The Sun
Solar Activity
Stars & Measurements
Constellations & Space
Stellar Evolution
100

Question: What object contains approximately 99 percent of the mass in our solar system?


Answer: The Sun.

100

Question: Why do sunspots appear darker than the surrounding areas of the Sun?


Answer: They are cooler than their surroundings.

100

Question: What type of star system consists of two stars moving around a common center of mass?


Answer: A binary star system.

100

Question: What are groups of stars named after animals, mythological characters, or everyday objects called?


Answer: Constellations.

100

Question: What is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust from which a star can form called?


Answer: A nebula.

200

Question: What is the name of the Sun's visible surface?


Answer: The photosphere.

200

Question: What are violent eruptions of particles and radiation from the Sun called?


Answer: Solar flares.

200

Question: What is the term for the ancient Greek classification system based on how bright a star appears?


Answer: Apparent magnitude.

200

Question: Ursa Major contains which familiar group of stars?


Answer: The Big Dipper.

200

Question: What happens to a nebula as it contracts during star formation?


Answer: Its rotation causes it to flatten into a disk, with a hot, condensed object forming at the center.

300

Question: What is the name of the stream of charged particles that flows outward through the solar system from the Sun's corona?


Answer: The solar wind.

300

Question: What are areas of low density in the corona from which particles escape called?


Answer: sun spots

300

Question: What is the term for a star's energy output per second?


Answer: Luminosity.

300

Question: What type of constellation is Ursa Major?


Answer: A circumpolar constellation.

300

Question: What is the hot, condensed object at the center of a contracting nebula that will become a new star called?


Answer: A protostar.

400

Question:Due to the Sun's extremely high temperature what is the composition of the interior?

Gas

400

Question: What is an arc of gas ejected from the photosphere called?


Answer: A prominence.

400

Question: What is the name of the unit used to express energy emitted per second?


Answer: The watt.

400

Question: What is the apparent shift in a nearby star's position when observed from Earth called?


Answer: Parallax.

400

Question: As a star ages, what causes its internal composition to change?


Answer: Rising temperature.

500

Question: What are the three main layers of the Sun's interior, listed from the center outward?

Answer: The core, radiation zone, and convection zone.

500

Question: What is the Sun's activity cycle associated with, according to the review material?


Answer: The peak number of sunspots.

500

Question: What is the brightness an object would have if it were placed 10 parsecs away?

absolute magnitude

500

Question: According to the H-R diagram, which type of stars are the most common?


Answer: Main-sequence stars.

500

Question: According to the review, what can a star that begins with more than about 20 times the Sun's mass eventually become?


Answer: A black hole.