Astro test 1 Flashcards
Au
astronomical unit, from the earth to the sun
celestial object
Any object that exists in space
star
A massive collection of gases, mainly hydrogen held together by its own gravity and emitting huge amount of energy
luminous
Producing and giving off light shining
planet
A large round celestial object that travels around a star, and dominates its orbit
solar system
The sun and all the objects that travel around it
satellite
A celestial object that travels around the planet/dwarf planet(natural or man made)
galaxy
A huge rotating collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars, planets, and other celestial objects. (Ours is the Milky Way)
corona
The outer layer of the solar atmosphere – the gleaming, white, halo – like corona extends millions of kilometres into space
sunspots
dark spots appearing under sun surface that are cooler than the area surrounding them (electromagnetic field)
solar flare
Gases and charged particles expelled above an active sunspot solar flare is made out of plasma and can end up knocking out all devices on earth and space if they get too big
aurora boreal is
A display of shifting colours in the northern sky caused by solar particles colliding with matter in earths upper atmosphere
dwarf planets
A celestial object that orbits the sun and has spherical shape, but does not dominate its orbit(tilted)
asteroid
Small, rocky body, typically in the asteroid belt
comet
A celestial object made a frozen ice, gas, dust that orbits the sun. When it heats up its dust and gas, forming a glowing tail, icy tail away from the sun.
meteoroids
Fragments of collisions among asteroids, comets moons and planets among the smallest space rocks that orbit the sun
meteor
Another word for shooting star, what a meteoroid becomes once it enters, earths atmosphere, heat up due to air resistance
meteorite
Rocky space fragment that does not burn up in the atmosphere and strikes the Earth
meteor shower
Mainly occur when clouds of particles left behind by comets, enter the atmosphere of a planet, such as earth
equinox
The time of year when the hours of daylight equal the hours of darkness
eclipse
A darkening of a celestial object due to the position of another celestial object
solstice
an astronomical event that occurs two times each year, June 21 and December 21. When the tilt of earth axis is the most inclined toward or away from the sun, causing the position of the sun in the sky to appear to reach its northernmost or southern most extreme.
constellation
A grouping of stars as observed from earth
moon facts
-the moon completes one rotation on its axis in about the same time it takes to complete one revolution around esrth. the result of this is that the same side of the moon faces the esrth at all times.
-mercury and venus don’t have moons
-jupiter and saturn have the most moons
characteristics of the sun
it is 4.5b years old and is estimated to have a 10b life span
-made of 91% hydrogen, 8.9% helium which is it’s “fuel”
-gravity of the sun holds the solar system tg
-the sun is a medium sized star
-it is 1 AU away from esrth
-it has a solar mass of 1
-luminosity of 1
difference between solar and lunar eclipse
a solar eclipse takes place when the moon takes a position in front of the sun, making only the corona visibke to humans, the suns rays beam towards the moon, casting a shadow on esrth. a lunar eclipse is when the earth is positioned between the sun and the moon, casting a shadow on the moon
correct order of planets
mercury, venus, earth,mars,astroid belt , jupiter. saturn, uranus, neptune
planets and their moons
saturn and juliter have the most moons, while mercury and venus have 0. esrth has 1
parts of the sun
- corona
2.chromosohefe
3.photosohere
4.convective zone
5.radiative zone
6.core - 15000000 degrees celsius
comets
comet examples: halleys comet, hale-bop comet
stonehenge
who built it and why remains a mystery
-its known that the alignment of the monument is so precise that at sunrise on summer solstice every year, the suns first rays strike a particular stone
-each rock weighs 22 tons
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planet orbits
planets have an elliptical orbit (egg shaped or oval)
constellation info
-ursa major is a bear
-the big dipper is part of the ursa major
-orion the hunter is a big one
-3 stars in orion’s belt / the canoe line up perfectly with the three pyramids in egypt
milky way
milky way is a spiral galaxy and is ours
seasons of north america
the esrth sun distance is not enough to cause the changes of the seasons, seasons change primarily because of the earths tilt. using diagram, the curvature of the earth makes the sun rays bounce off, causing winter. it’s the opposite in south america
size of moon vs sun
sun is 400x larger than moon, but also 400x away away from the moon, causing it to look roughly the same size from earth
what does our solar system consist of
8 planets, 5 official dwarf planets, the sun, hundreds of moons, thousands of comets and astroids
au can measure distances within our solar system, but we need light years for measuring outside distances