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Sky Science Flashcards

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1
Q

What is altitude?

A

The distance between a heavenly body and the horizon as measured in degrees.

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2
Q

What is annual motion?

A

The Earth’s orbital motion around the sun every year.

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3
Q

What is Aphelion?

A

The point in the Earth’s orbit where the Earth is the farthest away from the sun.

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4
Q

What is an asteroid?

A

A rocky object, found in space orbiting the sun(about 3000 asteroids have been discovered).

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5
Q

What is an asteroid belt?

A

The area between the inner and the outer planets that is filled with asteroids.

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6
Q

What is Asterism?

A

Stars that form patterns but are generally smaller than or part of a constellation(ex. The Big Dipper is a asterism and forms part of Ursa Major).

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7
Q

What is a Astronomer?

A

Someone who studies the stars, planets, and other objects in space.

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8
Q

What is astronomy?

A

The study of the universe and all the bodies that appear in the skies.

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9
Q

What is an Atmosphere?

A

A layer of air between the Earth and outer space.

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10
Q

What is an axis?

A

An imaginary line on which all the planets, including Earth, spin.

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11
Q

What are binary stars?

A

When two relatively close stars revolve around each other, often appearing as single stars because they are so far away.

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12
Q

What is a black hole?

A

An intense gravitational field created when a star runs out of fuel and collapses. Nothing not even light can escape its pull.

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13
Q

What is a blue moon?

A

The second full moon in the same calendar month.

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14
Q

What does it mean to calibrate?

A

To determine, check or adjust a scale of any measuring instrument.

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15
Q

What is a celestial equator?

A

An imaginary line in the sky directly above the earth’s equator.

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16
Q

What is a celestial hemisphere?

A

The heavens surrounding the Earth, split into two parts directly above the earths equator, can be identified as the northern and southern celestial hemispheres.

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17
Q

What is a celestial sphere?

A

The heavens surrounding the earth.

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18
Q

What is a comet?

A

A large ball of ice, dust, rock and gas the orbits the Sun, circling the dark edges of the solar system.

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19
Q

What are constellations?

A

Bright stars grouped according to the patterns they make in the sky(such as Orion and Ursa Major). There are 88 constellations that cover the sky;many of their names coming from characters in ancient mythology.

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20
Q

Who is Copernicus, Nicolaus(1493-1543)?

A

A polish scientist who was the first to re-introduce the idea originally stated by some radical Greek philosopher 2000 years earlier, that the sun is in the center of the universe.

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21
Q

What is a crater?

A

A hole created on the surface of an object or body, made by falling meteorites or by erupting volcanoes.

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22
Q

What is a crescent moon?

A

A moon phase when the moon is less the half lit.

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23
Q

What is an ecliptic?

A

The apparent great-circle annual path of the Sun, as seen from the Earth. It is called the ecliptic because eclipses occur only when is on or near this path.

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24
Q

What is the equator?

A

An imaginary circle around the center of the Earth,

perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

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25
Q

What is a Equinox?

A

During the Sun’s annual path in the sky it crosses the celestial equator at two points- the equinox points on these two days on or around March 21st, September 23rd or every year the day is divided between 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness.

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26
Q

What does it mean to “emit”?

A

When something makes its own light like the sun.

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27
Q

What is a Galaxy?

A

A galaxy is a cluster of stars and planets which often has a large star called a sun in the middle. Our galaxy is the Milky Way.

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28
Q

What is a Gibbous moon?

A

A phase in the moons cycle when more than half of the moon but not the entire face of the moon is illuminated

29
Q

What is Gravity?

A

A force that attracts and holds the universe together. It give objects weight.

30
Q

What is a hemisphere?

A

Either the north or south half of the Earth is divided by the equator or the east and west half divided by the prime meridian.

31
Q

What are inner planets?

A

The four hard, rocky planets-Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars- closest to the sun. they are also called terrestrial planets.

32
Q

What is latitude?

A

The distance of a point on the earths surface north or south of the equator, measured in degrees. Ex. Edmonton’s latitude is 53.5 degrees north.

33
Q

What is a light year?

