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ASTRONOMY FLASH CARD
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Question | Answer |
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Astronomy | the science that deals with the material universe beyond the earth's atmosphere. |
Geocentric | having or representing the earth as a center |
Heliocentric | measured or considered as being seen from the center of the sun |
Apogee | the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of a man-made satellite at which it is farthest from the earth. |
Retrograde Motion | Retrograde motion is the apparent motion of a planet to move in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its system |
Ellipse | a plane curve such that the sums of the distances of each point in its periphery from two fixed points, |
Astronomical Unit | a unit of length, equal to the mean distance of the earth from the sun |
Rotation | the act of rotating; a turning around as on an axis. |
Revolution | a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point. |
Precession | the slow, conical motion of the earth's axis of rotation, caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon, and, to a smaller extent, of the planets, on the equatorial bulge of the earth |
Perihelion | the point in the orbit of a planet or comet at which it is nearest to the sun. |
Aphelion | the point in the orbit of a planet or a comet at which it is farthest from the sun. |
Preigree | the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of an artificial satellite at which it is nearest to the earth. |
Apogee | the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of a man-made satellite at which it is farthest from the earth. |
Phases of the Moon | The moon has eight main phases: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent |
Solar Eclipse | the obscuration of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and a point on the earth |
Lunar Eclipse | the obscuration of the light of the moon by the intervention of the earth between it and the sun |
crater | the cup-shaped depression or cavity on the surface of the earth or other heavenly body marking the orifice of a volcano. |
Terrstrial planet | inner planet |
Jovian Planet | any of the four large outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. |
Nebula | a cloud of interstellar gas and dust |
Planetesimal | one of the small celestial bodies that, according to one theory were fused together to form the planets of the solar system. |
Asteroid | any of the thousands of small bodies of from 480 miles (775 km) to less than one mile (1.6 km) in diameter that revolve about the sun in orbits lying mostly between those of Mars and Jupiter. |
Comet | a celestial body moving about the sun, usually in a highly eccentric orbit, consisting of a central mass surrounded by an envelope of dust and gas that may form a tail that streams away from the sun |
Coma | the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet. |
Meteroid | any of the small bodies, often remnants of comets, traveling through space: when such a body enters the earth's atmosphere it is heated to luminosity and becomes a meteor. |
Meteor | a meteoroid that has entered the earth's atmosphere |
Meteorite | a mass of stone or metal that has reached the earth from outer space; a fallen meteoroid. |
Electromagnetic Spectrum | the entire spectrum, considered as a continuum, of all kinds of electric, magnetic, and visible radiation, from gamma rays having a wavelength of 0.001 angstrom to long waves having a wavelength of more than 1 million km. |
Photon | a quantum of electromagnetic radiation, usually considered as an elementary particle that is its own antiparticle and that has zero rest mass and charge and a spin of one |
Spectroscopy | the science that deals with the use of the spectroscope and with spectrum analysis. |
Doppler effect | the shift in frequency of acoustic or electromagnetic radiation emitted by a source moving relative to an observer as perceived by the observer: the shift is to higher frequencies when the source approaches and to lower frequencies when it recedes. |
Refracting telescope | an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms |
Reflecting telescope | consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form |
Radio Telescopes | a system consisting of an antenna, either parabolic or dipolar, used to gather radio waves emitted by celestial sources and bring them to a receiver placed in the focus. |
Hubble Telescope | a telescope launched into orbit around the earth in 1990 to provide information about the universe in the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet ranges |
Space shuttle | any of several U.S. space vehicles consisting of a reusable manned orbiter that touches down on a landing strip after an orbital mission |