Astronomy Midterm Review

Neil Armstrong

1st man on the moon

Robert Goddard

American Rocketry Expert

Sally Ride

1st American woman in space

Ed White

1st American EVA - Gemini 4

John Glenn

1st American sent into orbit

Gus Grissom

Commander of the 1st Gemini mission/ died in Apollo 1 fire

Ron Sega

Nordonia graduate

Judith Resnik

Akron native that died on challenger

Yuri Gagarin

1st person in space - Vostok 1

Alan Shepard

Commander of Apollo 14/ 1st American in space

John Young

Commander of 1st space shuttle

Werner von Braun

German Rocketry Expert

Chuck Yeager

1st person to break the sound barrier

Alexei Leonov

1st EVA - Vostok 2

Jim Lovell

Commander of Apollo 13

Buzz Aldrin

2nd man on the moon

Valentina Tereshkova

1st woman in space

Christa McAuliffe

teacher chosen to be on Challenger

Micheal Collins

Apollo 11 lunar landing, didn’t walk

Mir

Russian space station used in 90’s (Peace)

Gemini 4

Ed White - 2nd crewed NASA spaceflight

Vostok 1

1st Russian shuttle

Apollo 8

1st moon orbit

Challenger

Shuttle that exploded because of a faulty O-ring and freezing temps

V-2

Worlds 1st long range ballistic missle

Freedom 7

Alan Shepard’s Capsule

Apollo 17

Last Apollo Mission

Enterprise

1st space shuttle/ only glide and landing tests

Soyuz

Russian Capsule

Apollo 13

Oxygen tanks exploded - led to aborted lunar landing

X-1

1st plane faster than sound

Colombia

Space shuttle destroyed in 2003/ foam strike on re-entry

Buran

Soviet space shuttle

Liberty Bell 7

Gus Grissom’s Capsule

Explorer 1

1st U.S. satellite

Skylab

1st U.S. space shuttle

Friendship 7

John Glenn’s Mercury Capsule

Apollo 11

1st Apollo mission to land on the moon

ISS

International Space Station

Spirit of St. Louis

1st Trans-Atlantic flight performed by Charles Lindberg

Layers on the sun

Photosphere, Chromosphere, Corona, Heliosphere

Photosphere

most visible, emits light, “granules” 15 - 20 minute lifespan

Chromosphere

above Photosphere, higher temp, not visible to naked eye

Corona

only visible during total solar eclipse, hottest layer, low density

Heliosphere

last outer layer

HR Diagram Categories

Main Sequence, White Dwarf, Red Giant, Red Super giants

7 Spectral Types

OBAFGKM

Why do larger m.s. stars live shorter lifetimes?

Larger stars live shorter lives because they “run out of fuel faster”. Larger stars need more energy to burn in order to keep itself stable. This is the mass-luminosity relationship, larger mass = more luminosity.

How can astronomers determine the mass of stars?

By studying the gravitational force it exerts on other objects

Proton-Proton Chain

Hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form Helium nuclei in the core.

Differential Rotation

The different sections of an object rotate at different rates, causes magnetic fields to get warped and atmospheric phenomena

Cepheid Variable

1st “standard candle” for galactic distance

Dark Matter

“Missing mass” neither emits/reflects light, has no gravitational force, can be observed by gravitational lensing

Rotation Curve

the plot of the speed of stars v.s. the distance from galaxy

Hubble’s Law

the relationship between galaxy distance and speed

Galactic Cannibalism

When 2 galaxies collide and merge into 1 over several million years

Steady State Theory

Prior to Hubble, most believed the universe was infinite (age/size) and static (not changing)

Big Bang Theory

Assumed that space, time, and energy already existed →rapid explosion → everything formed after

Big RIP Theory

“Dark Energy” is pushing the acceleration of expansion → will eventually cause all particles to be torn apart

Exoplanet

Planets that are outside of our Solar System/ 5,284 detected/ orbit stars/ found w/ “Wobble Method” and “ Light Curve/Kepler"

Weird Terrain

Opposite side of Mercury, not consistent w/ rest of planet, thought to be the effect large impact.

Basalt/Breccia/Anorthosite

Found in Maria, Craters, Highlands

Plate Tectonics

The plates under land that shift: Convergent - 2 plates collide, Divergent - 2 plates move plates

Albedo

The ability of a surface to reflect light

Theories of Moon Formation

Condensation: formed w/ S.S. Fission: Earth and moon were conjoined and broke apart. Capture: We caught the moon. Large Impact: Debris from Theia hitting earth collected together

Tidal Heating

Tidal Friction/ orbital + rotational energy is dissipated as heat in the interior of the planet

Shepherd Satellite

A moon that orbits near the edge of a planetary ring

Dwarf Planet

A planet that doesn’t meet the requirements to be a planet.

Orbits a star/ large and spherical to have gravitational pull/ must have a clear path

Meteor Shower

When Earth passes through a comet’s tail

Asteroid Belt

Separates Mars + Jupiter ( Inner and Outer), most asteroids live here

Oort Cloud

Where billions of comets are herded, “long period comets”, beyond Pluto

Kuiper Belt

Many comets, asteroids, and other icy entities beyond neptune

Parallax

The displacement of a star based on our POV

Aristotle

Used basic observations and principles to create “Philosophy of Astronomy” → Earth is stationary/center of universe (geocentrism), objects orbit in ellipticals (spheres), unchanging, perfection

Ptolemy

devised mathematical model based on Aristotle’s work, needed to account for retrograde motion, planet → epicycle → deferent, Ptolemaic Model lasted 1,500 years

Copernicus

Cleric, wanted to fix Ptolemaic model/ “On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres”, published just before death/ “Heliocentric Model” \**One of the greatest paradigm shift*

Tycho

Nobleman, saw many errors w/ Ptomely’s predictions through exact observation, observed a supernova → proved Aristotle wrong, hired mathematician who stole his books and data after he died.

Kepler

Came up with 3 laws of Planetary motion → Kepler telescope

Galileo

1st scientist-ish to run experiments, child’s toy into telescope/ observed moon (mountains, valleys, craters) NOT PERFECT/ Jupiter’s 4 moons, published “The Starry Messenger” → sunspots/ Venus has phases/ church tried to stop him but he continued and ended up begin on house arrest until he died

Perseverance Rover

Mars

New Horizons Main Destination

Pluto

Cassini

Saturn

Juno Prove

Jupiter

Maxwell Montes

Venus

Charon

Pluto

Titan

Saturn

Triton

Neptune

Titania

Uranus

Ganymede

Jupiter

Phobos

Mars

Caloris Basin

Mercury

Mariner Valley

Mars

IO

Jupiter

Enceladus

Saturn

Densest Planet

Earth

Messenger

Mercury

Olympus Mons

Mars

Last planet visited by Voyager 2

Neptune

Most massive planet

Jupiter

Planet with greatest axial tilt

Venus