Stellar Astronomy and Star Life Cycles Flashcards
6 cards from real ASP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Stellar Astronomy and Star Life Cycles flashcards as text
What is a pulsar?
Answer: A rapidly rotating neutron star emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation
A pulsar is a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles, detected as regular pulses when the beam sweeps past Earth.
What stellar spectral class is the Sun?
Answer: G
The Sun is a G-type (G2V) main-sequence star, characterized by a surface temperature around 5,500°C and a yellow-white color.
What is the CNO cycle in stellar physics?
Answer: Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen fusion cycle used by massive stars to fuse hydrogen
The CNO (Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen) cycle is a series of nuclear reactions in which carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen act as catalysts to fuse hydrogen into helium, dominant in stars more massive than the Sun.
What is the event horizon of a black hole?
Answer: The boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole's gravity
The event horizon is the spherical boundary around a black hole at the Schwarzschild radius, inside which the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light and nothing—including light—can escape.
What type of supernova results from the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf?
Answer: Type Ia
Type Ia supernovae occur when a white dwarf accretes enough mass from a binary companion to exceed the Chandrasekhar limit, triggering a thermonuclear explosion that destroys the entire star.
What is a brown dwarf?
Answer: A substellar object too massive to be a planet but too small to sustain hydrogen fusion
Brown dwarfs are substellar objects with masses between about 13 and 80 Jupiter masses—too massive to be planets but lacking sufficient mass to sustain hydrogen fusion like true stars.