Definitions

Physics Knowledge Organiser Key Terms

A huge (compared to Earth) sphere of superhot gas (plasma)

Star
P16 - Space undergoing nuclear fusion reactions.
A spherical object much smaller than a star, made of rocky
Our solar system Planet
or gaseous material (or a combination), which orbits a star.
Our solar system consists of: Small planets that have not cleared their orbit of other
Dwarf planet
• One star: the Sun; material. Like planets, they orbit a star.
• Eight planets, which orbit the Sun;
• Dwarf planets, such as Pluto, which also orbit the Sun; Object that orbit a planet. Natural satellites are not
• Natural satellites: the moons that orbit some of the planets (including our moon); Satellites launched by humans – so moons are natural satellites. Ones
• Other objects like asteroids and comets. that we launch are called artificial satellites.
To follow a path around another object due to the
Our solar system is a very small part of the Milky Way galaxy. Galaxies consist of millions of stars, gravitational attraction between the objects, while being
held together by their gravitational attraction to one another. Orbit
physically separated. Orbits can be circular, or elliptical (oval
shaped).
Stars and their A giant cluster of stars held together by their gravitational
life cycle Galaxy attraction to one another. Our galaxy is called the Milky
Way.
Stars form when a
Nebula A cloud of gas and dust in space.
huge cloud of gas and
dust (a nebula) A nuclear (not chemical) reaction in which the nuclei of
comes together atoms are joined together to make larger nuclei, releasing
thanks to the energy. For example, hydrogen nuclei are fused to helium
gravitational nuclei in the Sun and other stars. Thus, fusion processes
attraction between Nuclear fusion
cause the formation of new elements. This can only happen
the particles from at immense pressures and temperatures, when gases have
which it is made. The ionised to become plasma. Nuclear fusion allows
diagram outlines the nucleosynthesis - making new nuclei.
stages a star goes
through during its life
cycle. Note that the
stages of the life cycle
depend on the initial
mass of the star.
Lower mass stars (like
the Sun) end more
discreetly than others
with much larger
masses.
 Definitions
Physics Knowledge Organiser Key Terms

P16 - Space Protostar

An early star – basically a big dense part of a nebula that is
gathering mass but hasn’t started nuclear fusion yet.
Stages of star life cycles The stable stage of a star’s life cycle, where inward and
Main sequence
outward forces are in equilibrium.
You’ve seen the basic life cycle. Now for some detail.
• A protostar is a dense region in a nebula, which is still gathering mass by pulling in material The ‘fourth state of matter’ – a superhot gas, where
from the nebula by its gravitational pull. So, at this stage, the star is still forming and has not Plasma electrons are stripped from nuclei, leaving a sea of positive
yet started nuclear fusion reactions. nuclei and negative electrons.
• Main sequence star: the Sun is a main sequence star. During this stage of a star’s life cycle,
the star is stable in size because the forces acting towards the centre and the outward forces The stage after the main sequence for stars with a similar
Red giant
caused by the nuclear fusion processes are in equilibrium. With an object as big as a star, the mass to the Sun.
gravitational force acting on any particular particle is intense, so the star might be expected
to collapse. However, there is an outward force leading to expansion, caused by the fusion The stage after the main sequence for stars much more
Red supergiant
processes occurring in the star. Essentially, this outward force is due to gas pressure (ok, massive than the Sun.
plasma pressure) in the star. Pressure in gases increases if their temperature increases,
making the star expand; in turn, this decreases the pressure and therefore cuts the rate of The collapsed core of a star like the Sun. Very dense (about
nuclear fusion. Therefore, main sequence stars are nicely self-regulating systems (using White dwarf 200 000 times more dense than Earth), but not as dense as
negative feedback). neutron stars or black holes.
• Red giant and red super giant stages: as the diagram showed, this is where the life cycle
diverges according to the mass of the star. Stars finish their main sequence when the When a white dwarf has fully cooled down, it no longer
hydrogen in the core runs out (it has all been fused to helium). This reduces the outward emits any radiation so it is a black dwarf. So in the universe,
Black dwarf
pressure, so the star begins to collapse inwards due to gravity. In turn, this allows some of the there aren’t any black dwarves because it isn’t old enough
hydrogen outside the core (the layer of a star we actually see) to begin going through nuclear for white dwarves to have cooled off yet!
fusion, and at a much more rapid rate than during the main sequence. This higher rate of
nuclear fusion produces a larger outward pressure, so the outer layer of the star expands by a The enormous explosion resulting from the collapse and
great deal, perhaps as far as the orbit of Venus in the case of the Sun! (Hence the ‘giant’ in Supernova resulting shock wave of a star much more massive than the
the name.) Sun.
• The red giant or red super giant stage ends as the fuel runs out. This causes a drop in outward
pressure, so gravity wins out and causes the collapse of the star. This is really rapid, though, The collapsed core of a star after a supernova (but not of a
Neutron star
and causes a shock wave outwards. In stars like the Sun, this is violent but not crazy – the star large enough to form a black hole).
outer layers of the star are ejected relatively slowly out. However, in larger stars this
outwards shock wave is extremely violent, resulting in a supernova. A supernova is such a The collapsed core of really massive stars – about five or
Black hole
colossal explosion that a red supergiant entering its supernova stage can outshine its whole more times the mass of the Sun.
galaxy! This spreads the new elements made in the star by nuclear fusion (or
nucleosynthesis) out across the universe. This is actually the reason why large elements
(anything larger than iron) are found on Earth – the atoms were spread out after their
formation in supernovae.
• The core of the Sun, and similar sized stars, will become a white dwarf. When it has totally
cooled off, it will be a black dwarf – just the cold remnants of its core. The core of larger stars
will be left as neutron stars, which are insanely dense objects: as illustrative values, a neutron
star may be only 20 km in diameter but have a mass twice that of the Sun! Should the star
have started as a really massive star, the core will collapse to make a black hole, which is
even more dense than a neutron star and a place where conditions are so extreme that
physicists are struggling to express the rules that govern the behaviour of matter in black
holes.
 Definitions
Physics Knowledge Organiser Key Terms

