Chapter 8 Glossary Terms

A telescope that uses a mirror to capture light

A telescope that uses a lens to capture light

A piece of equipment that orbits earth

A piece of equipment that orbits a planet and sends data back to earth

A theory of how stars are formed that states a star is formed from clouds of hydrogen and dust in a nebula

A cloud of dust and gas in space

A new star, a disc shaped cloud of dust and gas

When it is so hot that when atoms hit each other the become other atoms

The surface of the sun

A darker, cooler area on the suns photosphere

Wind created by the suns gravity

A discharge of charged particles from the suns photosphere (Northern Lights)

The sun is what our planet revolves around

A stars brightness

A stars brightness at a distance of 32.6 light years away

An instrument that allows you to see the spectrum given off by light, indicating what elements can be found there.

Distinct lines that help to define what atoms and molecules are within that spectrum.

A way of graphing a stars spectrum type against its luminosity

Where a star stays for most of its life before evolving and dying, either a low, intermediate or high mass star.

The stage where a star slowly cools down and fades away

When a star explodes at the end of its life

A star created by a supernova that is so hot only protons and electrons essentially melt themselves into neutrons

Gravity compresses into white dwarfs and eventually fade away

a patch of space that has mass but no volume

They become red giants that eventually explode in a super nova and remain as nebula

High mass stars become red supergiants before either condensing into a neutron star or exploding into a black hole