Download Name

Name: ________________________________
Hour: _________ Date: __________________
Eagle Nebula
Go to http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/science/eagle_nebula.htm.
This is an extremely famous image of the Eagle Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
1. What is a nebula, as you remember from the Solar Nebula Theory? ________________________________
2. According to the caption underneath the image, what are those “pillars” and what is going on inside them?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Star Formation and Evolution
Go to http://cornwallastro.info/m4u3a4.
Stars are born, grow, and die in a certain pattern. This page will show you some images of each of these steps.
Skip down to Step a.) of the page (where you see the pictures).
3. List the steps of stellar evolution in order, according to the left hand side of the page. Examine the pictures.
1st __________________________________
2nd __________________________________
3rd __________________________________
4th __________________________________
5th __________________________________
Read the descriptions on the right hand side of the page and answer the following questions.
4. Where does a main sequence star’s energy come from, what process?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What is a red giant? _______________________________________________________________________
When will our Sun become one? ____________________ years
6. What is a white dwarf? ____________________________________________________________________
A diagram of stellar evolution is on the back of this page!
Sun’s Evolution
To see an animation of the Sun changing from a main
sequence star, to a red giant, and to a white dwarf, go to
http://rainman.astro.uiuc.edu/ddr/stellar/beginner.html.
Click on the link that says Sun (Evolution Tracks – On)
Amazing Space
Go to http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/.
On the left-hand menu, choose Homework Help. It will
then ask you, “What do you want to do?”
You want to dig up some definitions for now. Click that
option, and then click on the Glossary link.
Under the Glossary menu, click on the Stars & Nebulae topic.
7. Define supernova in your own words. _______________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
After a star has died, it has two options. It either becomes a neutron star if it has lower density, or a black hole if
it has very high density.
8. Your textbook has a nice, simple definition of a neutron star. You may use your book later to define neutron
star:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Black Holes
Back to the Amazing Space website! On the left-hand menu, click on Online Explorations.
Choose the activity “No Escape: The Truth About Black Holes”. When you open the activity, click on “Is a
Black Hole Really a Hole?” You may play around with this animation, while answering the following
questions.
9. What is a black hole?
______________________________________________________________________
10. What happens to matter that lingers near a black hole? ___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
10. What do we call the very center of a black hole? _________________________
Galaxies
Now choose the activity “Galaxies Galore, Games, and More” under Online Explorations.
First click on the small button “About Galaxies” on the left (this will take you to a science background page).
11. Define galaxy: _________________________________________________________________________
Go back on the browser. You will have to reopen the Galaxies activity. This time, choose the option “Build
Our Milky Way”. Follow the activity by clicking on the images, and answer the following questions:
12. Where are the oldest stars located in a galaxy? _______________________________________________
13. Where is Earth located in the Milky Way? ___________________________________________________
14. Are most blue stars young or old? _______________________
The Big Bang Theory
Go back to Homework Help on the left-hand menu. You are going to dig up another definition in the Glossary.
This time, choose the topic Cosmology.
15. Define the big bang: ____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The History Channel has a great series called The Universe. Check out its video clips page at
http://www.history.com/video.do?name=The_Universe&bcpid=1398218663&bclid=1475274665&bctid=14751
65841.
On this page, watch the 2 min. video “Beyond the Big Bang: Tour of the Universe”. Everything in a nutshell!
Hubble Images
If you have extra time, you may go to http://hubblesite.org/gallery/. This website is connected to NASA.
If you click on Picture Album, there is a huge variety of image categories for you to browse. All of these
spectacular images were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can browse the images, or choose specific
topics that interest you on the left hand menu.
Have fun exploring the universe!