Jeremy On Science Questions

Science Ms Andrews

1. Regarding the mass of our Sun, what will be the lifecycle of a star if its size is 10% of our Sun? 2. What is the lifecycle of a star with a mass similar to our Sun? 3. When a star similar in size to our Sun dies, what happens to the remnant? 4. How does the Big Bang Theory logically describe the Universe and its beginning? 5. In the Corona, Chromosphere, Photosphere, Convection Zone, Radiation Zone and the Core of our Sun, what are the effects of each 6 parts? 6. Where are stars formed and how are their births triggered? 7. What are the main parts that an astronomer classifies in a normal spiral galaxy? 8. How are spiral galaxies formed from protogalactic clouds? 9. What does the Theory of Special Relativity best describe and thus be useful for calculating what in space? 10. When a star explodes into a supernova and becomes a Neutron Star, how are the neutrons formed which thus creates the Neutron Star? 11. When a Black Hole is born from a supernova, what are its odd effects? 12. How is a nebula created and what is its characteristic? 13. What does a star do to live if it has hydrogen and helium? 14. What are the effects of a Big Crunch if the gravity is strong enough? 15. What will the Universe look like if it continues to grow forever? 16. A red giant used to be a star similar to our Sun, but why did it turn to a red giant? 17. How do Binary Stars (systems) function with each other? 18. If you leave the shutter of a camera open when it is directed at the starry night sky, what picture of space is left, and what is the centre of the sky called? 19. How are the surface temperatures of stars calculated? 20. In a constellation, how are the main stars forming the constellation classified? 21. Why does the zodiac contain only 13 constellations and not the other 88? 22. Why are constellations special to astronomy? 23. In regards to the brown dwarfs mass, what are its unusual property compared to a normal star? 24. To fuel a star, what are the basic requirements for nuclear fusion? 25. Why do astronomers use light years and indices instead of km in space? How fast does light travel? 26. When a star with a greater mass than our Sun dies, what happens unlike smaller stars? 27. What are the characteristics of a red dwarf compared to other normal stars? 28. What does a pulsar do and emit? 29. Our Sun and Moon travels in the same direction across the sky, what is this, do our planets follow? 30. If Cepheid variables (stars) keep on changing their shape now and then, what direct changes happen in the stars body?

Jeremy On

Science Ms Andrews

Answers 1. The lifecycle of a star depends on its mass. A protostar 10% times the size of our Sun will shrink and turn into a tiny red star. It cannot form nuclear reactions because it is too cold. Eventually itll die and become really cold. 2. The lifecycle of a star depends on its mass. A star like our Sun glows extremely bright when it is first born. After a while, it settles to a stable life period of about 10 billion years. Eventually itll die and turn into a red giant then a white dwarf which will gradually die away. Our Sun has 5 billion years left. 3. At the end of a stars lifetime, a remnant of it is left behind if it is similar to the size of our Sun. Our Sun will eventually become a white dwarf, where the star has run out of fuel to continue nuclear fusion. From there, a remnant of its core is left behind which is incredibly hot. 4. The Big Bang Theory describes the beginning of the Universe as starting from an infinitesimally small piece of matter which was incredibly hot and dense. After it appeared, the tiny piece of matter inflated, expanded and cooled. It (the Universe) has continued to grow and cool to this day and will probably continue to do so. Because of this, it fits in with many other theories relating to ages of stars/galaxies and the Universe. 5. Corona: The upper atmosphere which can only be seen during a solar eclipse. Chromosphere: The lower atmosphere which bursts out gases from the surface. Photosphere: The region where it creates visible light. Convection Zone: This is the place where hot gases transfer energy to the Suns surface. Radiation Zone: This zone is where energy from the core radiates through gas. Core: Nuclear fusion occurs here (hydrogen atoms). 6. Stars are formed in nurseries made of gas and dust. The birth of a star is triggered when this cloud can suddenly collapse on itself, creating strong gravitational force which allows a protostar to begin. When the gas is hot enough, it will start nuclear fusion reactions. The embryonic stage can also be started from an immense shock wave. 7. Halo: A large region that surrounds the galaxy. Galactic Disk: The (galactic) disk makes up these following parts: Nucleus: The centre of the disk. Bulge: Area surrounding the disk. Spiral Arms: These arms extend from the centre of the galaxy. Globular Clusters: These clusters are found in random areas around the galactic disk. 8. A spiral galaxy is formed by clouds of hydrogen gas called protogalactic cloud which collapses and stars are created in the bulge and halo. The leftover protogalactic cloud forms the galactic disk. Stars form here last 9. The theory mainly describes the mass-energy equivalence where mass is convertible to energy and vice versa. This can calculate nuclear fusions energy release and therefore, the lifetime of stars. (E=mc2, E=energy m=mass c2=speed of light squared.) 10. When a supernova explosion occurs (resulting explosion of a stars death), the stars core collapses on itself by immense gravitational forces. This creates a small dense star called a neutron star because the protons and electrons are pushed so strongly that they form neutrons. 11. A black hole is when a supernova occurs, but the core of the star collapses on itself and never stops collapsing due to great gravitational force. The gravity is so powerful that even light cannot escape, thus being called a black hole (its invisible).

