Download Characteristics of Stars WS Questions 1-20

Name: _____________________
Characteristics of Stars
Pages 103-109
Answer all of the following questions by rephrasing and using complete sentences. If you
do not rephrase or use complete sentences, you will automatically lose half of the points
available.
1. If you could travel at the speed of light, how long would it take you to travel from
Earth to the sun?
2. What do astronomers define as all of space and everything in it?
3. How many kilometers does it take to equal a light-year?
4. How many kilometers are in three light-years? (You won’t find this answer word
for word in the book. You have to think about it after reading the book example).
5. What do astronomers use to measure distances to nearby stars?
6. Describe in detail how parallax is used to measure the distances to nearby stars.
7. What are all stars mostly made up of?
8. What are the three categories that stars are classified by?
9. Is the sun a small, medium, or large sized star?
10. What name is given to the smallest stars?
11. What color do the coolest stars in the sky appear to be?
12. What color do the hottest stars in the sky appear to be?
13. What is a star’s brightness as seen from Earth called?
14. What does absolute magnitude mean?
15. What are the two most important characteristics of stars?
16. On the H-R diagram, is the sun a part of the supergiants, giants, main sequence, or
white dwarfs?
17. On the H-R diagram, is Polaris a part of the supergiants, giants, main sequence, or
white dwarfs?
18. What stars appear in the “giants” category?
19. What does the H-R diagram show a relationship between?
20. Stars A and B have about the same apparent magnitude, but Star A is about twice
as far from Earth as Star B. Which star has the greater absolute magnitude?
Explain.