Solar System
Stars
Theories
Universe
Miscellaneous
100
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
What are the names of the planets in our solar system?
100
A star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass.
What is a supernova?
100
1. The orbit of a planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci. 2. A line segment joining a planet and the Sn sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time. 3. The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis (longest diameter) of its orbit.
What are Kepler's laws?
100
Stars convert hydrogen to helium, and that gives off energy, which becomes light. Once that hydrogen is used up, they can start using helium in their nuclear "furnaces." But eventually any star will run out of "fuel." Stars like our sun will collapse and become a "white dwarf." But very massive stars — ten times heavier than our sun — have such strong gravity that when they collapse they can't stop. Everything in the star collapses to a tiny point that still has the mass and gravity of the star but no longer shines. In fact the gravity is so strong that even light can't escape.
How does a black hole form?
100
A region in space around a black hole beyond which we cannot see, because nothing can escape from inside this region.
What is the Event Horizon?
200
They usually come from the trail of debris left behind by a comet. When Earth’s orbit intersects the dust trail, we see more meteors flaring as the cometary debris encounters our planet’s atmosphere.
What is a meteor shower?
200
The primary building block of stars.
What is hydrogen?
200
The continuous formation of universes through the collapse of giant stars and the formation of black holes. With each of these black holes there is a new point of singularity and a new possible universe.
What is the multiverse theory?
200
Everything.
What is the center of the universe?
200
This element was first discovered by observing the Sun.
What is Helium?
300
This is an extended shell of icy objects that exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is roughly spherical, and is the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed. This cloud of particles is theorized to be the remains of the disc of material that formed the Sun and planets.
What is the Oort Cloud?
300
Protostar--> main sequence star--> red giant--> white dwarf-->black dwarf
What is the life cycle of a yellow dwarf star (ex: our sun)?
300
Aristotle
What scientist originally thought that the solar system was geocentric?
300
dark energy and dark matter
What makes up most of the universe?
300
meteoroids (space), meteors (Earth's atmosphere), meteorites (Earth's surface)
What is the difference between meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites?
400
Solar storms produce this phenomena on the earth.
What is the northern lights?
400
Two objects in space which are so close that their gravitational interaction causes them to orbit about a common center of mass.
What is a binary system?
400
This constant is a measure of the rate of expansion of the universe.
What is Hubble's constant?
400
Evidence that the big bang occurred.
What is cosmic background radiation?
400
Motion-induced change in the wavelength of light emitted from a source moving away from us. The relative recessional motion causes the wave to have an observed wavelength longer and redder than it would if it were not moving.
What is Red Shift of the Doppler Effect?
500
Areas of cooler gases in the sun's photosphere.
What are sun spots?
500
Internal pressure from the hydrodynamic forces due to the nuclear fusion reactions in its core. Centripetal/centrifugal forces due to its spin. Also, electron-degeneracy pressure which plays a role when fusion ceases. (Basically, each electron must occupy its own energy state. When electrons are packed together, as they are in a white dwarf, the number of available low energy states is too small and many electrons are forced into high energy states. When this happens the electrons are said to be degenerate. These high energy electrons make a significant contribution to the pressure. Because the pressure arises from this quantum mechanical effect, it is insensitive to temperature, i.e., the pressure doesn't go down as the star cools. This pressure is known as electron degeneracy pressure and it is the force that supports white dwarf stars against their own gravity.)
What prevents a star from collapsing under its own gravity?
500
According to this law, the universe is expanding in such a way that distant galaxies are receding from one another with a speed proportional to its distance.
What is Hubble's Law?
500
The time elapsed between when we detect the light here on Earth and when it was originally emitted by the source. (Light travels at a finite speed (the speed of light) and given the large distances in the Universe, we do not see objects as they are now, but as they were when the light was emitted.)
What is the look-back time?
500
Wandering Star
What does "planet" mean?
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