The Universe and Objects Within

Question 1

What is an achondrite?

Answer 1

a type of stony meteorite with no chondrules

Question 2

What is an asteroid?

Answer 2

• an object in orbit around the sun
• intermediate in size between meteoroids and planets

Question 3

What is a chondrite?

Answer 3

a type of meteorite that has a stony appearance and contains small spherical particles called chondrules

Question 4

What is the coma of a comet?

Answer 4

the large gaseous region surrounding the nucleus

Question 5

What is a comet?

Answer 5

• a small body in the solar system
• in orbit around the sun
• has frozen material that vaporizes during the closer parts of its approach to the Sun to produce the characteristic tail

Question 6

What are cosmic rays?

Answer 6

• atomic nuclei and electrons that travel in space at very high speeds
• most cosmic rays that are detected on Earth come from distant parts of the galaxy, but some come from the Sun, especially during its active phases

Question 7

What is electromagnetic radiation?

Answer 7

radiation that transmits energy through periodic variations in its electric and magnetic force

includes radio waves, infrared and ultraviolet radiation, visible light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Question 8

What is the head of a comet?

Answer 8

• the bright part of a comet
• contains a small nucleus and its surrounding coma

Question 9

What is the interstellar medium?

Answer 9

• a mixture of ions, atoms, molecules, dust grains, cosmic rays, and magnetic fields
• 99% gas, 1% dust by mass
• extremely dilute

Question 10

What is a meteor?

Answer 10

• a glowing trail in the upper atmosphere
• produced by a meteoroid burning up as it moves at high speed through dense air

Question 11

What is a meteor shower?

Answer 11

numerous meteors seen in short time span

appears whenas the Earth passes through a cloud of meteoroids

usually remnants of a comet and still following the comet’s orbit

Question 12

What is a meteorite?

Answer 12

the remnant of meteoroid that has been partially eroded in passage through the Earth’s atmosphere before hitting the surface

Question 13

What is a meteoroid?

Answer 13

a large rock (but much smaller than minor planets) moving in an orbit in the solar system

Question 14

What is a neutron?

Answer 14

a subatomic particle with mass similar to that of the proton but carrying no electric charge

Question 15

What is a reflection nebula?

Answer 15

an interstellar cloud of gas and dust that is seen by the light which it reflects from nearby stars.

Question 16

What is a satellite?

Answer 16

• a body that revolves in orbit around another body
• planets are satellites of the sun
• the moon is a satellite of the earth
• artificial satellites have been sent into orbit around the Earth, Moon, Mars and Venus

Question 17

What is a solar nebula?

Answer 17

the gas and dust cloud remnant from which the sun, planets and other bodies of the solar system are thought to have formed

Question 18

What is solar wind?

Answer 18

a flow of high-speed electrically charged particles from the solar corona outward through the solar system

Question 19

What is a trojan asteroid?

Answer 19

asteroids that are in the same orbit as another body but do not collide with it because they precede or follow it by 60 degrees

Question 20

Approximately how old is the universe?

Answer 20

roughly 14 billion years old

Question 21

What is a chondrule?

Answer 21

a small round body (generally less than 1 mm) found in meteorites.

Question 22

What is a bBreccia?

Answer 22

• a type of rock composed of compacted fragments of other rocks
• commonly produced by meteorite impacts on the lunar surface

Question 23

What is an emission nebula?

Answer 23

an interstellar cloud of gas that has been ionized by energetic photons emitted by a star