Space Physics Flashcards
Name the planets in order
- Sun
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
Name the rocky planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Which planets are the larger planets?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
What comes after Neptune?
Dwarf planets like Pluto
Name other objects in the solar system
Moons
asteroids
comets
What are moons?
Natural satellites which orbit planets,
most planets have at least 1 but some have more
What is the solar system?
small part of the Milky Way galaxy
Galaxy
massive group of stars
How do stars form?
- From clouds of dust and gas - a nebula
- Gas is mainly Hydrogen in a nebula
- Gravity causes cloud of dust and gas to collapse
- As dust particles move faster, temp rises to millions of degrees celcius
- This is called a protostar
- If temp of protostar is high enough, hydrogen nuclei join together to form helium
- This is nuclear fusion
- Protostar has turned into a star
- Nuclear fusion releasing lots of energy
- Star is in equilibrium with gravity thats acting inwards - causes star to collapse (there are 2 opposing forces) and NF which acts outwards causing star to expand
- Both forces are balanced
- At this point, it is a main-sequence star
- What happens next depends on the size of the star
What is a nebula
cloud of dust and gas which is mainly hdyrogen
What does gravity cause the stars to do?
collapse
What does nuclear fusion cause the stars to do?
expand
What is a protostar?
- Formed by a nebula experiencing gravity which causes it to collapse
- Lots of particles moving quickly which causes a very high temp
What causes a protostar to turn into a star?
- If the temp is high enough, the hydrgoen nuclei will do nuclear fusion and join together to form helium
What happens to the main sequence star if its about the same size as our Sun/ small/ medium?
- Hydrogen in star begins to run out
- This point, outward force due to fusion energy is less than inward force due to gravity
- Causes star to collapse inwards
- Temp increases due ot collapse
- Helium nuclei fuse together to create heavier elements
- This makes expands to make a red giant
- At some point, red giant stops fusing helium
- Star shrinks = white dwarf
- Since its not carrying out fusion it cools down and stops releasing energy = black dwarf