Astro & Lame

Front 1

dark energy

Back 1

mysterious energy that seems to cause the acceleration of expansion of the universe

Front 2

cosmic microwave background

Back 2

radiation coming from all the directions in space as a consequence of the big bang

Front 3

dark matter

Back 3

mysterious unseen matter that accounts for about 23% of the mass of the universe

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cosmology

Back 4

the branch of astronomy that studies the structure and evolution of the universe

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Hubble's Law

Back 5

the greater the recessional velocity of a galaxy, the farther away it is

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big bang

Back 6

astronomer's theory to origin of universe, the model says the universe was condense and hot billions of years ago, and has been expanding and cooling ever since

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3 sources of evidence for big bang theory

Back 7

cosmological redshift, cosmic microwave background radiation, 3:1 ratio of hydrogen to helium in universe

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age of universe

Back 8

13.7 billion years

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Quasars

Back 9

short for "quasi-stellar radio sources, believed to be cores of galaxies that were formed when universe was young, extreme source of radio waves, the most distant object in universe

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barred spiral galaxy

Back 10

spiral galaxy with two broad bars extending from opposite sides of central bulge, the spirals arms extend from ends to bars

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normal sprial galaxy

Back 11

galaxy with a disk shape, central bulge and curved spiral arms

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irregular galaxy

Back 12

galaxy with no regular shape

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elliptical galaxy

Back 13

galaxy with an elliptical shape

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local group

Back 14

the 40 or so galaxies which the milky way is a member

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Universe

Back 15

the totality of all matter, energy, and space

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Galaxy

Back 16

an extremely large collection of stars

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Globular clusters

Back 17

a halo of about 200 of these surround the milky way, each consist of 10,000 stars

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Milky way galaxy

Back 18

galaxy which contains our solar system, a spiral galaxy with massive black hole at its center

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proton-proton chain

Back 19

the series of three reactions by which hydrogen is fused into helium in the sun

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age of our sun

Back 20

5 billion yrs

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photosphere

Back 21

the bright, visible surface of the sun, temp is 6,000 K

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Core of Sun

Back 22

interior of sun were nuclear reactions convert hydrogen to helium and energy core temp. is 15 mil. degrees K

Front 23

Solar wind

Back 23

charged particles that stream out into space from the sun, the solar wind fills a vol. of space outwards to a distance of 50 AU and is called the heliosphere

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corona

Back 24

Sun's most outer layer, the origin of the solar wind

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Chromosphere

Back 25

layer of sun above the photosphere, temp 50,000 k

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prominences

Back 26

enormous filaments of excited gas that arch over and return to the Sun's surface

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flares

Back 27

material explosively ejected in space from sun's surface

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sunspots

Back 28

dark patches of cooler material on the surface of the sun, the number of sunspots varies over an 11 year cycle, in 1600s the # of sunspots was fewer and the experience a mini ice age

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nucleosynthesis

Back 29

The creation of nuclei of elements inside stars

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event horizon

Back 30

boundary around a black hole from which no matter or radiation can escape from

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Schwarzschild radius

Back 31

distance from black hole's singularity to its event horizon

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event horizon

Back 32

boundary around a black hole from which no matter or radiation can escape from

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singularity

Back 33

extremely dense point at center of a black hole

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black hole

Back 34

an object so dense that not even light can escape its gravity

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pulsar

Back 35

fast rotating neutron star that radiates radio waves in a rotating pattern

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neutron star

Back 36

a super dense star of which pulsars are one type

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supernova

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the most catastrophic explosion of a high-mass star, the end results are either a neutron star or a black hole

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nova

Back 38

relative small nuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf

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white dwarfs

Back 39

hot, small, very dim stars formed at the end of low-mas star's lives

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planetary nebulae

Back 40

a shell of material ejected from a variable star late in its life

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protostar

Back 41

name given to condensed nebula before it becomes a star

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brown dwarfs

Back 42

failed stars

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nebulae

Back 43

cool, dense clouds of gas and dust in space.