General Astronomy Quiz 10 Flashcards
What is the diameter of the Sun?
1.4 million km, over 100 times wider than Earth
What is the Sun’s volume compared to Earth’s?
1 million times more volume, over 1 million Earth’s could fit in the Sun
Who was the first woman to discover the Sun is 3/4 H and 1/4 He?
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
The Sun’s ___ is 20% of interior
Core
What is the source of the Sun’s energy?
Core
What brings energy to the Sun’s “surface”?
-Radioactive zone
-Convection zone
Is the Sun fully ionized?
Yes
The Sun is not a gas, but a ___
Plasma
What are the outer layers of the Sun?
-Photosphere
-Chromosphere
-Corona
What is the photosphere?
The visible, luminous surface layer of the Sun
-Seen in visible light
What is the chromosphere?
A thin layer of plasma that lies between the photosphere and corona
-Seen in near ultraviolet light
What is the corona?
The outermost, hottest layer of the atmosphere
-Hot ionized gas (over a million degrees)
-Seen in extreme ultraviolet and X-rays
What are sunspots?
Cooler, darker regions on the surface caused by magnetic activity
What are spicules?
Plasma that erupts from the chromosphere, small and reddish
What are active regions?
Bright locations in the corona that tend to line up with observable sunspots in the photosphere
What are coronal holes?
Places in the solar corona where ultraviolet images look dark
What would you see if you zoomed in on the photosphere?
Granulation
What is granulation?
It is formed by convection cells that bring energy out of the Sun’s interior
What part of the Sun is discussed when we give blackbody temperature?
Photosphere
What do we see from the Sun during a solar eclipse?
-Pink/red chromosphere
-Extended corona
What happens when we get farther from the core?
The temperature drops and it increases in the transition region between the chromosphere and corona
Where do we find the corona?
Active regions
Who observed sunspots?
Galileo
What did Galileo find?
The Sun rotates, but not as one solid object
What is differential rotation?
The equator rotates faster than near the poles which causes the magnetic field to “wrap up”
What happens to magnetic field lines after 11 years of “wrapping up”?
The magnetic field snaps and resets
Where there are many sunspots, the __ is more active
Sun
What are flares?
High-energy photons (often X-
rays) emitted by the active region
What are coronal mass ejections?
A large amount of physical material (plasma) is released/ejected from the corona
What causes solar wind?
Coronal holes
What is space weather?
Events that can affect the Earth that are caused by the Sun’s activity
What causes space weather?
-Coronal mass ejections
-Solar flares
-Solar wind
