Earth Science Vocabulary From Chapter 27 Of Modern Earth Science

Front 1

brightness of a star as it would appear if located 32.6 light-years from the Earth (553)

Back 1

absolute magnitude

Front 2

brightness of a star as it appears from the Earth (552)

Back 2

apparent magnitude

Front 3

type of spiral galaxy with a bar of stars that runs through its center (563)

Back 3

barred spiral galaxy

Front 4

pair of stars that revolve around each other (564)

Back 4

binary star

Front 5

hole in space with a gravity so great that not even light can escape, formed by the collapse of a very large supernova

Back 5

black hole

Front 6

describing any star that is always visible in the night sky and, from the Northern Hemisphere, can be seen circling Polaris

Back 6

circumpolar

Front 7

pattern of stars

Back 7

constellation

Front 8

type of galaxy with a very bright center that contains little dust and gas and is spherical to disklike in shape (563)

Back 8

elliptical galaxy

Front 9

large-scale group of stars

Back 9

galaxy

Front 10

very large, cool, bright star

Back 10

giant

Front 11

spherically shaped group of hundreds of stars located around the core of the Milky Way Galaxy

Back 11

globular cluster

Front 12

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; graph showing the relationship of the surface temperature and absolute magnitude of a star

Back 12

H-R diagram

Front 13

type of galaxy with no identifiable shape and an uneven distribution of stars within it

Back 13

irregular galaxy

Front 14

distance that light travels in one year, about 9.5 trillion km

Back 14

light-year

Front 15

star with characteristics that place it within a band running through the middle of the H-R diagram

Back 15

main-sequence star

Front 16

dark cloud of gas and dust in space; first stage in the development of a star

Back 16

nebula

Front 17

collapsed core of a supernova consisting of a small, extremely dense ball of neutrons

Back 17

neutron star

Front 18

white dwarf star that explodes as it cools, temporarily becoming thousands of times brighter

Back 18

nova

Front 19

loosely shaped group of hundreds of stars

Back 19

open cluster

Front 20

method of determining the distance from the Earth to a star based on the shift in the apparent position of the star when viewed from different angles

Back 20

parallax

Front 21

expanding shell of gases shed by a dying star

Back 21

planetary nebula

Front 22

inside a nebula, the shrinking, spinning center region; the second stage in the development of a star

Back 22

protostar

Front 23

neutron star that emits two beams of radiation that sweep across space

Back 23

pulsar

Front 24

starlike object that gives off radio waves and X rays

Back 24

quasar

Front 25

apparent lengthening of the light waves emitted by a star moving away from the Earth

Back 25

red shift

Front 26

type of galaxy with a nucleus of bright stars and flattened arms that swirl around the nucleus

Back 26

spiral galaxy

Front 27

body of gases that gives off a tremendous amount of radiant energy in the form of light and heat

Back 27

star

Front 28

extremely large, giant star

Back 28

supergiant

Front 29

star that blows apart with a tremendous explosion

Back 29

supernova

Front 30

small, hot, dim star

Back 30

white dwarf