Prelim 3 study

Question 1

Order of suns layers from core-outside

Answer 1

Core, radiative zone, convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere, transition zone, corona

Question 2

Suns magnetic fields

Answer 2

created by the rotation of the sun

Question 3

Sunspots

Answer 3

where magnetic fields leave or enter the sun

Question 4

Plage

Answer 4

bright regions in the chromosphere because magnetic field is under it rising up and compressing it making it hotter

Question 5

Flares and coronal mass ejections

Answer 5

temperature that flures out is 5,000,000K, reasons we see arora borealis

Question 6

Filaments/Prominences

Answer 6

long hot thread in suns corona that are 40,000 miles long and 50,000 degrees K. Prominences are filaments seen from the side

Question 7

Energy formation in sun

Answer 7

in sun pressure is so high protons get forced together, this makes one proton turn into a neutron and the other one turn into an electron with a positive charge, “positron”. Sun has enough energy to last another billion years

Question 8

Parallax method

Answer 8

Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines.

Question 9

Apparent magnitude

Answer 9

object brightness that is seen from an observer at a specific location. Shorter the brightness the brighter the apparent magnitude

Question 10

Absolute magnitude

Answer 10

measure of the luminosity of a celestial object, on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale

Question 11

Luminosity

Answer 11

absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time

Question 12

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Answer 12

graph with surface temperature on the X axis and and luminosity compared to the sun on the Y axis.

Question 13

Main sequence stars

Answer 13

most common

Question 14

White Dwarfs

Answer 14

second most common (dead stars that are no longer creating energy)

Question 15

Giant stars

Answer 15

3 most common, second rarest

Question 16

Supergiant stars

Answer 16

rarest, luminosity class donated 1a, 1b etc.

Question 17

Stellar mass range

Answer 17

Sirius is twice as massive as the sun therefore denoted as 2.02 Mo

Question 18

Optical doubles

Answer 18

stars that aren’t binary stars because they do not orbit each other, but appear close together from Earth.

Question 19

Visual binaries

Answer 19

two stars in orbit around each other

Question 20

Spectroscopic binaries

Answer 20

when there is evidence of orbital motion of the stars due to the Doppler effect. Redshift moving away, blueshift moving towards

Question 21

Eclipsing binaries

Answer 21

when the binary stars are so close to the observer they both undergo mutual eclipses

Question 22

Extrasolar planet

Answer 22

planet that exists outside our solar system

Question 23

Bok Globules

Answer 23

isolated and relatively small dark nebulae, containing dense cosmic dust and gas from which star formation may take place

Question 24

Jeans’ instability

Answer 24

occurs when the internal gas pressure is not strong enough to prevent gravitational collapse of a region filled with matter

Question 25

Protostellar evolution

Answer 25

simulates the evolution of stellar stellar radius and luminosity from the bound core stage through to the core hydrogen ignition as a zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) star and beyond

Question 26

Mass ranges that evolve differently

Answer 26

Like low-mass stars, high-mass stars are born in nebulae and evolve and live in the Main Sequence. However, their life cycles start to differ after the red giant phase. A massive star will undergo a supernova explosion. If the remnant of the explosion is 1.4 to about 3 times as massive as our Sun, it will become a neutron star.

Question 27

Planetary Nebula

Answer 27

A planetary nebula is created when a star blows off its outer layers after it has run out of fuel to burn. These outer layers of gas expand into space, forming a nebula which is often the shape of a ring or bubble

Question 28

White dwarfs

Answer 28

A white dwarf is formed when a low-mass star has exhausted all its central nuclear fuel and lost its outer layers as a planetary nebula.

Question 29

Novas

Answer 29

a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star, that slowly fades over several weeks or many months

Question 30

Supergiant stars

Answer 30

can have masses from 10 to 70 times greater than our Sun, and when it comes to brightness, some of them can be from 30,000 times or brighter

Question 31

Supernovas

Answer 31

when a star explodes

Question 32

cosmic rays

Answer 32

high-energy protons and atomic nuclei that move through space at nearly the speed of light

Question 33

Supernova remnant

Answer 33

structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar material it sweeps up and shocks along the way.

Question 34

Neutron stars

Answer 34

the collapsed core of a giant star which before collapse had a total mass of between 10 and 29 solar masses

Question 35

Pulsar Neutron star connection

Answer 35

Pulsars are beams of energy that emit from the poles of neutron stars

Question 36

General relativity

Answer 36

space is warped, photons don't travel in a straight line. In the presence of matter, time slows down