Vocabulary
One of two fixed points used to make an ellipse
What is a "focus"?
Stars that emit mostly _______ light spectrum are found on the left side of the HR Diagram
What is Blue light?
This item, though not large in size compared to many things in space, is found at the center of most galaxies and warps space and time due to its immense gravity.
What is a black hole?
True or false: There are billions of stars in our solar system
What is "False" There are billions of stars in our galaxy
Nearby stars SEEM to shift position but… they’re actually stationary & it only looks like they're moving because the observer is moving. This is called________.
What is a Parallax shift?
unit of measurement used to find distances between the Sun and planets in its orbit
What is an "Astronomical Unit"?
Our Sun falls within the broad, diagonal band on the HR Diagram that includes 90% of all stars. These stars are called ___________ stars.
What is main sequence stars?
Jupiter is ____ times larger than earth.
What is about 11 x larger
(11.19)
This happens at the end of a massive star's life when the outer layers of the star collapse in on itself and rebound off of the dense neutron core.
What is a supernova?
A large cloud of interstellar gas & dust that collapses in on itself due to its own gravity.
What is a nebula?
What is the photosphere?
This term relates to how fast a star's fuel is consumed. It is the energy output from the surface of a star.
What is "Luminosity"
In this layer of a star, energy travels via hot and cold circular currents.
What is the "Convection Zone"
A star is born when...
(answers must be specific)
What is? Fusion converts hydrogen into helium in its core
Aluminum Foil is _______ to Infrared & Ultraviolet Light. (transparent) or (translucent) or (opaque)
What is opaque?
The process of combining lightweight nuclei (Hydrogen atoms) together to release energy & Helium
What is "nuclear fusion"
The hottest & brightest stars can be found on the (upper left) or (bottom left) or (upper right) or (bottom right) of the HR Diagram.
What is the upper left?
When two stars are gravitationally bound together orbiting a common mass they're called_________. and often look like one super bright star to us
What are "Binary Stars"?
The hot, condensed object at the center of a nebula that will become a new star when nuclear fusion begins.
What is a protostar?
When describing star movement using the doppler shift: If the wavelength is shorter it is called _______ and means the star is moving _______.
What is: blueshift, towards the observer?
The brightness of an object if it were 10 parsecs from the observer
What is "Absolute magnitude"
The HR (Hertzsprung-Russell) diagram shows at least these three things about stars...
This graph shows: (must have 3)
class, mass, spectra (color wavelength of light emitted), temperature, magnitude, diameter, and luminosity of stars.
Some extremely Massive/Huge Stars become _______ as they rotate on their axes and are observed to pulse with light.
What are "pulsars"?
Examining two different stars' spectrums will reveal that... (pick one)
1. Different stars contain very different elements.
2. Stars contain mostly the same elements but in different amounts due to different temperatures.
What is answer #2. Stars contain mostly the same elements but in different amounts due to different temperatures?
At the end of a medium mass star's life, it will become a ________ and then a __________.
What is a "Red Giant" and then a "White Dwarf"?
This happens when a star is running out of hydrogen and it is characterized by the large volume, low surface temperature, and reddish color. When the star has exhausted all its nuclear fuel (hydrogen) and lost its outer layers it will be characterized by a hot temperature and white glow