Interstellar medium - Study guides, Class notes & Summaries

What makes up the interstellar medium? gas and dust If you were to take a voyage through the entire disk of the Milky Way, what kind of material would you spend most of your time in? Rarefied clouds of atomic hydrogen. How does the interstellar medium obscure our view of most of the galaxy? Hydrogen gas produces so much visible light that the interstellar medium is opaque, blocking our view of anything beyond it. How can we see through the interstellar medium? by observing at wavelength...

We have learned that the centre of the milky way contains a very massive black hole. We developed this understanding by: - Monitoring the orbital motions of many individual stars in the very central parts of the Milky Way If the sun were to be squashed down small enough to become a black hole, then: - The planets in the solar system would orbit the Sun in unchanged fashion (but would receive no light from it) The first stellar mass black hole identified, Cygnus X-1, was found in 1973. The n...

What is the speed of light? Correct answer- Light can travel enormous distances under short periods of time. It is faster than any other phenomenon. It takes about 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth. The speed of light in a vacuum is c=3x10^8 m/s. Why is light such an important tool for astronomers? Correct answer- Because light is how we learn about distant objects without travelling there. It is also a measuring took of astronomy. Light is a wave and a particle. How are ...

What is the speed of light? Correct answer- Light can travel enormous distances under short periods of time. It is faster than any other phenomenon. It takes about 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth. The speed of light in a vacuum is c=3x10^8 m/s. Why is light such an important tool for astronomers? Correct answer- Because light is how we learn about distant objects without travelling there. It is also a measuring took of astronomy. Light is a wave and a particle. How are ...

Where do stars form? Why do stars form? What is a molecular cloud? What is the interstellar medium? These questions are answered along with a lot more information about stars.