Topic 3- Earth in the Universe

Question 1

What kind of radiation found in the universe supports the Big Bang Theory?

Answer 1

long-wavelength background radiation (actually, microwaves) come from all directions of the universe

Question 2

What is electromagnetic energy?

Answer 2

various types of waves that transmit energy through space

Question 3

What is the Doppler Effect?

Answer 3

the shifting of wavelengths

Question 4

What is a red shift Doppler Effect?

Answer 4

when Earth and other celestial objects are moving apart

Question 5

The farther away a galaxy is from Earth, the greater the ____ shift.

Answer 5

red

Question 6

What is a galaxy?

Answer 6

a collection of billions of stars and various amounts of gas and dust held together by gravity

Question 7

What shape is our galaxy, the Milky Way?

Answer 7

spiral-shaped

Question 8

What is a star?

Answer 8

a large ball of gas held together by gravity that is luminous and produces a lot of energy (not all stars)

Question 9

What is nuclear fusion?

Answer 9

the combining of nuclei of smaller elements to form the nuclei of larger elements with some of the mass being converted to energy

Question 10

In what conditions can nuclear fusion occur?

Answer 10

extremely high temperatures and high pressure conditions. Ex: inside a star

Question 11

What is luminosity?

Answer 11

the actual brightness of a star or rate of total energy emitted compared to the Sun

Question 12

Most stars are much _____ than Earth, but not all stars.

Answer 12

bigger

Question 13

What are main sequence stars?

Answer 13

average size, higher temperatures, high densities

Question 14

What are giant stars?

Answer 14

red, orange, and yellow giant stars. high luminosity, late stage in the evolution of medium to small stars

Question 15

What are Super Giant stars?

Answer 15

highly luminous, late evolution of stars. they explode, creating supernovas. they are the hottest in temperatures

Question 16

What are White Dwarf stars?

Answer 16

small stars (Earth size). they are hot in surface temperature and have a low luminosity. last stage of shining

Question 17

What are Black Dwarf stars?

Answer 17

dead stars- the stage after white dwarfs. there are many black dwarfs

Question 18

What do stars originate from?

Answer 18

clouds of gas and dust molecules

Question 19

What is a solar system?

Answer 19

the sun and all objects that orbit the sun under its gravitational influence

Question 20

Do the planets share their environments with large objects?

Answer 20

no

Question 21

What is an asteroid?

Answer 21

solid, rocky and/or metallic body that independently orbits the sun. smaller than planets

Question 22

What are moons?

Answer 22

a body that orbits a planet or an asteroid as those objects orbit the sun

Question 23

What is a comet?

Answer 23

a dirty snowball (ices of water and methane mixed with rocky or metallic solids). composed of solids that can change to gases when heated.

Question 24

Why can we see comets in the sky?

Answer 24

solids are released, forming a visible tail in the sky

Question 25

What is a meteoroid?

Answer 25

small solid fragments that orbit the sun

Question 26

Why do we see meteors in the sky?

Answer 26

meteoroids burn up or vaporize, leaving a streak

Question 27

What is an impact crater?

Answer 27

depression in earth’s crust made by a meteoroid

Question 28

What is an impact event?

Answer 28

planets gravitational forces pull on smaller clumps of matter to cause comets, asteroids, and meteoroids to collide with the planets

Question 29

What are Terrestrial planets?

Answer 29

close to the Sun and mostly solid. they have small diameters and high densities

Question 30

What are our solar system’s Terrestrial planets?

Answer 30

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

Question 31

What are Jovian planets?

Answer 31

far from the Sun and gaseous. they are not solid.

Question 32

What are our Jovian planets?

Answer 32

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

Question 33

How do we determine a planet’s length of day?

Answer 33

the period of rotation around its axis

Question 34

The planets revolve around the Sun in a _________ direction as viewed from Polaris.

Answer 34

counterclockwise

Question 35

What is inertia?

Answer 35

the concept that an object at rest tends to remain at rest, while an object in motion tends to stay in motion

Question 36

When a planet is closer to the Sun, the orbital velocity is

Answer 36

greatest

Question 37

What is the Big Bang Theory?

Answer 37

the theory that all matter and energy started out concentrated in a small area and, after a giant explosion, matter began to organize into subatomic particles and atoms