Key Terms

By Formative Library

Last updated over 2 years ago

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Chandrasekhar limit
the upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf (equals 1.4 times the mass of the Sun)

degenerate gas
a gas that resists further compression because no two electrons can be in the same place at the same time doing the same thing (Pauli exclusion principle)

millisecond pulsar
a pulsar that rotates so quickly that it can give off hundreds of pulses per second (and its period is therefore measured in milliseconds)

neutron star
a compact object of extremely high density composed almost entirely of neutrons

nova
the cataclysmic explosion produced in a binary system, temporarily increasing its luminosity by hundreds to thousands of times

pulsar
a variable radio source of small physical size that emits very rapid radio pulses in very regular periods that range from fractions of a second to several seconds; now understood to be a rotating, magnetic neutron star that is energetic enough to produce a detectable beam of radiation and particles

type II supernova
a stellar explosion produced at the endpoint of the evolution of stars whose mass exceeds roughly 10 times the mass of the Sun

Please take the time to check out the source for this material from Openstax if you plan to use this in your lesson plan!: https://openstax.org/books/astronomy/pages/23-key-terms