Vocab
What is Nebula
a large cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space
What is nebula
a star begins as a
What is main sequence stage?
the second and longest stage in the life of a star
a cloud of gas that forms around a sunlike star that is dying
What is planetary nebula
Massive stars become __________ as part of their life cycles
What is supernova
What is a giant?
a super large and bright star whose hot core has used most of its hydrogen
What is Newton's law of universal gravitation
"all objects in the universe attract each other with a force that increases as the mass of any object increases or as the distance between the objects decreases"
What is 10 billion years?
a star that has the same mass as the sun's mass stays on the main sequence for how long?
these stars shine for billions of years before they cool completely
What is white dwarfs
After a star explodes as a supernova, the core may contract into a very small but incredibly dense ball of neutrons called a ____________ star.
What is neutron?
What is a white dwarf?
a small petite, hot dim star that is the leftover center of an old sun like star
a flattened disk that has a central concentration of matter
The location on the H-R diagram where most stars lie; a diagonal pattern from the lower right to the upper left
What is main sequence
this is the final stage in the life cycle of many stars
What is white dwarf
a rapidly spinning neutron star that emits bursts of radio and optical energy is a
What is pulsar
What is black hole
an object so massive and dense that even light cannot escape its gravity
What is nuclear fusion?
a process that occurs when extremely high temperature and pressure cause less massive atomic nuclei to combine to form more massive nuclei and in the process release enormous amounts of energy.
An example of a main sequence star in our solar system
What is sun
a star that has such a tremendous explosion that it blows itself apart
What is supernova
Astronomers locate black holes by detecting ____________.
What is x-rays
What is nova
a star that suddenly becomes brighter
What is stellar equilibrium?
What is stellar equilibrium?
What two things are plotted on the H-R diagram?
What is temperature and luminosity/absolute magnitude
this explosion causes stars to become many thousands of times brighter than it normally is
What is nova?
The reason black holes are difficult to locate
WHat is light