ASTROPHYSICS- Introduction to the Universe

1) Plot a graph of distance against orbit time

2) Plot a graph of d^3 against t^2

3) Make a pneumonic for order of planets

My- Mercury
Very- Venus
Excited-Earth
Mother-Mars
Just-Jupiter
Stood-Saturn
Up-Uranus
Now-Neptune

4) Compare sizes of planets with circles.

5) Define:
Asteroid: A small rocky body that drifts around the Solar System.

Meteoroid: An asteroid on a collision course with another planet

Meteorite: Small meteors can be vaporised due to the friction with the atmosphere (shooting stars), whereas larger ones can land on Earth. The parts that arrive are called meteorites.
Comet: These are mixtures of ice and rock in very elliptical orbits around the sun, and their tails always point away from the sun.

Stellar cluster: Also known as a globular cluster, this is a group of stars that are physically close to each other in space, created by the collapse of the same gas cloud. They can contain from 100000 to 1000000 stars crowded into a region 30-100 light-years across. They are formed as a result of the gravitational force.

Constellations: These are patterns of stars which have been identified; the stars in a constellation are not necessarily close to each other, and the pattern is a representation of one’s imagination.

Light year: The distance light travels in 1 year:
Speed of light= 3 x 10^8 ms^-1
Seconds in a year= 365 x 24 x 60 x 60= 31, 536,000 seconds
MULTIPLY THEM= 9.46 x 10^15m

6) Compare distances between stars and between galaxies

7) Describe motion of constellations over 1 night and 1 year.

The pattern of the stars remains the same from one night to the next- patterns of stars have been identified and 88 different regions of the sky have been labelled as different constellations. However, a particular pattern is not always in the same place- the constellations appear to move over the period of one night, appearing to rotate around one direction, around a particular star, known as the POLE star (1 for each pole). The location of the pole star (and thus the portion of the night sky that is visible above the horizon) changes slightly from night to night.

Over a period of a year, this slow change returns back to exactly the same position.

9) Image of Orion (Sorry cannot see stars from my house) :(

Source: http://api.ning.com/files/6wnBdFqjAHCrO43-Iz-HgW97I5dIW4AaBksEdsd95w0sw2JrT7TD1eDBxgLIf2lzrayO-5yGgHNKctgG5SJQX8qQBDwgY-gl/Orion20Constellation.jpg