| A | B |
|---|
| How far is the sun from the earth? | 150 million km |
| What type of star is our sun? | medium sized |
| What is the sun's diameter? | 1.35 million km |
| How many Earths would fit in the sun? | one million |
| Name the three layers that make up the sun's atmosphere in order starting at the outside.. | Corona, Chromosphere, Photosphere |
| What is the sun's interior layer called? | core |
| How hot is the corona? | 1,700,000 C |
| How hot is the chromosphere? | 27,800 C |
| Which of the sun's atmosphere layers is the widest? | Chromosphere, several thousand km |
| How hot is the photosphere? | 6000 C |
| How hot is the edge of the sun's core? | 1,000,000 degrees C |
| What is the temperature of the inner core of the sun? | 15 million degrees C |
| Where does nuclear fusion occur in the sun? | In the core |
| Name the solar storm that originates in the chormophere and sends out loops or arches of gas. | Prominences |
| What is a burst of light on the photosphere that lasts less than an hour with temps of 12,000 C and releases much energy into space | Solar Flares |
| Name the continuous stream of high energy particles from the sun's corona that increases solar wind and disrupts radio and phones on Earth | Solar Wind |
| Name the dark area on the sun that is cooler than the surrounding areas and whose activity increases every 10-11 years | Sunspots |
| What is a protostar? | A new star |
| Where are stars born? | In a nebula |
| What force in the nebula clumps some of the hydrogen gas together? | Gravity |
| During the evolution of the star, when hydrogen atoms collide and the hydrogen gas heats to a high temperature, what happens? | Nuclear fusion |
| When nuclear fusion occurs in a protostar, what happens to the star? | It begins to shine and give off light and heat |
| What is the main factor that shapes the evolution of a star? | Its mass |
| What change occurs to the hydrogen gas when nuclear fusion happens in a star?fusion make to the hydrogen gas in a star's core? | It changes to helium |
| What is the gas in the outer core of a medium sized star? | Hydrogen |
| When the helium core of a medium sized star begins to shrink, what happens to it? | It begins to heat up again which makes energy, this energy causes the hydrogen shell to expand. |
| What is a star called that expands and cools to a reddish color? | Red giant |
| When the helium core of a medium star reaches 200,000 degrees C what happens to the helium atoms? | They become carbon atoms |
| What is a planetary nebula? | When the hydrogen gas drifts away from the red giant and forms a ring around the star's core |
| What happens to the star when all the helium atoms are fused into carbon atoms? | The star begins to die |
| As a star cools and fades, what does gravity do to the star's matter? | It causes it to collapse inward |
| How is a white dwarf formed? | The star's mass collapses and squeezes tightly together |
| How would you describe the denseness of a white dwarf? | Extremely dense |
| What color is a white dwarf? | White hot |
| How long will a small mass star live? | 100 billion years |
| How long will an average mass star live? | 10 billion years |
| How long will a large mass star live? | a few billion years |
| What happens to a white dwarf when all the energy is gone? | It dies |
| In a Massive star, what happens when the heat reaches 600,000,000 C? | First oxygen and nitrogen are formed, as it continues to heat iron is formed |
| Medium stars and massive stars start with the same life cycle. At what point do they differ? | Massive stars do not become red giants and white dwarfs. |
| How does a supernova occur? | The iron core of a massive star begins to absorb energy, as the energy releases the star explodes |
| How hot can a super nova get? | 1,000,000,000 deg C |
| Where does a nebula come from? | The gas and dust from the explosion of a supernova |
| What will the core of a star, that has undergone a supernova, become? | Neutron star |
| How much would one teaspoon of a neutron star weigh? | 100 million tons |
| What do neutron stars give off? | Energy as radio waves, pulses of energy called pulsars |
| Where do Black holes come from? | After a supernova explosion the massive core is swallowed by its own gravity which is so strong even light can't escape |
| What do black holes do to energy and matter? | It swallows them like a cosmic vacuum cleaner |
| If a black hole has a companion star, what happens to it. | The gases heat as they are sucked into the black hole |
| How can scientists detect a black hole? | When the companion star's gases are sucked into the black hole they give off x-rays visible to the Earth |
