Chapter 9 Earth in Space and Beyond
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- When a of rock is large enough to survive its fiery decent through the atmosphere, the object that reaches the ground is called a ________.
- meteorite
- What is a galaxy?
- A system of billions of stars.
- What are the three types of galaxies?
- Spiral Galaxies which are shaped like pinwheels, elliptical galaxies which look like bob with no spirals and can be circular or flattened and irregular galaxies with no definate shape.
- What is a change of light or sound wavelengths as a source moves toward or away from the observer?
- The Doppler Effect
- What are Meteors?
- "Shooting Stars" which are streaks of light caused by meteorids passing through Earth's atmosphere at high speeds
- What is a light year?
- The distance that light travels in one year.
- What galaxy do we live in, what kind of galaxy is it, and where is the sun located.
- The Milky Way, a spiral galaxie and the sun is located about 10,000 light yrs away from the center.
- What are regions on the surface of the sun that consist of cooler gases than those surrounding it?
- sunspots
- The sun is (larger/smaller/average) in diameter, density and mass compared to other stars.
- average
- What is the Sun primarily composed of?
- hydrogen and helium
- What did Galileo use sunspots to measure?
- the speed of rotation for the Sun to be about 4 weeks
- As a planet moves toward the Sun, its _______ ________ increases.
- orbital velocity
- About how long ago and how did the solar system form?
- about 5 billion years ago from a giant cloud of gas and debris.`
- The greater the latitude, the ________ the change in direction per hour of the Foucault Pendulum.
- greater
- What are light waves speeding away toward us and will be squeezed into shorter wavelengths called?
- Blue-Shift
- Which type of panets are most similar to Earth: Terrestrial or jovian?
- Terrestrial
- What are the characteristics of terrestrial planets?
- are small (no larger then earth), have low mass and high densities compared to jovian planets, heavy elements, less significant atmosphere, which suggests they are solid
- What is a small dense white-hot star, about the size of a planet?
- A white dwarf
- What is when pressure squeezes electrons into atomic nuclei to produce neutrons?
- a neutron star
- What are the four terrestrial plantets?
- Mercury, Mars, Earth and Venus
- What are the four jovian planets?
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
- What are the characteristics of jovian plantets?
- they have low densities, composed primarily of gases, dominated by vast swarlinf cloud formations
- What is astronomy?
- It is the study of the universe, the stars, planets and all other objects in space.
- What is the Big Bang theory?
- The theory that a termendous explosion of an extreemly dense mass about 15 to 20 billion years ago, that produced the expanding universe that exists today.
- What is a black hole?
- a region od black surrounded by stars
- What are fragments of rocks or ice traveling in space?
- Meteoroids
- What is the outer portion of a neutron star explodes producing the brightest known object in space.
- A supernova
- What are huge masses of dust and gas (hydrogen) that condense in space?
- Nebula
- T or F: Earth is the only planet that has large amounts of water at its surface with temperature and pressure balance enough to allow water to exist in its three forms: ice, liquid, and vapor.
- True.
- What determines whether substances are solids, liquids, or gases?
- temperature
- What are light waves of an object speeding away through space and STRETCHing into longer wavelenghts?
- Red-shift
- What is the heliocentric model?
- the sun centered model first introduced by Coprenicus
- What is when hydrogen is fused into helium and energy is released?
- nuclear fusion
- T or F: Earth and Venus today are the only planets in our solar system with the type of atmosphere to support life as we know it.
- False: Earth is the only panet that has the type of atmosphere to support life as we know it.
- What are red giants?
- The temperature of the star's expanded surface cools and its gases glow with a reddish hue..
- What is the apparent path of the sun against the background stars called?
- ecliptic
- What is retrograde motion of the planets explained by?
- the idea that the further a planet is from the Sunm the slower its orbital velocity
- What is the result of a collision of a large meteorite with Earth's surface.
- impact crater
- The smaller the eccentricity, the _______ circular the orbit
- more
- What is the imaginary sphere that encircles earth?
- celestial sphere
- T or F: With little or no atmosphere, there is alot of weathering on Mercury, Mars and the Moon
- Faulse there is little or no weathering
- What is Hubble's Law?
- The relationship between the distance and speeds of galaxies and really means that the Universe is expanding.
- What is one of the few stars that are bigger and brighter than the typical red giants?
- supergiants
- What is the region surrounding the Sun in which the temperatures of a planet are suited to support life?
- The Ecosphere
- What are stars located between the northern horizon and Polaris that never set and move in counterclockwise circles called?
- circumpolar stars
- What is a star's spectra?
- Colors produced when wavelenghts of light are seperated
- What is the point on the celestial sphere that is directly above an observer's position on Earth's surface?
- zenith
- What are chunks of ice?
- comets
- Where do astronomers beleive that asteroids came from?
- The formation of the solar system, or from comets that have broken apart.
- What is the distance in degrees measured clockwise from due north position of a celestial object?
- azimuth
- What is a rock with an irregular shape that orbits the sun?
- an Asteroid
- When a comet is far from the sun, it consits primarily of _______________.
-
dust and ice (frozen ammonia, methane, and water).
- What produces the long flowing tail behind a comet?
- When conets with highly elongated orbits come close to the Sun, and the Sun's radiation vaporizes some if the some of the comets ice.
- June 21st is called the ___________________, and the earth is tilted _______ degrees.
- Summer Solstice, 23 1/2
- The tendancy of matter moving across Earth's surface to be deflected from a straight-line path is called _________.
- Coriolis effect
- What is the material given off from a rapidly spining neutron star?
- pulsar