Astronomy Terms (Science Bowl!)
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62 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 quasar | the brilliant center of a distant galaxy |
| comet | dirty snowball |
| supernova | death of a large star |
| pulsar | rapidly rotating neutron star |
| nebula | a cloud of gas and dust |
| planets | balls of rock, ice, or gas |
| galaxy | big group of stars |
| 14 billion years | how long ago was the big bang? |
| 2.5 billion years | how long ago did life appear on earth? |
| elliptical | one of the four shapes of galaxies - most common |
| spiral | one of the four shapes of galaxies - disk shaped |
| barred-spiral | one of the four shapes of galaxies - elongated nucleus |
| irregular | one of the four shapes of galaxies - rarest type of galaxy |
| cluster | a group of galaxies |
| supercluster | a group of clusters |
| aries | the ram (zodiac) |
| tarus | the bull (zodiac) |
| cancer | the crab (zodiac) |
| gemini | the twins (zodiac) |
| leo | the lion (zodiac) |
| libra | the scales (zodiac |
| virgo | the virgin (zodiac) |
| sagittarius | the archer (zodiac) |
| scorpius | the scorpion (zodiac) |
| capricornus | the sea-goat (zodiac) |
| pisces | the fishes (zodiac) |
| aquarius | the water-carrier (zodiac) |
| 27,000,000 degrees | temperature of the core of the sun |
| sun spots | dark spots on the sun caused by disturbances of the sun's magnetic field |
| convective zone | the area where convection cells (aka supergranules) are located |
| supergranule | massive convection cells that are under the surface of the sun |
| photosphere | the visible surface of the sun |
| radiative zone | the area between the sun's core and the convective zone |
| corona | outer layer of the sun |
| mercury | the planet closest to our sun |
| mercury | this is a rocky planet with almost no atmosphere, a silicate mantle, and an iron core. |
| mercury | the craters on this planet were named after famous creative people |
| venus | the hottest planet in our solar system |
| venus | this planet's atmosphere is made up of almost entirely carbon dioxide and has a surface almost entirely concealed by clouds |
| earth | the third planet from our sun |
| earth | this planet has an atmosphere made of 3/4 nitrogen and 1/4 hydrogen as well as a small bit of other elements. |
| waxing | the process of earth's moon going from a new moon to a full moon |
| waning | the process of the earth's moon going from a full moon to a new moon |
| mars | a planet that experiences earthlike seasons but has less than 1% water vapor in the atmosphere |
| mars | this planet has a lot of iron oxide, causing its vibrant color |
| jupiter | this planet has a core twice the size of earth |
| europa | a moon of jupiter covered in ice and water |
| castillo | a moon of jupiter covered in huge craters and dirty ice |
| ganymede | a moon of jupiter that is the largest moon in our solar system |
| io | a moon of jupiter that has the first known active volcanoes outside of earth |
| saturn | a ringed planet with 30 moons |
| titan | saturn's largest moon |
| neptune | the farthest official planet from the sun in our solar system |
| cordelia | uranus's moon |
| uranus | a ringed planet that has moons named for shakespearian characters |
| neptune | this planet has the 'great dark spot' and experiences no seasons |
| triton | this is the largest of neptune's moons and has the lowest temperature in the solar system |
| meteor | dust particles and rock fragments burning in our atmosphere |
| asteroids | chunks of rock that orbit the sun |
| meteor belt | inbetween mars and jupiter's orbits, home to most of our solar system's ______s |
| ptolemy | the father of astronomy |
| hertzsprung-russell | a diagram that shows the relationship between the surface temperature and color of stars |
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