Honors Astronomy Vocabulary

Some review terms and some new

Electromagnetic Spectrum

• The arrangement of electromagnetic radiation waves according to their wavelengths and frequencies.

Spectroscopy

• The study of the properties of light that depend on wavelength.

Continuous Spectrum

• Produced by an incandescent solid, liquid, or gas under high pressure.– Incandescent means to emit light when hot

Absorption Spectrum

• Produced when visible light is passed through a relatively cool gas under low pressure

Emission Spectrum

• Produced by a hot gas under low pressure.

Doppler Effect

• The perceived change in wavelength of a wave that is emitted from a source that is moving away or toward an object.

Refracting Telescope

• First telescopes invented, around 1600• Uses lenses to bring visible light to a focus

Reflecting telescope

• Invented in 1668• Brings visible light to a focus with mirrors• Most telescopes in use today are reflectors

Interferometry

• The detail in images they produce improves the closer they are together

• Very Large Array near Socorro, AZ

Process of linking separate telescopes together so they act as one telescope

Spinoff

• NASA technology that has been passed to commercial industries for common use

• Laser angioplasty • Cardiac imaging system• Advanced pacemaker• Infrared thermometer• Thermal video• Body imaging• Skin damage assessment

Interstellar cloud / Nebula

• A cloud of dust and gas in space

Terrestrial Planet

• Relatively small and rocky planets (Earth-like)• Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

Jovian Planet

• Huge gas giants (Jupiter-like)• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Planetesimals

• Small, irregularly shaped bodies formed from colliding matter

Asteroid• Rocky remnant of the early solar system found

mostly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt

Meteoroid vs. Meteor vs. Meteorite

Meteoroid Meteor Meteorite

Interplanetary material that enters Earth’s atmosphere

Streak of light produced when a meteoroid falls toward Earth and burns in the atmosphere

Meteoroid that strikes Earth’s surface Sometimes causes impact crater

Comet

• Small, eccentrically orbiting body made of rock and ice that consists of a nucleus, a coma, and one or more tails that point away from the Sun.

Comet ISON