Telescopes
This is a device that makes distant objects appear to be closer
What is a telescope?
These are imaginary patterns of stars that look like pictures of people or animals
What are constellations?
All stars begin the lives as parts of . . .
What are nebulas?
Most stars are members of groups of two or more stars, called . . .
What are star systems?
What is 10,000,000 in scientific notation?
107
This is the distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of the next wave (on the electromagnetic spectrum)
What is wavelength?
These are the five characteristics used to classify stars
What are color, temperature, size, composition, and brightness?
A contracting cloud of gas and dust with enough mass to form a star is called a . . .
What is a protostar?
A system in which one star periodically blocks the light from another is called a(an) _________
Not all galaxies have spiral arms. ______ galaxies look like round or flattened balls.
What are elliptical galaxies?
These are devices used to detect radio waves from objects in space
What are radio telescopes?
Most large telescopes are equipped with spectrographs for this reason.
To determine the chemical composition of stars
How long a star lives depends on its . . .
This type of star cluster has a loose, disorganized appearance and contains no more than a few thousand stars
What is an open cluster?
Star systems that have two stars are called double stars or . . .
What are binary stars?
These are the six regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
Radio waves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays
The brightness of a star depends on these two factors
What are size and temperature?
The blue-white core of a star that is left behind cools and becomes a . . .
What is a white dwarf?
This type of galaxy is typically smaller than other types of galaxies. They generally have many bright, young stars and lots of gas and dust to form new stars.
What are irregular galaxies?
Distant, enormously bright, active young galaxies are called . . .
What are quasars?
These are the two reasons why most observatories are located on mountaintops or in space
1. Atmospheric interference is mitigated
2. Light pollution is mitigated
This is the apparent change in position of an object when you look at it from different places.
What is parallax?
Spinning neutron stars are called . . .
What are pulsars?
This is all of space and everything in it
What is the universe?
This is the reason a star appears to move in the night sky throughout the year
The apparent movement of a star when seen from a different position is called parallax
This is the reason it would not make sense to locate an X-ray or gamma ray telescope on Earth's surface
Because X-rays and gamma rays are completely blocked by Earth's atmosphere
Astronomers classify stars based on absolute brightness and surface temperature using the . . .
What is the H-R diagram?
The most massive stars, those having more than 40 times the mass of the sun, may become ______ when they die
What are black holes?
The Milky Way is usually thought of as a standard spiral galaxy. However, recent evidence suggests that the Milky Way is a ______ spiral galaxy instead
What is a barred-spiral galaxy?
The largest galaxies have more than a ______ stars
What is a trillion?