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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
electromagnetic spectrum: longest wavelength to shortest |
radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet rays, x-rays, gamma rays |
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colors of visible light: longest wavelength to shortest |
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet |
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reflecting telescope |
uses one or more mirrors to gather and focus light |
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light-year |
a unit used to measure distances in space; the distance light travels in one year |
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apparent magnitude |
the brightness of a star as seen from Earth |
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white dwarf |
a star that has no fuel, but glows faintly |
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less; more |
Stars with _________ mass will last longer than stars with __________ mass. |
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more; less |
Stars with _______ mass will have shorter lives than stars with _________ mass. |
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binary stars |
a star system that contains two stars |
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milky way galaxy |
the spiral galaxy that contains our solar system |
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spectrum |
a range of colors formed when white light passes through a prism |
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What are both reflecting and refracting telescopes designed to do? |
gather and focus visible light |
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spectrograph |
determine a stars temperature and chemical composition |
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parallax |
method used to determine a star's distance from Earth |
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3 ways stars are classified |
size, brightness, and temperature |
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What color are the hottest stars? |
blue-white |
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Hertzsprung-Russell diagram |
a graph that shows main sequence stars increasing in brightness as they increase in temperature |
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A star is born when,,, |
nuclear fusion starts. |
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nebula |
a large amount of gas and dust spread out in an immense volume; what all stars begin their life apart of |
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gravity |
the force that pulls together the matter in stars |
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supernova |
the explosion of a dying giant or supergiant star |
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What do stars first become when they begin to run out of fuel? |
red giants or supergiants |
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type of light humans can see |
visible light |
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radio telescope |
device used to detect radio waves from objects in space |
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irregular galaxy |
a galaxy that does not have a regular shape |
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wavelength |
distance between the crest of one wave and the crest of the next wave |
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absolute magnitude |
the brightness of a star if it were a specific distance from Earth |
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black holes |
the remains of the most massive stars when they die...they get pulled into a small volume by the force of gravity |
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spiral galaxy |
a galaxy with arms that spiral outward, like a pinwheel |
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elliptical galaxy |
a galaxy that looks like flattened balls; contains only old stars |
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quasars |
distant galaxies with giant black holes at their centers |
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refracting telescope |
uses convex lenses to gather a large amount of light and focus it onto a smaller area |
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convex lens |
a piece of transparent glass, curved so that the middle is thicker than the edges |
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galaxy |
a giant structure that contains hundreds of billions of stars |
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observatory |
a building that contains one or more telescopes |
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universe |
all of space and everything in it |