Jeremy On

Science Ms Andrews

12. A nebula is the result of a supernova of a star. A big piece of matter from the star is blown away, which creates the nebula. A nebula emits many colours due to many leftover gases. Nebulas can expand very rapidly. 13. The star creates nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the stars food (or fuel). Under extreme heat and pressure, hydrogen nuclei are fused to produce helium, creating energy for a price of mass. This is the stars food for many years. 14. The opposite of the Big Bang, where the entire Universe is pulled back into a tiny dense matter which will eventually spring into a new Universe again. This is caused by gravity pulling everything back when it eventually stops the Universes expansion. 15. If the Universe expands and cools forever, there will be no life on the Universe and all stars will die, leaving a cold and empty Universe. This is because there is not enough gravitational force to pull the Universe back in. 16. Since the stars were born, they have constantly gone through nuclear fusion to live. But eventually, the heavy helium sinks into the core of the star when there is no hydrogen fuel left. This leaves depleted hydrogen outside. Heat rises until the star can start helium burning. The star grows into what we know as a red giant to support this process. 17. Binary stars consist of two individual stars revolving around each other. There are many different types of binary stars, for example optical binary and others. 18. When you leave the shutter open, there are many concentric lines circling around like a spiral, these lines are the stars time exposure from the Earths rotation. In the centre of the sky, theres an imaginary point called the South Celestial Pole. 19. They are calculated by measuring the brightness on a scale. Astrophysicists use an equation known as Wiens Law to find out the temperature through the magnitudes of the star. 20. They are classified by their brightness, with the brightest in the constellation being the alpha star, the next being the beta star, and others like gamma, delta, epsilon etc.. 21. Because they are seen by the Earth all the time until the Sun blocks our view of the constellation. These constellations are also part of the ecliptic. 22. Constellations are groups of stars near each other in the surrounding galaxy. They usually form pictures for astrology. 23. A brown dwarf is any star which has a size between 15x to 75x of Jupiters mass that cannot sustain nuclear fusion and thus being dubbed a failed star by astronomers. 24. Stars are hot and bright because of a process called nuclear fusion. The process goes when two nuclei combine to make one larger nuclei when under extreme heat and pressure. This results in a big energy chain release which fuels the star continuously until it runs out of gases. This process converts hydrogen to helium. 25. They use light years and indices because they are shorter, unlike normal form (kms) which would result in many zeros. Light travels at approximately 300 000 000 m/s. 26. Stars much bigger than our Sun live a stable life, but at the end of their life, they become red supergiants and explode in a supernova. Eventually they turn into either a neutron star or a black star. 27. A red dwarf is a star with a very small mass, 40% less than the sun. Basically, a red dwarf works everything slower than a normal star because it is much smaller so nuclear fusion rates are also slower. They also live much longer. 28. A pulsar is an extremely fast rotating magnetic neutron star (different to normal neutron stars) that can emit electromagnetic radiation.

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29. This is called the ecliptic. The planets, Sun and Moon follow this same path across the sky. 30. Cepheid stars mainly change in size and brightness. They will grow bigger and become brighter and then turn smaller and less bright. They have a mass between 5x to 20x the mass of our Sun. Bib (AT THE MOMENT): http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=497 by Jagadheep D. Pandian, January 2003 Viewed 18 May 2010. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/971016.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/dark_matter.html http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question62.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980125a.html Science World 2 by Peter Stannard and Ken Williamson. Viewed 18 May 2010. Published 2007 by Macmillan Education Australia LTD. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/startypes.shtml http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/stars/red-dwarf-stars/ http://science.howstuffworks.com/galaxy1.htm http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=157

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Science Ms Andrews