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Astronomy
Chapter 27.
Term | Definition |
---|---|
solar system | the sun and all the planets and other bodies that travel around it. |
planet | a celestial body that orbits the sun, is round because of it's own gravity, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbital path. |
solar nebula | a rotating cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and the planets formed. |
planetesimal | a small body from which a planet originated in the early stages of development of the solar system. |
eccentricity | the degree of elongation of an elliptical orbit. |
orbital period | the time required for a body to complete a single orbit. |
inertia | the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion unless an outside force acts on the object. |
terrestrial planet | one of the highly dense planets nearest to the sun; Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth. |
gas giant | a planet that has a deep massive atmosphere , such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune. |
kuiper belt | a region of the solar system that stars just beyond the orbit of Neptune and that contains dwarf planets and other small bodies made mostly of ice. |