studying space Flashcards
wrote in ancient Greek and can be shown to have utilized Babylonian astronomical data. … He might have been a Roman citizen,
Ptolemy
was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region that had been part of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466
Copernicus
Danish astronomer, known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical observations. He was born in the then-Danish peninsula of Scania,
Brahe, Tycho
German astronomer who discovered three major laws of planetary motion. His discoveries turned Nicolaus Copernicus’s Sun-centered system …
Kepler, Johannes
was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath, from Pisa.
Galileo
was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, and author who is widely recognised as one of the greatest …
Newton, Isaac
was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology.
Hubble, Edwin
is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means “greater she-bear,”
Ursa major
also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation in the Northern Sky.
Ursa minor
is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky.
Orion
is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. In the second century, it was included in Ptolemy’s 48 constellations, and is counted among the 88 modern constellations.
Canis major
is a constellation in the northern sky named after the vain queen Cassiopeia,
Cassiopeia
is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution.
Red giant
also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter.
White dwarf (not a caucasian little person)
is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness
Main-sequence star
is a powerful and luminous stellar explosion. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion.
Supernova
is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.
Black hole
is the apparent displacement of an object because of a change in the observer’s point of view
Parallax
the distance light travels in one year. Light zips through interstellar space at 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second and 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers) per year.
Light-year
is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star.
Polaris (the star)
