Astronomy Unit 5 Project Crossword

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Across
  1. 2. The irregular layer of a star where the temperature rises and hydrogen emits light that gives off a reddish color.
  2. 9. The primary nuclear fusion process by which stars like our Sun generate energy. It is a specific sequence of reactions that converts hydrogen into helium.
  3. 11. A colossal, catastrophic explosion of a star. It is the largest and most energetic explosion that can happen in space, often releasing as much energy in a few seconds as our Sun will emit in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.
  4. 12. A region of space where gravity is so intense that nothing—no particles, and not even light—can escape from it.
  5. 13. A star that is essentially in its stable "adulthood." It is defined by one specific physical process: it is generating energy by fusing hydrogen into helium in its core.
  6. 15. A dying star in the late stages of its life. It is a star that has exhausted the hydrogen fuel in its core and, in response, has expanded to a massive size and cooled down, changing color to a reddish hue.
  7. 18. A sudden, powerful explosion on the surface of a star that causes it to become thousands of times brighter than usual.
  8. 19. The super-dense, collapsed core of a massive star. It is the smallest and densest class of stellar object known, second only to black holes
  9. 20. The outermost layer of a star's atmosphere. It is a vast, diffuse aura of plasma that extends millions of kilometers into space, gradually merging with the solar wind.
Down
  1. 1. The hot, dense core left behind after a low-to-medium mass star has exhausted its fuel and shed its outer layers. It is essentially the "corpse" of a star like our Sun.
  2. 3. A massive, cold, and dense region of interstellar gas and dust that serves as the primary site for star formation within a galaxy. These clouds are the largest and most massive objects in the galactic ecosystem, often referred to as "stellar nurseries."
  3. 4. Often described as a "failed star." It is an object that is more massive than a giant planet (like Jupiter) but not massive enough to become a full-fledged burning star.
  4. 5. An expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from an old red giant star late in its life.
  5. 6. A "baby star" that is still in the process of gathering mass from its parent molecular cloud. It is the very earliest stage of stellar evolution.
  6. 7. The central region in a star where nuclear reactions consume hydrogen to form helium.
  7. 8. The nuclear fusion process that converts hydrogen into helium in the cores of stars. Unlike other processes,this process uses carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen as catalysts to facilitate the reaction.
  8. 10. The visible "surface" of a star. It is the layer of the star's atmosphere that emits the light we actually see.
  9. 14. The outermost layer of a star's interior, sitting just below the visible surface. In this region, energy is transported by the physical movement of the gas itself, rather than by light.
  10. 16. The layer of a star's interior where energy is transported outward primarily by radiation rather than by the physical movement of material.
  11. 17. A compact, dense region of gas and dust within a larger molecular cloud that serves as the specific site where an individual star or a small binary system is born.