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Earth & space
earth and space scienece
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Crust | form into a hard outer layer. |
| Mantle | the region of the earth's interior between the crust and the core, believed to consist of hot, dense silicate rocks (mainly peridotite). |
| Core | the dense central region of a planet, especially the nickel–iron inner part of the earth. |
| Theory of plate tectonics | a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle |
| Tectonic plates | rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle. |
| Margins | The boundary of one of the plates that form the upper layer (the lithosphere) and together cover the surface of the Earth |
| Constructive margin | happens where plates move apart. |
| Destructive margins | where an oceanic and continental plate move towards each other. |
| Transform | type of fault whose relative motion is predominantly horizontal |
| Conservative margin | sometimes called a transform plate margin, occurs where plates slide past each other in opposite directions, or in the same direction but at different speeds. |
| Pangaea | a hypothetical supercontinent that included all current land masses, believed to have been in existence before the continents broke apart during the Triassic and Jurassic Periods |
| Resource | any physical material constituting part of Earth that people need and value. Natural materials become resources when humans value them. |
| Soil | the upper layer of earth in which plants grow, a black or dark brown material typically consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay, and rock particles |
| Minerals | a solid inorganic substance of natural occurrence |
| Energy resources | Renewable (sun, sea, wind) or non-renewable (coal mine, gas well, oil well) resource used for obtaining an energy source. |
| Solar energy | The energy the Earth receives from the sun, primarily as visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. |
| Geothermal energy | heat energy generated and stored in the Earth. |
| Renewable energy | a resource which can be used repeatedly because it is replaced naturally. Examples are: oxygen, fresh water, solar energy, timber, |
| Ozone layer | a layer in the earth's stratosphere at an altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 km) containing a high concentration of ozone, which absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation reaching the e arth from the sun. |
| Conservation | the action of conserving something, in particular. |
| Atmosphere | the envelope of gases surrounding the earth or another planet. |
| Weather | the state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.: |
| Climate | the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.: |
| Prevailing winds | a wind from the direction that is predominant at a particular place or season. |
| Ocean currents | a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, while tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon. |
| Air masses | a body of air with horizontally uniform temperature, humidity, and pressure. |
| Front | The boundary between two air masses that have different temperatures or humidity. In the mid-latitude areas of the Earth, where warm tropical air meets cooler polar air, the systems of fronts define the weather and often cause precipitation to form. |
| Cold front | the boundary of an advancing mass of cold air, in particular the trailing edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system. |
| Precipitation | rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground. |
| Warm front | the boundary of an advancing mass of warm air, in particular the leading edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system |
| Occluded front | formed during the process of cyclogenesis when a cold front overtakes a warm front. When this occurs, the warm air is separated (occluded) from the cyclone center at the Earth's surface |
| Meteorologists | an expert in or student of meteorology; a weather forecaster.: " |
| Biochemical cycles | a cycle that involves the transformation and transport of matter in several areas of the Earth. |
| Water cycle | the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth's oceans, atmosphere, and land, involving precipitation as rain and snow, drainage in streams and rivers, and return to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration. |
| Hydro-logic cycle | the sequence of conditions through which water passes from vapor in the atmosphere through precipitation upon land or water surfaces and ultimately back into the atmosphere as a result of evaporation and transpiration |
| Evaporate | turn from liquid into vapor.: |
| Transpiration | is the process by which moisture is carried through plants from roots to small pores on the underside of leaves, |
| Condenses | make (something) denser or more concentrated. |
| Run-off | the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land, a building or structure, etc. |
| Infiltration | permeation of a liquid into something by filtration.: "improved water infiltration into the soil" |
| Weathering | wear away or change the appearance or texture of (something) by long exposure to the air. |
| Mineral sediments | refers to particles, or grains, of weathered rock |
| Magma | hot fluid or semi-fluid material below or within the earth's crust from which lava and other igneous rock is formed by cooling. |
| Carbon | the chemical element of atomic number 6, a nonmetal that has two main forms (diamond and graphite) and that also occurs in impure form in charcoal, soot, and coal. |
| Carbon cycle | processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay from dead organisms, and burning of fossil fuels. |
| Cellular respiration | The chemical process that generates most of the energy in the cell, supplying molecules needed to make the metabolic reactions (see metabolism) of an organism run. |
| Aerobic | relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen |
| Anaerobic | relating to, involving, or requiring an absence of free oxygen.: |
| Methane | a colorless, odorless flammable gas that is the main constituent of natural gas. |
| Greenhouse gases | a gas that contributes to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation, e.g., carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons. |
| Fossil fuels | a natural fuel such as coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms. |
| Natural resources | materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain. |
| Extinct | (of a species, family, or other larger group) having no living members |
| Biodiversity | the variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. |
| Solar system | the collection of eight planets and their moons in orbit around the sun, together with smaller bodies in the form of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets. |
| Planets | a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star. |
| Satellites | an artificial body placed in orbit around the earth or moon or another planet in order to collect information or for communication. |
| Gravity | the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass |
| Inner planets | a planet whose orbit lies within the asteroid belt, i.e., Mercury, Venus, Earth, or Mars |
| Outer planets | a planet whose orbit lies outside the asteroid belt, i.e., Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune. |
| Phases | the relationship in time between the successive states or cycles of an oscillating or repeating system |
| Star | fixed luminous point in the night sky that is a large, remote incandescent body like the sun. |
| Protostars | a contracting mass of gas that represents an early stage in the formation of a star, |
| Nebula | a cloud of gas and dust in outer space, visible in the night sky either as an indistinct bright patch or as a dark silhouette against other luminous matter. |
| Red giant | a very large star of high luminosity and low surface temperature. Red giants are thought to be in a late stage of evolution when no hydrogen remains in the core to fuel nuclear fusion. |
| White dwarf | a small very dense star that is typically the size of a planet. A white dwarf is formed when a low-mass star has exhausted all its central nuclear fuel and lost its outer layers as a planetary nebula |
| Supernova | a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. |
| Neutron star | a celestial object of very small radius (typically 18 miles/30 km) and very high density, composed predominantly of closely packed neutrons |
| Black hole | a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. |
| Galaxies | system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction. |
| Milky way | The galaxy to which our sun belongs. |
| Universe | all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos. The universe is believed to be at least 10 billion light years in diameter and contains a vast number of galaxies; |
| Brown dwarfs | a celestial object intermediate in size between a giant planet and a small star, believed to emit mainly infrared radiation |
| Pulsars | a celestial object, thought to be a rapidly rotating neutron star, that emits regular pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation at rates of up to one thousand pulses per second. |
| Quasars star | a massive and extremely remote celestial object, emitting exceptionally large amounts of energy, and typically having a like image in a telescope. |
| Cosmologists | the branch of astronomy involving the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future. “th e scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole.” |
| Big bang | the rapid expansion of matter from a state of extremely high density and temperature that according to current cosmological theories marked the origin of the universe. |
| Doppler effect | an increase (or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light, or other waves as the source and observer move toward (or away from) each other. |
| Red shift | the displacement of spectral lines toward longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) in radiation from distant galaxies and celestial objects |
| Cosmic microwave | background radiation |
Created by:
rhart1973
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