The Big Picture
This phenomenon causes light waves to stretch as galaxies move away from us.
What is Cosmological Redshift?
This is the visible surface of the Sun that we see from Earth.
What is the Photosphere?
This effect explains why a shrinking cosmic cloud spins faster and flattens into a disk as it collapses.
What is the Skater Effect (or Conservation of Angular Momentum)?
According to the IAU, a Planet must orbit the Sun, be spherical, and have done this to its orbital neighborhood.
What is cleared its neighborhood of debris?
True or False: Every atom in your body was originally forged inside of a dying star.
True
Recent measurements from the New Horizons spacecraft suggest this is the number of galaxies in the observable universe.
What is 100-200 billion?
A Main Sequence star stays stable by balancing the inward pull of gravity against this outward force.
What is nuclear fusion?
This is the primary reason why icy and gaseous materials are found in the outer zone rather than near the Sun.
Why is it's too hot for those materials to survive in the inner zone?
This is the key difference between a Planet and a Dwarf Planet.
What is clearing the orbital path? (Dwarf planets have not cleared theirs)
True or False: Dark Matter can be seen using advanced infrared telescopes.
False. (it cannot be seen or touched; we only know it's there by its gravity)
This ingredient makes up 68% of our universe and acts by pushing the universe apart.
What is Dark Energy?
This single characteristic of a star determines if it will end its life as a White Dwarf, Neutron Star, or Black Hole.
What is its original mass?
The Solar System did NOT form at the same times as this 13.8 billion year old event.
What is the Big Bang?
These planets are located in the hot center of the solar system due to their rocky composition.
What are the Terrestrial (or inner) planets?
True or False: The Sun is currently in the Main Sequence phase of its life.
True
Making up 27% of the universe, this invisible ingredient provides the gravity that pulls galaxies together.
What is Dark Matter?
These are the two outermost atmospheric layers of the Sun, located above the Photosphere.
What are the Chromosphere and the Corona?
This is the process where rocky material clumps together to form the seeds of planets.
What is Accretion (or forming planetesimals)?
These massive planets formed in the outer zone where it was cool enough for gases to accumulate.
What are the Gas Giants?
True or False: The universe is approximately 10 trillion galaxies large.
False (it is estimated at 100-200 billion)
While they make up everything we see, these normal ingredients account for only 5% of the universe.
What is Normal Matter (or atoms)?
This is the internal region of the Sun where energy moves outward through radiation before reaching the convection zone.
What is the Radiative Zone?
This force, which clears out primordial gas, helped finish the construction of the solar system.
What is Solar Wind?
This specific classification requirement is what downgraded Pluto to a Dwarf Planet status in 2006.
What is failure to clear its orbital neighborhood?
True or False: Gravity is the force that pushes the universe apart.
False (Dark Energy pushes apart; Gravity pulls together)