Stars Vocabulary

3. if a binary includes a white dwarf, gas pulled from a companion onto the white dwarf’s surface can fuse violently in a flash.
5. Helium starts fusing together in the core and once it’s gone, the core contracts and becomes hotter, once more expanding the star but making it bluer and brighter than before, blowing away its outermost layers. After the expanding shells of gas fade, the remaining core is left.
6. the study of the heavens.
10. the study of the wavelengths of light that objects emit which made it possible to investigate the compositions and motions of stars from afar.
13. the closest neighbor to our solar system that is part of a multiple system.
15. What astronomers use when referring to a star’s brightness as viewed from Earth.
16. giant, luminous spheres of plasma.
19. after a star explodes in a type II Supernova, if the remaining stellar core was less than three solar masses large, it becomes this star. This star is also made entirely of neutrons.
20. Since white dwarves have no fuel left for fusion, they grow cooler and cooler over billions of years to become.

1. the power of a star-- the rate at which it emits energy.
2. objects smaller than a tenth of a solar mass do not have enough gravitational pull to ignite nuclear fusion, and might become failed stars.
4. the part of the star that radiates visible light.
7. measures the amount of “metals” it has -- it is, any element heavier than helium.
8. if one member of a binary pair is a giant star that leaves behind a neutron star or black hole, matter pulled from the stellar companion can get extremely hot and emit X-rays.
9. star patterns in the sky that resemble people, animals, or common objects.
11. the mass of a star is represented in terms of this.
12. neutron stars that beam out detectable radio pulses.
14. Without nuclear radiation to resist it, gravity crushes matter down into the star's core, quickly heating the star and causing the star's outer layers to expand enormously and to cool and glow red.
17. these develop when two protostars form near each other.
18. A contracting mass of gas which represents an early stage in the formation of a star.