NATS 1740 Study Guide - Final Guide: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Triple-Alpha Process, Neutron Star

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1740
• Professor: Patrick Hall

Document Summary

4 million years ago, sun was powered by gravitational contraction (provided the energy that heated the core of the sun as the sun was forming) Nuclear fusion happened later which stopped gravitational contraction. Nuclear fusion = hydrogen turns into helium (that"s what the sun uses as energy) Nuclear fusion occurs during the proton proton chain (pg. We know these layers exist because of theoretical models. Proton-proton chain = nuclear fusion combines 4 hydrogen nuclei into one helium nucleus. Solar activity= convection + rotation pattern of the sun because they stretch and twist the magnetic field. Happens from the core and the radiation zone in the form of randomly bouncing photons. Solar activity varies with time because of the sunspot cycle. Average of 1 years resulting in a 22 year magnetic cycle. Parallax: apparent shift in position of a nearby object against a background of more distant objects. Parallax is used to determine how far away stars are.