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Earth, Moon, Sun
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Astronomy | The study of the moon, stars, and other objects in space. |
Axis | An imaginary line that passes through Earth's center and the North and South poles, about which Earth rotates |
Rotation | The spinning motion of a planet on its axis |
Revolution | The movement of an object around another object |
Orbit | The path of an object as it revolves another object in space |
Solstice | The two days of the year on which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the equator |
Equinox | The two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun |
Gravity | The force that pulls objects toward each other. |
Law of Universal Gravitation | The scientific law that states that every object in the universe attracts every other object |
Mass | A measure of how much matter is in an object |
Weight | A measure of the force of gravity on an object |
Inertia | The tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion |
Newton's First Law of Motion | The scientific law that states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with a constant speed and direction unless acted on by a force |
Phase | One of the different apparent shapes of the moon as seen from Earth |
Eclipse | The partial or total blocking of one object in space by another |
Solar Eclipse | The blocking of sunlight to Earth that occurs when the moon is directly between the sun and Earth |
Umbra | The darkest part of a shadow |
Penumbra | The larger, less dark part of a shadow surrounding the darkest part |
Lunar Eclipse | The blocking of sunlight to the moon that occurs when Earth is directly between the sun and the moon |