| A | B |
|---|
| evidence | material or data from which conclusions can be drawn and by which proof can be established |
| hypothesis | a tentative explination for an observation or phenomonon |
| thechnology | the application of scientific discoveries to meet human objectives |
| scientific inquiry | investigation of a natural phenomonon by observing, asking questions, forming a hypothesis, gathering data, testing, & sharing |
| peer review | process by which one's work or research is reviewed by experts to evaluate its validity |
| theory | an explination or model based on observation, reasoning, & experimentation |
| law | a generalized statement about how the natural world behaves under certain conditions and for which no exceptions have ever been found |
| galaxy | a group of millions/billions of stars held together by gravity |
| big bang | theory that the universe origionated from the instant expansion of an extremely small matter of high density & temperature |
| electromagnetic radiation | wave energy |
| electromagnetic spectrum | continuum showing the range of electromagnetic radiation |
| emission spectrum | a bright line spectrum |
| continuus spectrum | a spectrum that contains all colors or wavelenghts |
| constellation | a group of stars that appear to form a pattern in the sky |
| ceheid variable | a variable star that brightens and dims regularly, pulses |
| absorption spectrum | spectrum crossed by dark lines produced when light passes through |
| apparent magnitude | the measurement of how bright a star appears to be from earth |
| astronimical unit | the average distance between Earth and the sun (150 million kilometers) |
| absolute magnitude | the measure of how bright a star would be if it were located 10 parsecs from earth |
| quasar | a very distant, extremely luminous celestial object |
| parsec | unit of measurement used to describe distances between celestial objects- equal to 3.258 light years |
| nebula | large cloud of gas & dust in space |
| neutron star | superdense remains of a massive star that collapsed with enough force to push all of its electrons into the nuclei they orbit |
| main sequence | a star that is at the point in its life cycle in which it is actively fusing hydrogen nuclei into helium nuclei |
| light year | the distance light travels in one year (9.5 trillion kilometers) |
| luminosity | the brightness of a star |
| pulsar | a distant neutron star that emits rapid pulses of light and radio waves |
| giant star | a large star with great luminosity and a diameter 10 -100 times greater than the sun |
| black hole | the final life stage of an extrmemly massive star with an intense gravitational field |
| supernova | brilliant burst of light that follows the collapse of the iron core of a massave star |
| supergiants | the most luminous, most massave stars with diameters greater than 100 times the diameter of the sun |
| white dwarf | the remnant of a giant star that has lost its outer atmosphere |
