1. Chapter 10 – Stars

2. God created the Sun, Moon, and stars on the fourth day of Creation. Gen1:14-16 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.

3. The Sun is the star closest to Earth. Stars are glowing balls of gases. Planets and moons reflect light, but the Sun and other stars produce their own light by nuclear fusion. Hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium atoms. The stars then release energy in the forms of heat and light.

4. Magnitude – the brightness of a star – Depends on the star’s distance from Earth, its size, and its temperature Apparent magnitude – how bright a star appears to us Absolute magnitude – how bright a star really is, not just how bright it appears to be

5. A star’s color is related to its surface temperature. The coolest stars are dull red The hottest stars are blue

6. Dwarfs – small and medium sized stars – The Sun Giant stars – tens to hundreds of times larger and brighter than the Sun Supergiants – hundreds of times larger and thousands of times brighter than the Sun – the largest and brightest stars Light-year – the distance that light travels in one year Parallax – the measurement of a star’s apparent movement or change in position over time

7. Variable stars – stars that regularly or repeatedly change in magnitude – Pulsating variable star – a star that goes through periods of swelling and brightening, then shrinking and dimming – Eclipsing variable stars – a pair of stars that orbit each other They change in appearance of brightness The apparent brightness is greater when both stars are seen, but when one star eclipses, the light appears to dim.

8. Nova – forms when an existing star suddenly flares up and becomes hundreds or thousands of times brighter than normal Nebula – a cloud of gases and debris 1 Corinthians 15:41 – 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

9. Supernova – the death explosion of a star; explodes and collapses

10. Neutron star – formed when a supergiant collapses to a very dense core – The pressure is so great that the protons and electrons of the star’s core are crushed to form neutrons – Tightly packed Pulsar – a neutron star that spins rapidly on its axis, emitting pulses of energy

11. Black hole – a massive supergiant star that runs out of fuel and essentially disappears from space – We can’t see black holes because the gravitational force of a black hole sucks everything into the hole, including light.

12. Constellations – group of stars that form a picture North Star – also called Polaris; the most famous star in the Little Dipper Circumpolar constellations – constellations that revolve around the North Star (Polaris)

13. Astrology – the belief that the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars at the time of a person’s birth determine his destiny Astronomy – the scientific study of the stars Christians should not participate in astrology because those who practice astrology are seeking guidance apart from God and His Word. Christians should look to the Bible for guidance.

14. Refracting telescopes – telescopes that bend, or refract, light to make objects seem larger – Disadvantage – causes color distortion because the light bends at different angles as it is refracted Reflecting telescope – telescope that reflects off a large concave mirror to a smaller flat mirror to produce a clearer magnified image – Sir Isaac Newton invented a reflecting telescope.

15. Radio telescopes – collect radio waves from space using a large concave-shaped disk – Can detect objects that do not give off enough light to be seen by other telescopes

16. Spectroscope – breaks down the light given off by a star into all its colors Studying a star’s color spectrum gives information about its temperature and composition. Redshift – if an object is moving away from Earth, its color spectrum has longer wavelengths, and the colors shift more toward the red end of the spectrum

17. Isaiah 40:22 – 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. Creationists believe God spreading the heavens causes the redshift.

18. Binary system – the smallest star group which contains only two stars – Held together by gravitational attraction Multiple star groups – contains three or four stars – Held together by gravitational attraction

19. Open star cluster – a group of several hundred to a few thousand stars with no particular arrangement Globular cluster – a group of several thousand to a million stars that are close to each other and are arranged in the shape of a ball

20. Galaxy – a huge star system with millions or billions of stars that covers many light-years of space Milky Way - Our own galaxy, where we live – It is a spiral galaxy Four types of galaxies – spiral, irregular, barred spiral, and elliptical

21. Local group – a cluster of galaxies, including the Milky Way, that travel together in space

22. Asteroids – made of irregularly shaped pieces of rock, metal, and dust; are sometimes called minor planets

23. Meteoroid – a chunk of metal or stone that is moving toward the Earth’s atmosphere Meteor – a meteoroid that lights up as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere Meteorites – meteoroids that pass through the Earth’s atmosphere and land on Earth Scientists believe that a meteorite formed the Barringer Crater.

24. Comet – consists of chunks of frozen gases, water, and dust that orbit around the sun Comets have three parts – Coma – Nucleus – Tail The most famous short-term comet is Halley’s Comet.