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Astronomy Week 1

Astronomy

TermDefinition
solar system sun, planets, moons, asteroids, comets
galaxy ie. Milky Way, great island of stars in space, held together by gravity orbiting a common center
Local group more than 70 galaxies. Our galaxy is the second largest
galaxy clusters groups of galaxies with many more large members
superclusters clusters of galaxy clusters
cosmos/universe sum total of all matter and energy, superclusters and voids
astronomical unit Earth's average distance from the sun, about 150 million km
light-year distance light can travel in one year, 10 trillion km/6 trillion miles
light-second distance, 300,000 km
planet 1) orbits a star 2)large enough for its own gravity to make it round 3) has cleared most other objects from its orbital path (if it doesn't fulfill #3, it's a dwarf planet)
moon/satellite object that orbits a planet
asteroid small + rocky object that orbits a star
comet small and ice-rich object that orbits a star
small solar system body object that orbits a star but is too small to qualify as a planet/dwarf planet
star system star and any planets/other materials that orbit it
observable universe portion of the entire universe that can be seen from Earth. Probably only a tiny portion of the entire universe.
rotation spinning of an object around its axis. Earth rotates around its axis daily.
orbit/revolution orbital motion of one object around another due to gravity. Earth orbits the sun once a year.
expansion (of the universe) increase in the avg distance between galaxies as time progresses
big bang 14 billion years ago, created universe
nuclear fusion process, lightweight atomic nuclei smash together and fuse
cosmic calendar 14 billion year history of universe compressed into one year. Our lifetimes are fractions of a second.
ecliptic plane flat plane defined by earth's orbital path
axis tilt axis of Earth points to Polaris, 23.5 degrees from a line perpendicular to the ecliptic plane
dark energy getting faster
doppler shifts how we measure galaxy speeds, spread light into spectra and observe ___
hypothesis educated guess
paradigm general pattern of thought
theory powerful model, tested and verified so we have high confidence in its validity
Created by: mglen
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