Space Terminology

Question 1

What is a summer solstice?

Answer 1

The longest period of daylight, in a single day. In the northern hemisphere, it is June 21st.

Question 2

What is a winter solstice?

Answer 2

The shortest period of daylight, in a single day. In the northern hemisphere, it is December 21st.

Question 3

What is an equinox?

Answer 3

Two days every year in which the amount of sunlight is the exact same as the amount of darkness.

Question 4

What is geocentric?

Answer 4

The original theory created by Aristotle, in which the sun and other planets revolve around the earth.

Question 5

What is heliocentric?

Answer 5

A theory created by Copernicus which says that all of the planets, including the earth revolve around the sun.

Question 6

What did Kepler discover?

Answer 6

Ellipses

Question 7

What is an Astronomical Unit?

Answer 7

an AU represents the distance between the earth and the sun. Roughly 150 000 000 km

Question 8

What is a Light Year?

Answer 8

The distance that light travels in 1 Year. about 9.5 trillion kilometers traveling at 300 000km/s.

Question 9

What is a Nebulae?

Answer 9

Compilation of gas and dust, birthplace of a star)

75% H, 23% He and 2% O2

Question 10

What is a Protostar?

Answer 10

A protostar is a stage in the lifetime of a star after the nebulae. As more dust and gas is sucked in, the temperature increases and it will begin to glow

Question 11

What is the main sequence?

Answer 11

The middle of the H-R diagram in which 90% of stars, including our sun are

Question 12

What is a Red/ Super Red Giant?

Answer 12

A star which is Medium/ low temperature and very bright

Question 13

What is a white dwarf?

Answer 13

The stage after a super red giant. This is when the star runs out of fuel, specifically Hydrogen and Helium. Then it either becomes a black hole or a neutron star.

Question 14

How are neutron stars/ black holes formed?

Answer 14

 When there is a lack of fuels to burn meaning lower reactions, the gravity gets the upper hand imploding then exploding the star sending out a sudden shock wave. If not entirely destroyed by the explosion a neutron star will be formed. A black hole might also be formed if the gravity is so strong, light can’t even escape it.

Question 15

What is a constellation?

Answer 15

a group of stars that make a pattern in the sky

Question 16

What is an asterism?

Answer 16

Unofficial star grouping

Question 17

What is a galaxy?

Answer 17

grouping of millions of stars, gases and dust held together by gravity

Question 18

What is an Asteroid?

Answer 18

Small rocky or metallic body travelling in space ranging in size

Question 19

What is a comet?

Answer 19

described as dirty snowballs because they are made up of snow and nice the travel through space

Question 20

What is a meteoroid?

Answer 20

Small pieces of rick flying through space with no path

Question 21

What are meteors?

Answer 21

A meteoroid pulled in by earths gravity, but destroyed in the atmosphere

Question 22

What is a meteorite?

Answer 22

A meteoroid that enters earths atmosphere and hits the earth

Question 23

What is azimuth?

Answer 23

The direction of something using the degrees on a compass

Question 24

What is altitude?

Answer 24

the measurement of how high something is in the sky

Question 25

What is a zenith?

Answer 25

the highest point over head

Question 26

What is gravity?

Answer 26

Force of attraction between mases

Question 27

what is microgravity?

Answer 27

when the force of gravity is greatly reduced in space

Question 28

What are satellites?

Answer 28

An object that orbits a mass

Question 29

What is an example of a natural satellite?

Answer 29

moon

Question 30

What is an example of a artificial satellite?

Answer 30

ISS

Question 31

What is GPS?

Answer 31

Global positioning service, uses satellites to tell you your location on the planet.

Question 32

What is a propulsion system?

Answer 32

Where fuel is consumed and turned into the force of thrust, giving the rocket a way to move

Question 33

What is an ion drive?

Answer 33

 Instead of the normal types of fuel used, Ion Drives use xenon gas. The gas is charged and accelerated and released as exhaust. It is a lot weaker but lasts a very long time, and in space that force applied over a very long amount of time will make a large amount of speed.

Question 34

What are solar sails?

Answer 34

uses sunlight and electromagnetic energy to create energy. They are not being used yet.

Question 35

What is a refracting telescope?

Answer 35

A type of telescope that uses two lenses to gather and focus light

Question 36

What is a reflecting telescope/

Answer 36

A type of telescope which uses mirrors to gather and focus light

Question 37

What is electromagnetic energy?

Answer 37

Radiated energy that travels at the speed of light, but have difference wavelengths and frequencies

Question 38

What is the electromagnetic spectrum?

Answer 38

The complete range of wave lengths over which electromagnetic energy extends

Question 39

What is a radio telescope?

Answer 39

A telescope that collects radiation in the radio frequency from stars, planets, satellites, meteors and asteroids

Question 40

What is a space probe?

Answer 40

 Unmanned satellites or remote-controlled “landers” used to explore areas or objects in space that are too difficult or dangerous to send humans to

Question 41

What is triangulation?

Answer 41

 A method of indirectly measuring distance by creating an imaginary triangle between an observer and an object whose distance away is to be estimated

Question 42

What is a parallax?

Answer 42

 The apparent shift in position if a nearby object against a distant background when the object is viewed from two different positions

Question 43

What is a spectroscope?

Answer 43

An instrument used to measure the spectrum of a star

Question 44

What is the Doppler effect?

Answer 44

 The apparent change in frequency of sound, light and other waves as the observer and the wave source move towards or away from each other; also referred to as “Doppler shift”

Question 45

What is space junk?

Answer 45

 All pieces of debris that have fallen off rockets, satellites, space shuttles and space stations