Exam 24: Stars, Space, and Galaxies

Describe the gravitation force and size of the Sun.

The surface of the Sun that we see from Earth is the ____.

Blue stars are hotter than red stars.

When a star larger than 1.44 solar masses dies, a(n) ____________________ explosion occurs after helium fusion has ended and after iron fusion has occurred.

What are the three lines of logic and evidence that supports the big bang theory?

The ____ brightness of a star is how bright a star would appear if it were 10 parsec away from Earth.

Because they do not emit light, it's impossible for astronomers to determine whether black holes really exist.

The big bang occurred ____ years ago.

If a star were orbiting a black hole, great masses of gas from the star would be sucked into the black hole, to disappear forever.

What is the chromosphere?

Spherical clouds of dust and gas, known as a(n) ____________________, surround the Milky Way's galactic disk.

The three-dimensional shape of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is like a ____.

A dying star as massive as our Sun that will eventually shrink until its diameter is approximately that of Earth, and will glow solely from its residual heat produced during past eras, is called a(n) ____________________.

What is the composition of the Sun?

What do solar prominences look like?

A ____ is a red, flame-like jet of gas rising from the Sun's corona that can be held aloft for weeks or months by the Sun's magnetic fields.

Until about 300,000 years after the big bang, atoms could not form because the temperature of the Universe was so hot.

Helium fusion requires a higher temperature than hydrogen fusion because ____.

All the known elements heavier than iron form during the ____.

If we can see a quasar that is 8 billion light-years away, it must still exist.