NATS 1740 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Interstellar Cloud, Virgo Supercluster, Local Group

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1740
• Professor: Michael De Robertis, Alireza Rafiee

Document Summary

Chapter 1: a modern view of the universe. Earth => solar system => milky way galaxy => local group => local supercluster => Star: a ball of gas, generates heat and light through nuclear fusion and held by its own gravity. Planet: large object, orbit a star, shine by reflected light (rocky, ice, gaseous) Moon (satellite): rocky + icy object, orbits a planet. Asteroid: small, rocky object orbits a star. Comet: small, icy object orbits a star. Solar (star) system: a star and all the material that orbits it (including planets and moons) Nebula: an interstellar cloud of gas/dust from stars and planets ultimately form. Galaxy: largest single assembly of stars in space, held by its mutual gravity and orbiting common centre. Universe: total of all matter, energy and space, everything exists in and between galaxies: light year. The distance light can travel in a year. Travel at a finite speed 300,000 km/s.