Unit: Space

Unit: Space

Voyager: 1&2. Space that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Was not able to visit Pluto b/c it was on the other side of solar system at the time. Voyager is now on its way at the edge of the Solar System. Both Voyagers carry a gold plated laser disc containing the history of Earth including pictures.

Solar flare: A explosion on the surface of the Sun. The radiation from a solar flare cause excess radiation to hit the Earth and mess up electronics.

Sunspot: A large dark spot on the sun, with low temperatures and high magnetism. Sunspots cause solar flares. Sunspots occur every 11 years, with the last sunspot cycle being 1999-2000.

Aurora: Northern lights are caused by radiation from solar flares hitting the magnetic field of the Earth.

Moon facts: phases of the moon: full, gibbous, quarter, crescent, new. It takes 29 days for the moon to orbit the Earth.

Light Year: A light year is the distance light travels in a year. This distance equals roughly 5.9 trillion miles.

Light Speed: 300,000 km/sec

Nebula: is a cloud of gas and dust. Is usually the birthplace of stars. Some famous nebuli include Crab, Ring, Horseshoe

Galaxy: A galaxy is a group of billions of stars gas and dust.

Spiral Galaxy: A spiral galaxy is a galaxy in the shape of a spiral or pinwheel. Some examples include Milky Way and Andromeda.

Elliptical Galaxy: A Galaxy in the shape of an ellipse or oval. An example includes M87

Irregular Galaxy: A galaxy with no regular shape. Examples include the Large and Small Magellanic clouds.

What is the closest Galaxy: The closest galaxy to the Milky Way would be the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, which are 170,000 and 200,000 light years away.

Milky Way: Milky Way is the name of our galaxy. The Milky Way is 100,000 light years across, 50,00 ly to the center. In the center of the Milky Way is a large black hole. The Sun is located at the end of one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

Clusters: All galaxies are grouped together into what are called clusters. All of the local galaxies are grouped into what is called the local cluster. The local cluster includes the Milky Way, Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, and Andromeda.

Superclusters: All clusters are grouped together into groups called superclusters.

Order of the Universe: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Cluster, Super Cluster, Universe.

Quasar: Quasi Stellar Radio Sources. Quasars are not really stars but give off a great deal of radiation. Quasars are the brightest objects known in the solar system. Quasars are also the farthest objects known in the Universe. Quasars are known to be 15billion light years away.

Pulsars: Pulsars are objects, probably the remains of neutron stars. Pulsars give off a pulsing sound and pulsing radiation, sounding like a beep. Pulsars were believed to be aliens, and were once originally called LGM's (little green men).

Nova: A sudden brightening of a star

Supernova: An explosion of a large star. Supernovas probably lead to the birth of new stars, and probably led to the birth of the solar system. Supernova could destroy the Earth if one occurred close enough to the Earth.

Polaris: aka North Star. Polaris appears to the north on Earth.

Constellation: Group of stars named after person god or animal.

Binary Star: Binary Stars are stars that appear in pairs. Typically binary stars usually have a large blue star with a smaller star orbiting it.

Proxima Centauri: A triple binary system. Proxima Alpha Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, only 4.2 light years. Away. Proxima Centauri contains a Blue Giant.

Binary Star: Binary Stars are stars that appear in pairs. Typically binary stars usually have a large blue star with a smaller star orbiting it.

Proxima Centauri: A triple binary system. Proxima Alpha Centauri is the closest star to the Sun, only 4.2 light years. Away. Proxima Centauri contains a Blue Giant.

It takes 8 light minutes for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth.

It takes 2 light seconds for light to travel from the Moon to the Earth.

Types of Stars: Blue Giants, Red Giants, Main Sequence yellow stars, White Dwarfs, Black Dwarfs, Black Holes.

The Sun is a main sequence star, meaning it is a small average star.

Death of Stars, two types

A). small stars: Main sequence, Red Giant, Ring Nebula, White Dwarf, Black Dwarf

B). Large stars: Giant, supergiant, supernova, neutron star, black hole

The Sun will have a type A death.

White dwarfs are very dense dim stars, They are so dense that one teaspoon would weigh 300 tons

Black dwarfs are dense stars that give off no light. They are so dense that one teaspoon would weigh 1 million tons.

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This page was hand made by Project LASA on May 13, 2001.