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Earth, Moon, and 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 around 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 towards 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 an unbalanced force acts upon it |
| Phase | One of the different apparate 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 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 moon |