Astronomy

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Universe

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Astronomy

32 Terms

1

Universe

all that exists everywhere, including all matter, energy, planets, stars, galaxies, and the space in which all of this exists

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2

Planets

Mercury, Venus, earth, mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

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3

constellation

groups of stars that form a pattern in the sky

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4

celestial sphere

an imaginary rotating sphere on which lie all objects of the night sky

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5

ecliptic

path the sun and some other sky objects appear to take across the celestial sphere

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6

retrograde motion

the path that planets appear to take in the sky due to their rotation around the sun

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7

azimuth

the distance measured from north along the horizon

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8

altitude

the angular height of a celestial object, measured from the horizon

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9

galaxy

a collection of many billions of stars plus gas and dust, held together by gravity

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10

Elliptical Galaxies

vary in shape from spherical to a flattened oval

make up 15-20%

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11

spiral galaxies

look like a pinwheel, a flattened disk with a central bulge with 2 or 4 arms

Milkyway is spiral

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12

barred spiral galaxies

similar to spiral, but have central bar pattern across the middle

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13

irregular galaxies

have no defined shape

make up 10%

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14

star cluster

a collection of stars held together by gravity

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15

andromeda galaxy

closes galaxy to milky way

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16

light year

a unit of distance equal to the distance light travels in one year

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17

parallax

is the angle measured between two lines of sight, divided by two, used to calculate the distance to stars

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18

Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) Diagram

a graph that compares the properties of stars

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19

main sequence

a narrow band of stars on the HR diagram that runs diagonally from the upper left (bright hot stars) to the lower right (dim cool stars)

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20

Low mass stars

nebula → main sequence yellow star →red giant → planetary nebula → white dwarf → black dwarf

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21

High mass stars

nebula → main sequence blue star → red super giant → supernova → neutron star (over 8 solar masses) →black-hole (over 20 solar masses)

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22

supernova

a massive explosion in which the whole outer portion of a star is blown off

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23

neutron star

a star so dense that only neutrons can exist throughout

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24

black hole

the remnant of a supernova explosion with a gravitational field so strong that nothing can escape its pull

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25

the doppler effect

the displacement of spectral lines produced by a moving source of waves in which there is an apparent upward shift in frequency for observers towards whom the source is approaching and an apparent downward shift in frequency for observers from whom the source is receding.

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26

redshifted

for objects moving away from an observer, the effect of lengthening of their wavelengths toward the red end of the visible spectrum

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27

blueshifted

for objects moving towards an observer, the effect of shortening of their wavelengths toward the blue end of the visible spectrum

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28

big bang theory

the theory that the universe began about 13.8 billion years ago when something unimaginably small and dense suddenly and rapidly expanded to immense size

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29

cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation

radiation left over from the big bang which fills the universe

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30

dark matter

undetected matter that makes up most of the universe

23% of universe

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31

dark energy

a new kind of dynamical energy fluid or field, something that fills all of space but something whose effect on the expansion of the universe is the opposite of that of matter and normal energy.

73% of universe

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32

number of official constellations listed by IAU

88

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