Astroterms Workshop Glossary (First Part)

Thanks to the participation and enthusiasm of all present, the September workshop proved a great success.

Learning came from educated guesses, deductions, sharing our knowledge and asking questions.

Rather than looking at a glossary, groups focused on matching cards with their definitions, finding links and distinctions among groups of 3 words.

Why not have a go yourself right now? Can you group these words into 3 groups each containing 3 related words?

PICTURE HINTS (Click to enlarge):

SOLUTION

Click to reveal the answer

quasar	the active core of a distant galaxies, powered by a supermassive black hole devouring surrounding matter
pulsar	a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles; observed only when a beam is pointing toward Earth, like a lighthouse
blazar	intrinsically the same as a quasar — a supermassive black hole with a surrounding accretion disk, producing a jet — but seen at a different orientation angle with the jet almost end-on

accretion	the accumulation of particles into a massive object through gravitational forces
absorption	taking in / the process by which light ( ElectroMagneticRadiation) is absorbed by matter and specific wavelengths are converted into energy
emission	giving out / the process by which specific wavelengths of light energy (ElectroMagneticRadiation) are released by matter

magnitude	size / extent / a measure of how bright an object appears in the sky, represented by a number on a logarithmic scale
absolute magnitude	a scale for measuring the actual brightness of a celestial object without accounting for the distance of the object
apparent magnitude	a scale for measuring the brightness of a celestial object as it appears to an observer on Earth; bright objects have a low number while dim objects will have a higher number