Astronomy & the Universe
This is the large cloud of gas and dust where stars are born.
What is a nebula?
This is the stage where a star spends most of its life, including our Sun.
What is a main sequence star?
This refers to the day-to-day conditions of the atmosphere.
What is weather?
This is the outermost layer of the Earth where we live.
What is the crust?
This movement inside Earth drives the motion of tectonic plates.
What are convection currents in the mantle?
This theory explains that the universe began from an extremely hot, dense point.
What is the Big Bang Theory?
Low-mass stars end their life cycles by shedding outer layers to form this.
What is a planetary nebula?
This long-term pattern of weather in a region is influenced by latitude and ocean currents.
What is climate?
This layer of Earth is semi-molten and responsible for plate movement.
What is the mantle?
This type of plate boundary can form mountain ranges.
What is a convergent boundary?
Scientists use this shift in light toward longer wavelengths to measure distances in space.
What is redshift?
This extremely energetic explosion marks the death of a high-mass star.
What is a supernova?
Warm, cold, stationary, and occluded are all types of these.
What are weather fronts?
This process turns sediment into sedimentary rock through compaction and cementation.
What is lithification?
Fossils, matching coastlines, and rock types support this theory.
What is continental drift?
This process helps scientists understand how fast galaxies are moving away from Earth.
What is measuring redshift?
This dense remnant forms when a massive star collapses after a supernova.
What is a neutron star or black hole?
This effect causes moving air and water to curve due to Earth’s rotation.
What is the Coriolis effect?
These three rock types make up the rock cycle.
What are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks?
These gases trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
What are greenhouse gases?
This describes what may happen to the universe if expansion continues forever.
What is the Big Freeze?
This theoretical object represents the final cooling stage of a low-mass star.
What is a black dwarf?
These large-scale movements of air help distribute heat around the planet.
What are global circulation (wind) systems?
Heat, pressure, and movement deep inside Earth drive these changes in rocks.
What are rock cycle processes caused by heat, pressure, and movement?
Burning fossil fuels and deforestation increase this global problem.
What is climate change?
Astronomers observe that nearly all distant galaxies show redshift. What does this observation suggest about the motion of the universe as a whole?
What is that the universe is expanding?
Two stars form at the same time, but one becomes a black hole while the other becomes a white dwarf. What key factor caused their life cycles to differ?
What is their initial mass?
A warm, moist air mass collides with a cold, dry air mass. Explain why this interaction often leads to severe storms.
What is that warm air rises rapidly over cold air, causing condensation, cloud formation, and storm development?
A sedimentary rock is buried deep underground and exposed to intense heat and pressure without melting. What type of rock will it become and why?
What is a metamorphic rock because heat and pressure change its structure without melting?
Explain how increased greenhouse gas emissions can disrupt global climate systems such as ocean currents and weather patterns.
What is that trapped heat alters temperature gradients, which changes atmospheric circulation and ocean current behavior?