Study Guide #2

Nearby stars have larger parallax than...

Distant stars

The parallax angles of distant stars are...

Too small to measure

True or false? Astronomers have calculated the parallax angles of millions of stars

False

What is a light-year

The distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion miles

List three factors that control the apparent brightness of a star as seen from Earth

1. How big
2. How hot
3. How far away

True or false? A third-magnitude star is ten times as bright as a fourth-magnitude star

False

Absolute magnitude

How bright a star actually is

Apparent magnitude

A star's brightness as it appears from Earth

The star Arcturus has a much greater absolute magnitude than the sun but a much lower apparent magnitude. Why is this

Because the sun is closer to Earth

What does a Hertzsprung-Russel diagram show

The absolute magnitude and temperature of stars

About [ ] percent of stars are main-sequnce stars

90 percent

Patterns of stars are called...

Constellations

Because of the gravitational pull between them...

Binary stars, can be used to determine a star's mass

The light shifting, or...

Parallax, in the apparent position of a nearby star due to the orbital motion of Earth is used to measure star distance

In ranking stars according to their...

Apparent magnitude, the larger the number is, the dimmer the star appears from Earth

The faintest stars...

Lower-right corner

Variable stars such a Cepheid variables and stars experiencing a nova show fluctuations in...

Brightness

Emmision nebulae are made mostly of hydrogen, whereas...

Reflective nebulae

A star is not considered born until the process of...

Nuclear fusion begins

In a red giant, both hydrogen and...

Helium are used to produce energy

All stars eventually become either a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a...

Black dwarf

Presently, our sun is considered to be in the...

Main-sequence stage of its life cycle

Of the three types of galaxies -spiral, elliptical, and irregular- the Milky Way is a...

Spiral galaxy

Galaxies differ in their shape...

Size, and age of their stars

The [ ] indicates whether a star or other body in space is moving away from Earth or towards Earth

Doppler effect

How do the deaths of low-mass, medium-mass, and high-mass stars differ

Low mass stars immediately go to white dwarf stars then black dwarf. Medium mass stars go to red giant stars and then white dwarf and then black dwarf. The high-mass stars go from red supergiant to supernova, and then either a neutron star, or a black hol

How does the red shift phenomenon indicate that the universe is expanding

The closer stars move away from us slowly, and the stars that are farther away at a faster pace, and then the stars that are really far away from us, they will move away really fast. This is consistent with an expanding universe.

Given that black holes absorb all light, how is it possible for scientists to see or to study black holes

You see black, but they study everything that is effected around it

How would you classify types of galaxies according to the age of the stars found in them

Elliptical galaxies have old stars. Irregular galaxies have young stars. Spiral galaxies have a mixture of old stars at their center bulges and young stars at their spiral arms.

What is the process by which a star is born

A cloud of dust and gas is floating in space and it all has gravitational pull. It all then pulls together, heat and pressure from the gas above it pushes it altogether and its density and its temperature increases until nuclear fusion ignites and a star

List in order the labeled stages that a medium-mass star goes through during its "life

a. ______dust and gasses_(Nebula)____________ e.
___________Variable stage_________________
b. __________Protostar_____________________ f. ___________Planetary Nebula Stage_________
c. __________Main-sequence star_____________ g. __________White Dwarf Sta

A [ ] is a developing star not yet hot enough to engage in nuclear fusion

Protostar

True or false? All stars eventually run out of fuel and collapse due to gravity

True

True or false? An average star spends 90 percent of its life as a helium-burning main-sequence star

True

How can a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram be used to show the evolution of a star

The Hertzprung Russell diagram shows how the luminosities and surface temperatures of stars are linked.
Match each death description with its star.

Forms a red giant, which then collapses into a red dwarf and forms a planetary nebula

Low-mass star

Blows up in a supernova explosion

Massive star

Does not form a red giant; collapses directly into a white dwarf

Medium-mass star

Describe the stages the sun has gone through and will go through during its evolution

The sun is in its main sequence stage. It has gone through the dust and gasses stage, and the protostar stage. The sun will stay in the main sequence stage for about another 5 billion years, and then go on to the Red Giant Stage> Helium Flash > Planetary

A [ ] is a neutron star that rotates and generates radio waves

Pulsar star

Remnant of a supernova event; similar to a large atomic nucleus

Neutron star

Small dense object formed from the remnants of a star at least three times as massive as the sun

White dwarf

Remnant of a low-mass or medium-mass star

Black hole

What color will a star be with a surface temperature of 5000-6000K

Yellow

The mass of a star can be determined by studying...

Binary star systems

Which is true about using parallax to measure distance to stars

The closer the star, the larger is the parallax

Approximately how long is a light-yeaar

9.5 trillion km

What is not a factor that affects the apparent brightness of a star as seen from Earth

How old the star is

Star A is farther away from Earth than star B. Both stars have the same absolute magnitude. Which of the following is true about their apparent magnitude

Star B will have a greater apparent magnitude

A Hertzsprung-Russel diagram is used to show the relationship between...

Temperature and absolute magnitude

About 90 percent of the stars on the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram are...

Main-sequence stars

Before a star is born, the matter that will become the star exists as a...

Cool, dark nebula

A star is thought to be born when...

A protostar reaches a temperature high enough for nuclear fusion to begin

Into what life cycle stage will the sun enter next

Red giant stage

What will be the final stage in our sun's life cycle

Black dwarf stage

All stars, regardless of their size, eventually...

Run out of fuel and collapse

What remains after a low-mass or medium-mass star dies

White dwarf

At its nucleus, the Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years wide and about...

10,000 light-years thick

According to information received from radio telescopes, where is our sun positioned in the Milky Way

Within one of the spirals

About 60 percent of all known galaxies are classified as...

Elliptical galaxies

Scientists know that the universe is expanding because of the...

Red shift of distant galaxies

According to the big bang theory, the entire universe began as a...

Dense, hot, supermassive tiny ball

What is supportive evidence of the big bang theory

Cosmic background radiation

List three properties of stars

1. Color
2.Temperature
3. Mass

True or false? A star's color can tell you what its approximate temperature is

True

What are binary stars

A system of two stars in which one star revolves around the other or both revolve around a common center.

Binary stars can be used to determine the...

Mass of a star

The apparent change in position of a star when seen from opposite sides of Earth's orbit is called...

Parallax