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Stars, Galaxies and the Universe

Star life cycles, galaxy types, and cosmology words.

63 cardsGrades 6–8, Grades 9–12, College#stars#galaxies#universe

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63 cards
  • StarTerm
    A huge ball of hot gas that makes its own light by fusion
  • NebulaTerm
    A cloud of gas and dust in space
  • ProtostarTerm
    A young star still forming inside a nebula
  • Main sequenceTerm
    The long stage when a star fuses hydrogen into helium
  • Red giantTerm
    A swollen, cool star near the end of its life
  • White dwarfTerm
    The small hot core left after a medium star ends
  • Planetary nebulaTerm
    A glowing shell of gas thrown off by a dying star
  • SupernovaTerm
    The explosion of a massive star at the end of its life
  • Neutron starTerm
    The super-dense core left by some supernovae
  • PulsarTerm
    A spinning neutron star that sends out beams of radiation
  • Black holeTerm
    A region where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape
  • Event horizonTerm
    The boundary around a black hole beyond which nothing returns
  • Red dwarfTerm
    A small, cool, long-lived star
  • SupergiantTerm
    A very large, luminous star
  • Binary starTerm
    Two stars orbiting each other
  • Variable starTerm
    A star whose brightness changes
  • NovaTerm
    A white dwarf suddenly brightening by pulling in gas
  • Star color and temperatureTerm
    Blue stars are hottest; red stars are coolest
  • Spectral classes from hot to coolTerm
    O, B, A, F, G, K, M
  • Spectral class of the SunTerm
    G
  • LuminosityTerm
    The total amount of light a star gives off
  • Apparent magnitudeTerm
    How bright a star looks from Earth
  • Absolute magnitudeTerm
    How bright a star would look from a standard distance
  • Hertzsprung-Russell diagramTerm
    A graph plotting star brightness against temperature
  • Light-yearTerm
    The distance light travels in one year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers
  • ParallaxTerm
    The apparent shift of a nearby star against the background as Earth moves
  • GalaxyTerm
    A huge collection of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity
  • Milky WayTerm
    Our home galaxy, a spiral with a central bar
  • Spiral galaxyTerm
    A galaxy with arms curling out from the center
  • Elliptical galaxyTerm
    A smooth oval-shaped galaxy
  • Irregular galaxyTerm
    A galaxy with no regular shape
  • Galaxy clusterTerm
    A group of many galaxies bound by gravity
  • Local GroupTerm
    The cluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way
  • Large Magellanic CloudTerm
    A small galaxy that orbits the Milky Way
  • QuasarTerm
    An extremely bright center of a distant galaxy powered by a black hole
  • Dark matterTerm
    Unseen matter that adds gravity to galaxies
  • Dark energyTerm
    A mysterious force that speeds up the expansion of the universe
  • Big Bang theoryTerm
    The universe began extremely hot and dense about 13.8 billion years ago
  • Expanding universeTerm
    Space is stretching, carrying galaxies apart
  • RedshiftTerm
    Light from receding objects stretches toward red
  • Who found that galaxies move away from us in 1929?Term
    Edwin Hubble
  • Cosmic microwave backgroundTerm
    The faint glow left from the early universe
  • Observable universeTerm
    The part of the universe we can see from Earth
  • ExoplanetTerm
    A planet orbiting a star other than the Sun
  • Habitable zoneTerm
    The region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet
  • TelescopeTerm
    An instrument that gathers light to see faraway objects
  • Refracting telescopeTerm
    A telescope that uses lenses
  • Reflecting telescopeTerm
    A telescope that uses mirrors
  • Radio telescopeTerm
    A dish that collects radio waves from space
  • Spectrum of starlightTerm
    Shows what elements a star contains
  • AstronomyTerm
    The study of space and everything in it
  • AstrophysicsTerm
    The branch of astronomy using physics to explain objects in space
  • CosmologyTerm
    The study of the origin and structure of the universe
  • Who proposed the Sun-centered solar system in 1543?Term
    Nicolaus Copernicus
  • Who first used a telescope to study the sky in 1609?Term
    Galileo Galilei
  • Who described the laws of planetary motion?Term
    Johannes Kepler
  • Which star is closest to Earth?Term
    The Sun
  • Which star is the closest after the Sun?Term
    Proxima Centauri
  • Star formation locationTerm
    Inside dense nebulae
  • Chandrasekhar limitTerm
    The maximum mass of a white dwarf, about 1.4 solar masses
  • Solar massTerm
    A unit equal to the mass of the Sun
  • Gravitational wavesTerm
    Ripples in space-time first detected in 2015
  • First image of a black hole shadow, releasedTerm
    2019, in the galaxy M87

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