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53 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Astronomy |
The scientific study of what is beyond earth |
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Celestial object |
Any object that exist in space |
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Universe |
Everything that exist, including all energy, matter and space |
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Star |
A massive collection of gases held together by its own gravity and emitting huge amounts of energy |
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Luminous |
Producing and giving off light ; shining |
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Planet |
A large, Round celestial object that travels around a star |
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Solar system |
The sun and all the objects that travels around it |
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Orbit |
The closed path of a celestial object or satellite as it travels around another celestial object |
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Satellite |
A celestial object that travels around a planet or dwarf planet |
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Galaxy |
A huge rotating collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and planets and other celestial beings |
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Solar flare |
Gases and charged particles expelled above an active sunspot |
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Solar prominences |
Low energy gas eruptions from the sun's surface that extended thousands of kilometres into space |
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Sunspot |
Dark spots appearing on the Suns surface that are cooler than the area surrounding them |
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aurora borealis |
A display of shifting colours in the northern sky caused by solar particles colliding with matter in Earths upper atmosphere |
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Astronomical unit |
Approximately 150 million kilometres; the average distance from earth to the sun |
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Dwarf planet |
A celestial object that orbits the sun and had a spherical shape but does not dominate it's orbit |
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Asteroid |
A small celestial object in the solar system composed of rock and metal |
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Comet |
A chunk of ice and dust that travels in a very long orbit around the Sun |
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Orbital radius |
The average distance between an object in the solar system and the sun |
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Gravitational force |
The force of attraction between all masses in the universe |
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Solstice |
An astronomical event that occurs two times each year, when the tilt of earths axis is most inclined toward or away from the sun, causing the position of the sun in the sky to appear to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme |
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Equinox |
The time of year when the hours of daylight equal the hours of darkness |
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Precession |
The changing direction of earths axis |
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Lunar cycle |
All of the phases of the moon |
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Eclipse |
A darkening of a celestial object due to the position of another celestial object |
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Tide |
The alternate rising and falling of the surface of large bodies of water; caused by the interaction between earth, the moon, and the sun |
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Constellation |
A grouping of stars as observed from earth |
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Celestial sphere |
The imaginary sphere that rotates around earth into which all celestial objects are projected |
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Celestial navigation |
The use of positions of stars to determine location and direction when travelling |
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Ecliptic |
The path across the sky that the sun, the moon, the planets and the zodiac constellations appear to follow over the course of a year |
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Retrograde motion |
The apparent motion of an object in the sky, usually a planet, from east to west rather than its normal motion from west to east |
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Retrograde motion |
The apparent motion of an object in the sky, usually a planet, from east to west rather than its normal motion from west to east |
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Azimuth |
The horizontal angular distance from North measured eastward along the horizon to a point directly below a celestial body |
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Altitude |
The a giant height a celestial object appears to be above the horizon; measured vertically from the horizon |
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Geostationary orbit |
An orbital path directly over earths equator with a period equal to the period of earths rotation |
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Nebula |
A massive cloud of interstellar gas and dust; the beginning of a star |
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Elliptical Galaxy |
A large group of stars that together make an elliptical or oval shape |
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Spiral galaxy |
A large group of stars that together make a spiral shape, such as the milky way |
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Lenticular galaxy |
A large group of stars that together make a shape that has a central bulge but no spiral arms |
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Irregular Galaxy |
A large group of stars that together make an irregular shape |
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Quasar |
A distant, young Galaxy that emits large amounts of energy produced by a supermassive black hole at its centre |
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Red shift |
The phenomenon of light from galaxies shifting toward the red end of visible spectrum, indicating that the galaxies are moving away from earth |
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Big Bang theory |
The theory that the universe began in an incredibly hot, dense expansion approximately 13.7 billion years ago |
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Protostar |
A massive concentration of gas and dust thought to eventually develop into a star after the nebula collapses |
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Main sequence |
The stars that form a narrow band across the H-R diagram from the upper left to the lower right |
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Red giant |
A star near the end of its cycle with a mass that is equal to or smaller than that of the sun; becomes larger and redder as it runs out of hydrogen fuel |
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Red super giant |
A star near the end of its life cycle with mass that is 10 times bigger than the sun; becomes larger and redder as it runs out of hydrogen |
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White dwarf |
A small, hot, dim star created by the remaining material that is left when a red giant dies |
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Supernova |
A stellar explosion that occurs at the end of a massive star's life |
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Neutron star |
An extremely dense star made up of tightly packed neutrons; results when a star over 10 solar masses collapses |
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Black hole |
An extremely dense quantity of matter in space from which no light or matter can escape |
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Star cluster |
A group of stars held together by gravity |
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Spinoff |
A technology originally designed for a particular purpose, such as space technology, that has made its way into everyday use |
