
This term describes the study of life’s potential beyond Earth.
What is astrobiology?
These small rocky bodies orbit between Mars and Jupiter and are leftovers from solar system formation.
What are asteroids?
This is the stage in a star’s life cycle when it fuses hydrogen to helium in its core.
What is the main-sequence stage?
This method uses standard candles like Cepheid variables to determine a galaxy’s distance.
What is the period–luminosity relation?
This effect stretches the wavelength of light from galaxies moving away from us.
What is redshift?
This is the most common molecule in Earth’s atmosphere and crucial for protecting life by scattering harmful UV radiation.
What is nitrogen?
This process caused the inner planets to be rocky and the outer planets to be gas-rich during the early solar nebula phase. (like salad dressing).
What is differentiation?
These two opposing forces determine the structure of a stable star.
What are gravity and pressure?
These galaxies are thought to form when spirals merge.
What are elliptical galaxies?
This mysterious energy component makes up roughly 70% of the universe and accelerates its expansion.
What is dark energy?
This principle states that the simplest explanation consistent with the data should be preferred—a key idea when evaluating extraterrestrial signals.
What is Occam’s Razor?
This term describes a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system.
What is an exoplanet?
A star of about 1 solar mass will eventually shed its outer layers to form this glowing shell of ionized gas.
What is planetary nebula?
This relationship between galaxy rotation curves and mass distribution provided early evidence for dark matter.
What is the flat rotation curve problem?
This space-time concept says observers moving relative to each other measure time and distance differently.
What is special relativity?
This famous equation estimates the number of technologically advanced civilizations in our galaxy.
What is the Drake Equation?