The Sun, the Solar System, and the Galaxy Flashcards
How are stars born? ;) (what are they called?)
they begin as huge clouds of dust and other particles.. are called nebulas. (can be spread out over very vast distances)
what is a protostar? how is a protostar formed?
As a nebula contracts, the particles collide with colossal (gravitational) force, igniting a nuclear reaction (crash together and ignite) and forming a protostar.
How does a protostar collapse?
Protostars convert materials into denser and denser materials, converts elements through fusion. A protostar transforms into an adult star, and as the star converts its fuel into more massive elements and compounds, it becomes denser.
Two forces working against each other, inward pull of stars own huge amount gravity, as they become denser, that gravitational force becomes more concentrated and greater. But at the same time, the star is pushing out energy from reactions, so there is a balance. As they become denser and denser, eventually the gravity overwhelms it and the star collapses.
What will stars eventually become based on its mass and other factors (5 different things)?
- Brown dwarf (and fizzle out)
- White dwarf (larger)
- Neutron Star (likely our sun will become this)
- Nova or supernova (it explodes)
- Or black hole (even light will get pulled in. No electromagnetic radiation existing in that area.
What is the Hertz-sprung-Russel diagram?
it illustrated the relationship between absolute magnitude, luminosity, classification, and effective temperature of stars. (allows us to categorize stars- is it bright because its close or because it’s large? What its temperature?)
On the HRD (Hertz-sprung Russel diagram), what is our sun?
is a fairly typical main sequence star (Both of its life and its relative size)
Why do we all orbit the sun in our solar system?
Our solar system is made up of numerous bodies which orbit the sun (all surrounds due to “centrifugal force”
What is centrifugal force?
the balance between inertia and gravity. Wants to continue on a straight line indefinitely, but gravity wants to pull us directly into the sun. So they have to work together or we would either keep moving into outer space (inertia) or be pulled into the sun (gravity)
What are the planets in our solar system?
- Mercury
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune (in order of closest to sun to furthest to sun)
What to Jupiter and Saturn have in common?
They are gas supergiants, much larger planets and composed primarily of gas.
What are three other objects in outerspace (aside from planets) and describe them?
asteroids (chunks of rock that orbit in a belt around the solar system in an astroid belt)
comets (chunks of rock and ice that also go around the sun the tail you see is ice, it breaks away and melt behind it)
meteors (which strikes a planet, enters an earths atmosphere, usually the friction with the air causes to burn up before it reaches the earth surface, when you see a shooting star its actually a meteor burning up.
Why does the moon have craters and the earth does not?
because the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, wen a meteor strikes into it, nothing is stopping it. It collides straight into it, nothing causing causing it to burn up.
What are Galaxies? What is the galaxy that we exist in today called?
Galaxies are huge clusters of billions of stars. We exist in a galaxy called the Milky Way.
What is the Milky Way shaped as and what does it hold?
The Milky Way is shaped like a Spiral disk with several long arms. The planets and our sun are in one of its arms.
What are the layers of the earth? (starting from the outside, in?)
Crust - like the peel of an apple, very thin.
Mantle - composed of rock. Solid. Crust can shift around and move on top of the mantle (why we have earthquakes)
Outer Core- made of metal, but liquid metal- nickel and iron (why we have a magnetic field that surrounds earth. As it spins, it builds up around the earth).
Inner Core- also made of solid metal, nickel, and iron
