Academic Team - Science

What type of galaxy features arms that begin at the ends of a long thick line of stars running through the central bulge?

A Barred Spiral Galaxy

When the escape velocity of an object exceeds the speed of light it goes dark and thus is known as what.

A Black Hole

If a universe is massive enough that it will eventually collapse back down upon itself due to gravity is said to be what kind of universe?

A Closed Universe

When two galaxies of relatively equal size collide and unite what event has taken place?

A Galactic Merger

A large collection of stars gas and dust that are bound together by their mutual gravitation is known as what?

A Galaxy

What term is defined as the brightness a star would have at a distance of 10 parsecs from the Earth?

Absolute Magnitude

Usually a result of gravity what terms means the gradual accumulation of of matter to form a larger body?

Accretion

What type of lens minimizes the effect that results from different colors of light focusing at different distances from the lens?

Achromatic Lens

What do we call supermassive blackholes in the center of a galaxy that emit particles and radiation?

Active Galactic Nuclei

What do we call the process of adjusting mirrors on a telescope automatically to compensate for the Earth's atmosphere's distortion of starlight

Adaptive Optics

What type of eclipse occurs when the Moon is not close enough to completely cover the Sun thus a ring of sunlight is seen around the Moon midway through the event?

An Annular Eclipse

What term is defined as the smallest anglular size that a telescope can distinguish as a distinct object?

Angular Resolution

What term is defined as the point in a Solar System body's orbit at which it is farthest from the Sun?

Aphelion

What do we define as the brightness of an object as it is seen from Earth?

Apparent Magnitude

Otherwise known as a minor planet what do we call rocky objects revolving around the Sun that are at least a few hundred meters large that are too small to be considered a planet?

Asteroids

What is the study of life in the unvierse?

Astrobiology

Approximately 93 million miles it is used a common unit of measurement within the Solar System. What unit is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun?

Astronomical Unit

Seen most often in the polar regions of the Earth what phenomenon appears when atoms and ions from the solar wind hit the Earth's upper atmosphere?

Aurora

What is the term for the intersection of ecliptic and the celestial equator when the Sun crosses into the celestial southern hemisphere?

Autumnal Equinox

By what name do we call a pair of stars that are gravitationally locked in orbit around each other?

Binary Star

What can be defined as a compact quasar whose jet of radiation is pointed towards Earth?

Blazar

What do we call the shift of spectral lines towards shorter wavelengths seen when a light source is approaching its viewer?

Blueshift

Planetlike bodies that did not accumulate enough mass to begin thermonuclear fusion are known by what name? They will have less than eight percent of the solar mass.

Brown Dwarfs

What element fuses into oxygen and neon in the fusion process in stars?

Carbon

Serving as a standard candle to judge distances across the universe what kind of star has a very regular luminosity to pulsation rate proportion?

Cepheid Variable Stars

At about 1.4 Solar masses what name is given to the maximum mass of a white dwarf?

Chandreskhar Limit

What effect is seen in a lens when different wavelengths of light (colors) are focused at different distances from the lens?

Chromatic Aberration

Within the Sun's atmosphere what layer lies between the photosphere and the corona and though it is relatively transparent it does have a reddish color?

Chromosphere

Any star that does not set at a given latitude can be said to what adjective referencing its motion on the celestial sphere?

Circumpolar

What term is defined as the spherical or nearly spherical ball of gas surrounding the nucleus of a comet?

Coma

What term is defined as a small body made of ice and dust travelling in an elongated orbit around the Sun resulting in a coma and tail as it passes near the Sun?

Comet

When two bodies are lined up in the Solar System such that they appear in the same part of our sky here on Earth they are said to be in... what?

Conjunction

Technically speaking in scientific circles they are any of the 88 regions of the celestial sphere divided up for the purposes of easily referencing parts of the sky. In layman's terms it refers to a collection of stars that one might see a design in when connected?

Constellation

The movement of energy through the motion of gas containing that energy exhibited in the movement of energy with certain layers of stars is called what?

Convection

What type of telescope is designed to block out the Sun's disk revealing only its outermost layer?

Coronagraph

Large amounts of gas released by the Sun's outer atmosphere is known by what name?

Coronal Mass Ejection

What is the specific effect seen when the light of distant objects is skewed to longer wavelengths due not to their actual movement away from us but rather the expansion of the universe resulting in them being at a greater distance from us?

Cosmological Redshift

What is the study of the history of the Universe including its formation organization and evolution called?

Cosmology

By what name do we refer to a circular depression on an astronomical body caused by an impact from another body usually a meteor asteroid comet? Note: these can also be caused by volcanoes.

Craters

By what two-word name do we refer to the Moon's phase when it appears less than half full?

Crescent Moon

Causing the Universe to expand what repulsive gravitational effect makes up most of the matter/energy component of our universe?

Dark Energy

What is the term for undetected matter that seems to be quite different than ordinary matter yet has a gravitational effect?

Dark Matter

What is the coordinate on the celestial sphere equivalent to latitude on the Earth?

Declination

What term is defined as a compression of gas and dust in a spiral shape in a spiral galaxy?

Density Wave

On Jupiter there are many different colored bands. Part of the reason for this is that gases at various latitudes on the planet travel at different speeds. What is this called?

Differential Rotation

Gradual motion eastward against the celestial sphere by planets as seen from Earth is what type of motion?

Direct Motion

What feature of spiral galaxies consists of a flattened collection of stars and dust?

Disk

What term is defined as cyclical motion with a 1-day period?

Diurnal Motion

By what relatively new term do we refer to a body that is massive enough to pull itself into a generally spherical shape that is too small to clear its orbit of all of the small debris?

