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Astronomy Part 1
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| astronomy | the science that deals with materials beyond earth's atmosphere |
| geocentric | having earth as the center of the universe |
| heliocentric | having the sun as the center of the universe |
| retrograde motion | apparent motion of a planet to move in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its system |
| ellipse | a regular oval shape, traced by a point moving in a plane so that the sum of its distances from two other points (the foci) is constant, or resulting when a cone is cut by an oblique plane that does not intersect the base |
| astronomical unit (AU) | a unit of length |
| rotation | turning around is if on an axis |
| revolution | the orbiting of one heavenly body around another |
| precession | the slow, conical motion of the earth's axis of rotation |
| perhelion | point in orbit when a planet or comet is closest to the sun |
| aphelion | point in orbit when a planet or comet is furthest away from the sun |
| perigee | the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or man made satellite when its is closest to the earth |
| apogee | the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or man made satellite when it is farthest from earth |
| phases of the moon | the different ways the sun casts light on the moon, change depending on where the moon is in its revolution |
| solar eclipse | obscuration of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and the point on the earth |
| lunar eclipse | obscuration of the light of the moon by the intervention of the earth between it and the sun |
| crater | the circular or almost circular area havig a depressing floor (on the moon) |
| terrestrial planet | inner planets |
| jovian planet | any of the four large outer planets: saturn, jupiter, uranus, neptune |
| nebula | a cloud of interstellar gas and dust |
| planetesiaml | one of the small celestial bodies that according to one theory were fused together to form the planets of the solar system |
| asteroid | minor planet; any of the thousands of small bodies that revolve around the sun in orbits lying in between Mars and Jupiter |
| comet | a celestial body usually 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 the comet |
| meteoroid | any of the small bodies, often remnants of comets, traveling through space |
| meteor | a meteoroid that has entered 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 of all kinds of electric, magnetic, and visible radiation |
| photon | a quantum of electromagnetic radiation, usually considered as an elementary 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 percieved by the observer |
| refracting telescope | an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into other end of tube that slides into the first and through which the object is viewed directly |
| reflecting telescope | concave mirror that gathers light from object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed |
| radio telescope | a system consistiong of an antenna either parabolic or dipolar used to gather radio waves emitted by celestial sources and bring them to a receiver placed in focus |
| hubble telescope | telescope launched into orbit around the earth to provide information about the universe in the visible, infrared, and ultraviolet ranges |
| space shuttle | space vehicle |
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