PHYSICS - SPACE PHYSICS - TOPIC 8

what is a satellite

anything that orbits a planet

what are the two types of satellites and examples

natural - moon

artificial - international space station

what shape are the orbits of comets

elliptical

where are asteroids found

in the astroid belt

which two planets is the asteroid belt in between

mars and Jupiter

what are comets mostly made out of

dust and ice

what are asteroids mostly made out of

rock and metal

what is a nebula

a big cloud of dust and gas

what pulls the dust and gas into a nebula to form a protostar

attraction of gravity

as the protostar attracts more particles from surrounding nebula what may happen to it

becomes denser

increase in temperature

nuclear fusion could initiate

once nuclear fusion begins in a protostar what does it become

a main sequence star

how does a main sequence star stay balanced

the outward pressure from nuclear fusion and inward pressure from gravity balances it out

what star is in that process right now

the sun

after the main sequence what could the star become

a red giant

a super red giant

what does a main sequence star fuse together and what does it make

hydrogen particles fuse together to make helium

in red giants or red super giants what can nuclear fusion form

heavier elements up to iron in the periodic table

what are elects heavier than iron formed by

supernovas

for a red giants what happens next in its life cycle

it becomes a white dwarf and then a black dwarf

for a red super giant what happens next in tis life cycle

it explodes as a supernova

what are two things that might occur after a supernova

condenses into a neutron star

collapses in on itself to form a black hole

what does neutrons first law state

that any object travelling at a certain velocity will contuse to travel at that same velocity unless acted upon by a resultant force

what does velocity measure

speed and direction

what is an orbit

the curved path of a celestial object or spacecraft, around another celestial object

during orbit what is constantly changing which causes the velocity to also constantly change

the direction

why is an orbiting object accelerating

because the velocity is changing

what provides the force to keep a satellite in orbit

gravity

which side on the absorption spectra has the longer wavelength

the red side ( the left)

what does a star emit

light of all wavelengths

what happens to some of these wavelengths

they’re absorbed by chemicals in the stars atmosphere

what does the absorption of light wavelengths then result in

the light that reaches earth has some wavelengths missing in it

what does the red shift provide evidence for

the Big Bang theory

what is red shift

when light from distant galaxies show an absorption spectra pattern that has been shifted to the left side ( the red side)

if a galaxy is moving at a faster rate away from us what does it mean for the red shift

the red shift will be larger

why are galaxies moving away from each other

the space in between the galaxies is expanding

what is a strength and weakness of the balloon model

strength - as the balloon expands the dots get further apart representing the galaxies moving away from each other due to expanding of the universe

weakness- the dots are only on the surface of the balloon whereas galaxies are all through out the universe