2Y: Earth & Space Flashcards
What is Astronomy?
Astronomy is the study of the sun, moon, stars, planets and other non-Earthly bodies and phenomena.
What is a Galaxy?
A galaxy is a huge collection of billions of stars and their solar systems.
What Galaxy do we live in?
The Milky Way
What is a Nebulae?
A giant cloud of dust and gas in space.
What is a star?
A star is a luminous ball of gas held together by its own gravity.
What are the 4 stages of a star?
- Stage 1: Huge amounts of gas and dust from a nebulae contract under its own gravity.
- Stage 2: In the stable stage, nuclear fusion combines the nuclei of hydrogen atoms to form helium and produce a large amounf of heat.
- Stage 3: A red giant is formed when the outer helium starts to burn and the star expands.
- Stage 4: A white dwarf is formed when all the helium has been used and the star shrinks. Some stars explode when dying out, producing a large amount of light in a super nova.
What are the 8 planets in the solar system?
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles.
What are the 3 conditions of a planet?
- It orbits the Sun.
- it is rounded because of it’s own gravity.
- It clears it’s own path of orbit around the Sun.
What is a terrestial planet?
Rocky & close to the Sun.
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
What is a Jovian planet?
Composed of gas or frozen compounds.
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
What is a planetoid?
Planetoid is a dwarf planet e.g. Pluto. Pluto has not cleared its own orbit.
What is a comet?
Comets are large structures of frozen gas, rocks and dust that orbit the sun.
When near the sun, a ‘tail’ of gas and dust particles appear pointing away from the sun.
Where are comets formed?
Many comets are formed in the OOrt Cloud and Kulper Belts, two of the outermost regions of the solar system.
What is Halleys comet?
Halley’s Comet is a periodic comet visible from Earth every 75–76 years. Halley last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.
What is an asteroid?
Asteroids are rocky structures that orbit the sun. Large numbers of these, are found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,
What is the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt?
The largest asteroid is called Ceres. It is 950km in diameter and about one-quarter the size of the moon.
What is a meteoroid?
Little chunks of rocks in space are called meteroids. They become meteors or shooting stars if they enter the earth’s atmosphere.
How far away is the moon?
The earths moon is approx 400,000km from the earth (30 times the earths diameter).
Review the Lifecycle of a Star
