SPACE Flashcards
life cycle of a small star
nebula contracts under its own gravity
the clouds merge together, they become more and more concentrated to form a protostar
as the protostar gets denser, it gets hotter and more particles start to collide with eachother, when it becomes hot enough, nuclei hydrogen nuclei undergo nuclear fusion to form helium nuclei
energy is released in this fusion so the core gets hotter and brighter and starts to shine
hydrogen runs out the star swells and a red giant forms, heavier elements up to iron are formed in the core of the star
it then becomes unstable and ejects its outer layer of dust and gas, this forms a white dwarf
as a white dwarf cools down it emits less energy. when it no longer emits a significant amount of energy it is called a black dwarf
life cycle of a large star
nebula contracts under its own gravity
the clouds merge together, they become more and more concentrated to form a protostar
as the protostar gets denser, it gets hotter and more particles start to collide with eachother, when it becomes hot enough, nuclei hydrogen nuclei undergo nuclear fusion to form helium nuclei
energy is released in this fusion so the core gets hotter and brighter and starts to shine
hydrogen runs out and it swells to become a red super giant
they start glowing brightly again as they undergo more fusion and expand and contract several times forming elements as heavy as iron in various nuclear reactions
eventually they’ll explode in a supernova forming elements heavier than iron and ejecting them into the universe to form new planets and stars
the supernova throws the outer layers of dust and gas into space leaving a neutron star
if the star is big enough it will become a black hole
describe the life cycle of a star much larger than our sun from its main sequence onwards
when the star runs out of hydrogen to fuse it will expand and cool becoming a red super giant
it begins to glow brightly again and expands and contracts several times until it explodes in a supernova
the supernova throws dust and gas into space and leaves behind a very dense core called a neutron star
this will become a black hole if its massive enough
what does the solar system consist of
planets
dwarf planets
moons
artificial satellites
what do dwarf planets and planets orbit
stars
what do moons orbit
planets
what are moons
natural satellites
what do artificial satellites orbit
the earth
the closer you get to a star or planet the……….
stronger the gravitational force is
the stronger the forces……
the faster the orbiting object needs to travel to remain in orbit
if the distance between the moon and the earth was smaller how would the orbital speed of the moon compare to its current orbital speed
its orbital speed would be faster. the force due to gravity increases the closer you get to the earths surface. so if the radius of the moons orbit was smaller a larger centripetal force would be acting on it
so to remain in orbit the moons instantaneous velocity would need to be larger
the size of the orbit depends on…..
the objects speed
what is the doppler effect
the apparent change in the frequency of a wave caused by relative motion between the source of the wave and the observer
observations from distant galaxies
light from the galaxies is red shifted
the further the galaxy is the greater the degree of red shift
the further away a galaxy….
the greater the red shift
