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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Prominence |
A loop of relatively cool, incandescent gas that extends above the photosphere and above the sun's edge as seen from earth |
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Solar flare |
An explosive release of energy that comes from the sun and that is associated with magnetic disturbances on the suns surface |
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Coronal mass ejection |
Coronal gas that is thrown into space from the sun |
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Aurora |
Colored light produced by changed particles from the solar wind and from the magnetosphere that react with and excite the oxygen and nitrogen of earths upper atmosphere |
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Star |
A large celestial body that is composed of gas and that emits light |
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Doppler effect |
An observed change in the frequency of a wave when the source or observer is moving |
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Light-year |
The distance that light travels in one year |
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Parallax |
The apparent shift in the position of an object when viewed from different locations |
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Apparent magnitude |
The brightness of a star as seen from the earth |
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Absolute magnitude |
The brightness that a star would have at a distance of 32.6 light years from earth |
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Main sequence |
The location in the H-R diagram where most stars lie |
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Nebula |
A large cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space |
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Giant |
A very large and bright star whose hot core has used most of its hydrogen |
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White dwarf |
A small, hot, dim star that is leftover center of an old sunlike star |
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Nova |
A star that suddenly becomes brighter |
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Neutron star |
A star that has a collapsed under gravity to the point that the electrons and protons have smashed together to form neutrons |
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Pulsar |
A rapidly spinning neutron star that emits pulses of radio and optical energy |
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Black hole |
An object so massive and dense that even light cannot escape it's gravity |
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Constellation |
One of 88 regions into which the sky has been divided in order to describe the locations of celestial objects |
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Galaxy |
A collection of stars, dust, and gas bound together by gravity |
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Quasar |
Quasi- stellar radio source |
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Cosmology |
The study of the origin, properties, processes, and evolution of the universe |
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Big Bang theory |
The theory that all matter and energy in the universe was compressed into an extremely small volume that 13-15 billion years ago exploded and began expanding in all directions |
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Cosmic background radiation |
Radiation uniformly detected from every direction in space |
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Nuclear fission |
The process by which nuclei of small atoms combine to form a new, more massive nucleus |
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Radiative zone |
The zone of the suns interior that is between the core and the convective zone and in which energy moves by radiation |
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Photosphere |
The visible surface of the sun |
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Chromosphere |
The thin layer of the sun that is just above the photosphere and that glows a reddish color during eclipses |
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Corona |
The outermost layer of the suns atmosphere |
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Sunspot |
The dark area of the photosphere of the sun that is cooler than the surrounding areas and that has a strong magnetic field |