A

The distance light travels in a year. This unit is used to measure a distance in space. One light year is about 9.5 trillion km.

34
Q

What is longitude?

A

The distance of a point on the Earths surface measured parallel to the equator west 0 degrees Greenwich Meridian.

35
Q

What is a lunar eclipse?

A

This occurs when the Earth moves between the sun and the moon, blocking the suns rays.

36
Q

What is a lunar month?

A

The time it takes the moon to go around the Earth. (27 1/3 days).

37
Q

What is luster?

A

A sheen or shine

38
Q

What is magnitude?

A

A scale used to measure the brightness of stars and other objects in the sky.

39
Q

What is a meteor?

A

A piece of rock orbiting the Earth or one of the other celestial bodies.

40
Q

What is meteorite?

A

A large meteor the has fallen to the surface of the Earth.

41
Q

What is the Midnight Sun?

A

the sun when seen at midnight during the summer in either the Arctic or Antarctic Circle.

42
Q

What is a moon?

A

The name of the satellite that orbits the earth.

43
Q

What are moon phases.

A

The eight moon phases our new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent.

44
Q

What is an orbit?

A

The path of a planet or other heavenly body as it revolves around another body in space. The planets orbit the sun or a space shuttle orbits the earth. Period

45
Q

What are outer planets?

A

The four Giants, gaseous planets-Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune that orbit the sun.

46
Q

What is perihelion?

A

The points in the earths orbit where it is closest to the sun.

47
Q

What are planets?

A

Large bodies that can only be seen by reflected light, as they revolve around the sun. The word planet comes from the Greek word wanderer.

48
Q

What is a pole star?

A

A bright star, also known as north star or Polaris, that appears in the sky in the northern hemisphere.A useful benchmark as it always stays in the same position in the northern sky.

49
Q

What is reflect?

A

When something [heat or light] is redirected back into space.

50
Q

What is revolution?

A

The motion of a planet along its orbit around the sun. For example, the earth takes one year to revolve around the sun. This creates our seasons.

51
Q

What is rotation?

A

The motion of a planet, Satellite, or the sun around its north-south axis. It takes 24 hours for the earth rotate once on its axis. This creates day and night.

52
Q

What is a satellite?

A

And object that orbits another object. There are natural satellites [planet, moon, or stars] and man-made satellites [international space station].

53
Q

What are seasons?

A

Seasons are weather changes because of the way the earth is tilted either towards the sun or away from it.

54
Q

What is a solar eclipse?

A

This occurs when the moon moves between the earth and the sun, casting shadow over Earth.

55
Q

What is solar noon?

A

When the sun reaches its highest point in the sky.

56
Q

What is a solar system?

A

The sun and all the bodies planets, satellites, astroids, comments, etc. That orbit around it.

57
Q

What is a solstice?

A

When the sun reaches its highest or lowest point in the sky, also known as the first day of winter [December 21st] or summer [June 21]. In the southern hemisphere the dates are reversed.

58
Q

What is a star?

A

It gigantic bowl of gas that produces its own energy through nuclear fusion fusion, releasing it as light and heat. The light from the burning creates light in space. The sun is it giant star.

59
Q

What is stellar astronomy?

A

The study of stars.

60
Q

What is sublimate?

A

To turn directly from a solid to a gas.

61
Q

What is a sundial?

A

A device that uses shadow to tell time.

62
Q

What is texture?

A

The surface look or feeling of something.

63
Q

What is the universe?

A

Everything that exists, the earth, the sun, the moon, satellites, stars, astroids, all of the galaxies, and the space in between them.

64
Q

What is a waning moon?

A

When the moon gross smaller or becomes less illuminated when passing from full to new moon.

65
Q

What is a waxing moon?

A

When the moon grows bigger or becomes more illuminated one passing from new to full moon.

66
Q

What is a year and how long is it?

A

The time it takes for a planet to go all the way around the sun. On earth, or year is 365.25 days. One year on Uranus is 84 earth years.

67
Q

What is a Sun?

A

A large star, that the earth orbits, which gives off heat and light.

68
Q

What are the layers of the sun?

A

The core, the radiation layer, the convention layer, and the photosphere layer.

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