Stellar Stories
This star, which is visible in the night sky as the "North Star," is known for its stability and position near the celestial north pole.
What is Polaris?
This type of telescope, located in space, has provided some of the most detailed images of distant galaxies and nebulae, and is named after an American astronomer.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
This method involves studying the light from distant stars and galaxies to determine their composition, temperature, and motion.
What is spectroscopy?
This Polish astronomer formulated the heliocentric theory, proposing that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun.
Who is Nicolaus Copernicus?
This astronomical event, occurring around December 21 or 22, marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
What is the Winter Solstice?
This famous binary star system in the constellation of Orion is known for its distinct blue-white color and is one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
What is Rigel?
This instrument measures the intensity of light at different wavelengths to determine the composition and physical properties of astronomical objects.
What is a photometer?
This observational technique uses the apparent shift in the wavelength of light from a celestial object to determine its velocity relative to Earth.
What is the Doppler effect?
This German astronomer and mathematician is known for his laws of planetary motion, which describe the elliptical orbits of planets around the Sun.
Who is Johannes Kepler?
This annual meteor shower, visible in August, is known for producing bright and fast meteors as Earth passes through the debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle.
What is the Perseid Meteor Shower?
This type of star is the closest to Earth and is also known for being the Sun's nearest neighbor.
What is Proxima Centauri?
This ground-based telescope, located in Chile, is part of an array that includes multiple telescopes working together to observe the universe.
What is the Very large Telescope?
Astronomers use this technique to combine the light from multiple telescopes to achieve higher resolution images.
What is interferometry?
This British astronomer is known for his work on the determination of the distances to the stars and the formulation of the method for measuring stellar parallax.
Who is Sir William Herschel?
This astronomical event, which happens every 76 years, is characterized by a comet with a bright coma and a tail, visible from Earth.
What is Halley's Comet?
This star is located in the constellation of Andromeda and is notable for being a blue supergiant with a prominent position in the night sky.
What is Alpheratz?
This device is used to measure the polarization of light from astronomical objects, providing information about magnetic fields and dust distribution.
What is a polarimeter?
This technique involves studying the motion of celestial bodies to infer the presence of unseen objects, such as black holes, by their gravitational effects.
What is dynamical modeling?
This American astronomer and astrophysicist is renowned for his contributions to the study of stellar evolution and his development of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Who is Henry Norris Russell?
This type of solar eclipse, which occurs when the Moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the Sun, leaves a ring of sunlight visible around the Moon.
What is the Annual Solar Eclipse?
This type of star is characterized by a rapid rotation and strong magnetic fields, often exhibiting intense X-ray emissions due to its magnetic activity.
What is a magnetar?
This specialized telescope, located in the Chilean Andes, is designed to observe the universe in high-energy gamma rays and is part of the Cherenkov Telescope Array.
What is the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System)
This approach uses data from space probes and rovers to directly analyze the composition of planetary surfaces and atmospheres.
What is in-situ analysis?
This Scottish astronomer is recognized for his pioneering use of the radio telescope and his research on the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Who is James Peebles?
This astronomical term refers to the point in Earth's orbit when it is closest to the Sun, occurring around January 3.
What is Perihelion?