Stars
What is a star?
A bright, shining sphere of plasma. (Hydrogen and Helium are the elements of stars and their fuel).
What type of star is our Sun?
Main sequence star.
How old is the Universe?
what is about 13 to 14 billion years old?
Name the main character in The Big Bang Theory series.
Sheldon Cooper
Who was locked up under house arrest for his astronomical ideas?
Galileo Galilei
Why are stars round?
Because their mass is so great and gravity causes it to be spherical.
Name the two gases that are burning in the Sun:
Hydrogen and helium
Name the four structures in the Universe.
Galaxies, planetary systems, stars and planets
Name the two first elements created in the Universe.
Hydrogen and helium
Which large Planet is now (January 13-20) clearly visible from Tuktoyaktuk after 5:00 PM over the Pingos (to the WNW)?
What is Jupiter?
Stars are categorized according to their:
1. Colour/temperature
2. Size
3. Luminosity (brightness)
Name the planets, in order, from the Sun.
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Define the term 'light-year', and its distance in kilometres.
A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. It is 9.65 trillion kilometres.
What is the name of the newest Deep Space Telescope launched in 2021 that allows humans to see farther into the universe than ever before?
What is the James Webb Space Telescope
Most of the Universe is made up of these two things:
Dark matter and dark energy
Name the four types of stars:
1. Main sequence
2. Red Giant
3. Supergiant
4. White Dwarf
When will our star, the Sun (Sol) run out of fuel?
What is about 4.5 billion years from now?
How big is the diameter of the Milky Way (in light years)?
100 light years wide.
How long did the Universe to inflate from atom-size to bigger than a galaxy?
What is Less than One second!
What does the acronym A.U. stand for and what IS it?
What is an Astronomical Unit (AU)? And what is the distance from the centre of our Earth to the centre of our Sun?
How long does it take for sunlight to reach our eyes?
What is about 8.5 minutes? (at the speed of light!)
How did our Sun form?
A molecular cloud spun around, hydrogen clumped together at its centre. The ball of H became bigger, gravity increased and the ball of gas collapsed to form the Sun.
How many galaxies do scientist believe there are in our Universe?
Almost 200 billion galaxies
Name the three major pieces of evidence that suggest the Big Bang Theory is valid:
1. Red shift of light
2. Cosmic background radiation
3. Composition of stars
Why is Pluto no longer considered to be a planet?
Because its orbit is so different from all other planets plus Pluto is NOT very large (it's a Planetoid)