Astronomical
This is an organized system of millions or billions of stars, gas (clouds), solar systems and dust held together by gravitational attraction.
What is a Galaxy?
Pg 140, BTD bottom of the page
Also known as a gnomon, this is one of the earliest tools used to determine the location and motion of the sun in relation to the Earth.
What is a Sundial?
Pg 116, first paragraph
This is the hottest layer of the sun reaching about 10,000 Celsius / 18,000 Fahrenheit.
What is the Corona?
Pg 124, second paragraph
This is a natural or artificial body that orbits a planet or star.
What is a satellite?
Pg 121, BTD top of page
Travelling at 299,792,458 meters a second, it is used to tell the time it would take to fly between the stars.
What is Light Speed?
Pg 137, Explore more
This is the layer of gases that surround Earth and other heavenly bodies.
What is an atmosphere?
Pg 113, BTD middle of page
It was on this day of God's creation week that He created the sun, moon and stars.
What is day 4?
Pg 114, last paragraph
The main source of the sun's heat and energy, it is when small atoms are made into larger atoms releasing more energy that nuclear fission used on earth.
What is Fusion?
Pg 125, second paragraph
This force of attraction is what exists between any 2 masses.
What is gravity?
Pg 120, BTD bottom of page
This stone monument is beleived to be an early observatory to help people align a star or the sun to a specific spot at a certain time of year.
What is Stonehenge?
Pg 117, middle-bottom paragraph above figure 5.4
Early observers of space noticed these when seeing groups of stars that resembled animals or people.
What are constellations?
Pg 115, second paragraph
This telescope started off with a major flaw but was corrected in orbit to go on and provide amazing views of the universe including the M100 galaxy.
What is the Hubble Telescope?
Pg 118, figure 5.6 and last paragraph
The sun's surface is made of this matter which is neither solid, liquid or gas.
What is plasma?
Pg 121, last paragraph
This occurs when the moon moves into a position between the earth and the sun causing total darkness for a brief time.
What is a Total Solar Eclipse?
Pg 124, 'Solar Eclipse' section
These appear on the surface of the sun in a repeatable cycle of time, are linked to weather patterns and are proof the sun rotates.
What are / is a sunspot?
Pg 122, most parts of the page
This unit is the measure of distance between the earth and the sun and is used to define distances between object in space.
What is an Astronomical Unit / au?
Pg 125, first paragraph of the Planets section
In addition to using radio, x-ray and gamma waves to perceive and explore what is in space, scientists can be said to most commonly use this when observing the universe.
What are light waves?
Pg 119, first paragraph
This large eruption of energy from the sun's photosphere can alter the atmosphere's appearance and disrupt or damage satellites, power suppliers and radio wave transmissions.
What is a Solar Flare?
Pg 122, second paragraph top of page
Earth's tides are strongly affected by what extraterrestrial body?
What is the moon?
Pg 130, last paragraph
This is the amount of light or radiation reflected by a surface, typically that of a planet or moon.
What is albedo?
Pg 127, BTD bottom of page
(Two part question) Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars form this type of planetary category for being closest to the sun and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune form this second category for being like Jupiter.
What are Terrestrial and Jovian planets.
Ph 126, second paragraph.
Due to it's distance from the sun, this planet's orbit of the sun is equal to 29 years, or earth orbits of the sun.
What is Saturn?
Pg 115, first paragraph
While the sun is known to contain the same elements as earth through spectroscopic analysis, the most abundant elements are these two (in this order of #1 and #2).
What are #1 Hydrogen and #2 Helium?
Pg 121, last paragraph
This section of our solar system is named after a famous astronomer scientist who studied the possibility of planetary objects beyond Pluto (which is still the 9th planet!)
What is the Kuiper Belt?
Pg 133, Kuiper Gelt and Oort Cloud section
In a planet's orbit around the sun, these are the points where it is furthest and farthest from the sun.
What are perihelion and aphelion?
Pg 127, second paragraph