Chapter 16 Study Guide Flashcards
energy that can travel through space in the form of waves
electromagnetic radiation
all colors that you can see
visible light
the distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of the next wave
wavelength
a range of different colors with different wave lengths
spectrum
a telescope that used lenses or mirrors to collect and focus visible light
optical telescope
a telescope that used convex lenses to gather and focus light
refracting telescope
a piece of transparent glass, curved so that the middle is thicker than the edges
convex lens
a telescope that uses a curved mirror to collect and focus light
reflecting telescope
devices to detect radio waves from objects in space
radio telescope
a building that contains one or more telescopes
observatory
imaginary patterns of stars
constellation
a device that breaks light into colors and produces an image of the resulting spectrum
spectograph
a star’s brightness as seen from Earth
apparent brightness
the brightness a star would have if it were at a standard distance from Earth
absolute brightness
the distance that light travels in one year
light-year
the apparent change in position of an object when you look at it from different places
parallax
a diagram used to classify stars and to understand how they change over time
Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram
the diagonal area of the HR diagram
main sequence
a large cloud of dust and gas spread out in an immense volume
nebula
a contracting cloud of dust gas with enough mass to form a star
protostar
a glowing cloud of gas
planetary nebula
the core of an original star after it is cooled
white dwarf
the explosion of a star
supernova
the reamins of a high-mass star
neutron star
spinning neutron stars
pulsar
an object with gravity so strong that nothing can escape not even light
black hole
star systems that have two stars
binary star
a system in which one star periodically blocks the light from another
eclipsing binary
loose disorganized appearance many super giants and lots of gas and dust
open cluster
large groupings older stars round and densely packed
globular cluster
a huge group of star systems star clusters and gas held together by gravity
galaxy
very distant very bright objects
quasar
bulging middle with spiraling arms
spiral galaxy
large round ovals
elliptical galaxy
have no regular shapes
irregular galaxy
all of space and everything in it
universe
uses powers of ten to write very large or very small numbers
scientific notation
the initial explosion that resulted in the formation and explosion of the universe
big bang
the further away a galaxy is the faster it is moving away from us
Hubble’s law
leftover thermal energy from the big bang
cosmic background radiation
large cloud of gas and dust that forms a solar system
solar nebula
small asteroid-like bodies that form planets
planetesimal
matter that does not give off electromagnetic energy
dark matter
mysterious force causing the expansion of the universe to alternate
dark energy