Dwarf Planet

What general name is given to an event in which the light from the Moon is blocked by the Earth or the light from the Sun is blocked by the Moon?

Eclipse

What type of system features two stars that pass in front of each other from time to time as seen from Earth?

Eclipsing Binary System

Planetary orbits are in what shape?

Ellipses

What of galaxy has no flattened disk very little interstellar gas and dust and is believed to form when multiple galaxies collide?

Elliptical Galaxy

What type of nebula glows as a result of fluorescence caused by a nearby star?

Emission Nebula

First seen in 1838 what is the name of the small gap in Saturn's A ring?

Encke Division

In the Geocentric model what name is given to the smaller circles that some planets travelled on in their circular paths around the Earth?

Epicycles

What general name is given to either of two days in which the Sun crosses the celestial equator?

Equinox

What is the boundary of a black hole called important because it is the point at which the escape velocity of the black hole equals the speed of light?

Event Horizon

What path on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram does a star take over its lifetime?

Evolutionary Track

The supercluster of galaxies are moving away from one another because the universe is doing what?

Expanding

What waxing phase of the Moon appears when half of its surface is illuminated as seen from Earth?

First Quarter Moon

During what phase of the Moon can the entire illuminated portion of its surface be seen from Earth?

Full Moon

What is said to have taken place when two galaxies collide with the larger absorbing the smaller into its previously existant shape?

Galactic Cannibalism

Believed to be the result of a supernova when a supermassive star collapses into a black hole what events are the most luminated electromagnetic events in the known universe?

Gamma-ray Bursts

Any star that has a diameter ranging between 10 and 100 times that of the Sun is called a _____ star.

Giant

What adjective means that the Moon is in a phase in which more than half but not all of its illuminated surface is visible on Earth?

Gibbous

What grouping of stars is usually found in a spherical shape and in the outlying regions of galaxies?

Globular Cluster

What are convection features around 1000km in diameter seen at all times in the photosphere?

Granules

What is defined as the tendency of all matter to be attracted to other matter at a rate dependent upon its mass?

Gravitation

When a gravitational body passing between an object and the viewer results in the distortion of its appearance what effect is produced?

Gravitational Lensing

What effect takes place when photons of light pass near a massive body resulting in the elongation of the light's waves?

Gravitational Redshift

The temperature of a planet can increase tremendously when what effect traps infared radiation between its surface and its atmosphere?

Greenhouse Effect

Consisting largely of dark matter a few stray stars globular clusters what is the region surrounding a galaxy called?

Halo

Carbon fuses into what two elements in thermonuclear fusion?

Oxygen and Neon

By what name do we refer to the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupter that is about 1.5 Astronomical Units wide containing many small rocky bodies that were unable to form a planet due to the gas giant's gravitational pull?

The Asteroid Belt

What explosion took place around 13.7 billion years ago? It resulted in the creation of space time energy and all matter in the universe that came to be?

The Big Bang

What theory states that the Moon developed elsewhere in the Solar System and became gravitationally locked to the Earth sometime after its creation?

The Capture Theory

What do we call the gap between Saturn's A and B rings?

The Cassini Division

What imaginary line exists on the celestial sphere 90 degrees from the celestial poles?

The Celestial Equator

About what two points does the celestial sphere appear to rotate?

The Celestial Poles

What sphere appears to move throughout the night about a point above the Earth's poles on which all of the points of light in the sky rest?

The Celestial Sphere

Surrounding the nucleus of a spiral galaxy what group of stars is distributed in the shape of a flattened sphere?

The Central Bulge

What theory states that the Earth and the Moon formed simultaneously at the beginning of the Solar System already gravitationally bound to one another?

The Co-creation Theory

What leading theory states that the Moon was created when a planet size object hit the early Earth resulting in the creation of the Moon from the debris?

The Collision-Ejection Theory

What do we call the central portion of any astronomical body?

The Core

What theory states that gas giant planets formed from icy or terrestial bodies gravitationally adding hydrogen helium and water onto the planet?

The Core-accretion Theory

What is the outermost layer of the Sun?

The Corona

What term is defined as a sphere centered on the Earth consists of the entire portion of the Universe viewable by us because of being fewer light-years away than the time since the Big Bang?

The Cosmic Light Horizon

Representing a pressure that opposes gravity what is sometimes entered into equations of General Relativity? Many scientists believe this to be evidence that our understanding of gravity is not entirely correct.

The Cosmological Constant

What is the change in wavelength of radiation due to a change in distance between the observer and the source along the line of sight?

The Doppler Effect

What mathematical equation devised in 1962 estimates the number of intelligent civilizations within the Milky Way Galaxy?

The Drake Equation

What is defined as the path that the Sun takes across the celestial sphere annually?

The Ecliptic

At what location just outside a black hole is it impossible to remain at rest?

The Ergoregion

What thoery of the Moon's formation states that it was formed by matter that was flung off of the Earth as it rotated extremely fast?

The Fission Theory

What name is given to the group of Jupiter's four largest moons: Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, and Io?

The Galilean Moons

What model of the Solar System thought to be accurate for at least 2000 years holds that the Earth is at the center with the Sun the Moon and the planets moving around us?

The Geocentric Model

It surprised Astronomers with its disappearance. What large storm in Neptune's southern hemisphere went away in 1994?

The Great Dark Spot

What is the name of the largest storm in the Solar System located in Jupiter's southern hemisphere?

The Great Red Spot

What region around stars is the region at which water would be in liquid form making life a possiblity?

The Habitable Zone

The process by which black holes evaporate what is it called when virtual particles turn into real particles just outside of the event horizon?

The Hawking Process