Astronomy Vocab9

Home > Preview

The flashcards below were created by user Mitra on FreezingBlue Flashcards.

Milky Way

The galaxy that includes our solar system; appears as a hazy white band in the night sky.
Galaxy

A huge collection of stars, planets, gas and dust that is held together by gravity.
Star Cluster

A collection of stars held together by gravity.
Open Cluster

A collection of 50-1000 stars, they appear along the main band of the Milky Way.
Globular Cluster

A collection of 100 000 to a million stars, arranged in a distinctive spherical shape, they appear around the center of the Milky Way.
Local Group

The small group of around 40 galaxies that includes the Milky Way.
Cosmology

The study of the Universe.
Doppler Effect

The change in frequency of a light source due to its motion relative to an observer; also, the change in pitch of a sound due to the motion of the source relative to an observer.
Redshift

The effect in which objects moving away from an observer have their wavelengths lengthened toward the red end of the visible spectrum.
Blueshift

The effect in which objects moving towards an observer have their wavelengths shortened, toward the blue end of the visible spectrum.
Big bang

Th event that may have triggered the expansion of the universe _{^{14 billion years ago.}}
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB)

The radiation left over from the big bang which fills the universe.