Instantaneous Velocity at a single moment (remember it is vector quantity,

Red
P16 - Space velocity with both direction and magnitude).
Shift
The observed increase in wavelength of light emitted by
Orbits Red shift
objects moving away (receding) from an observer.
Gravity is the force that allows orbits to be maintained. Since an object in motion is moving in a The theory, which is by far the dominant scientific theory
circle, its direction and therefore velocity is constantly changing, even as its speed stays Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe, that states that the whole
constant. The orbiting object is accelerating towards the object it orbits, as the diagram shows. universe was once tiny and very hot and dense.
The velocity at any moment you pick (called the instantaneous velocity) is at a tangent to the
Recessional How fast something (like a galaxy) is moving away from an
orbital path.
velocity observer.
For an orbit to remain stable, the radius of the orbital path must change if the speed changes.
Aka dark mass. A mysterious type of matter that is known to
This means, for example, Mercury travels much faster on its orbital path around the Sun than
Dark matter exist (from observations of other galaxies), but no-one
Earth, since the radius of its orbital path is much smaller than ours.
knows what it is made of.
The name given to the mysterious energy driving the
Dark energy
acceleration in the expansion of the universe.

Red Shift

When we examine the light (electromagnetic radiation) from distant galaxies in space, the wavelength is increased
compared to what is ‘should be’. This stretching of waves that are emitted from a wave source moving away from
an observer is called the Doppler effect in general, and red shift when we’re talking about electromagnetic
radiation. Working backwards logically, we know that distant galaxies are receding (moving away from us). This
shows that the universe (i.e. space itself) is expanding. In turn, this provides great evidence for the Big Bang theory,
since when you turn the clock back, the galaxies must have been much closer together in the past, all the way back
until the whole universe (space and all the matter in it) was a single hot, dense point.

In 1998 some breakthrough studies of supernovae in distant galaxies showed that the rate of recession of galaxies is
greater the further away they are, findings that have been confirmed in numerous studies since. The findings
showed that the more distant the galaxy is, the greater the red shift of its light, showing that they are moving away
faster than nearer galaxies. The graph shows this – each dot is a galaxy which has been observed and its red shift
used to calculate its recessional velocity (how fast it is moving away from us, the observers).

There are still many unsolved questions about all this, though. No-one knows what is causing the acceleration of the
universe’s expansion (so it often gets the opaque name ‘dark energy’).

Another giant mystery is ‘dark matter’ – astronomers know there is a giant ‘halo’ of matter around objects in space
like galaxies, but have no idea what it is made of, hence the name.