| Term | Definition |
|---|
| star | large, hot ball of gases held together by gravity, that gives off its own light, appears less bright the further it is from Earth |
| constellation | a group of stars that appears to form a pattern |
| parallax | the apparent shift in an object"s position when viewed from two locations; used by Astronomers to find stars distance from the earth |
| light-year | the distance that light travels in one year |
| absolute magnitude | actual brightness of a star! |
| nebula | beginning of a star, huge cloud of gas and dust in space |
| planetary nebula | a layer of gases that form around the star |
| supernova | an exploded star; occurs when supergiant can no longer produce enough energy to balance the pull of gravity |
| black hole | tiny but massive object whose gravity is so strong that light cannot escape from it |
| Sirius | 9 light years away |
| Rigel | 100 light years away |
| magnitude | the brightness of a star |
| Star's color | tells you about the star's surface and temperature |
| Sun | an average sized star; it has been shining for 5 billion years; sun will one day become a red giant |
| H-R Diagram | compares the absolute magnitude and temperature of a star; plots stars according to temperature and magnitude |
| absolute magnitude | actual brightness of a star |
| apparent magnitude | how bright a star looks in Earth's night sky; depends on how much light a star gives off and how far away it is from earth |
| Red/Orange colored stars | cooler stars; Betelgeuse is a red star |
| yellow colored stars | hotter stars |
| blue/white stars | hottest stars; Rigel is a blue/white star |
| Red Supergiants | largest stars |
| White dwarfs | smallest stars |
| protostar | young star; stage that occurs after nebula after cloud shrinks and heats up; continues to gain mass becaus of gravitational pull, heat makes it glow |
Combine with other sets
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