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Earth
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 in space |
Solstice | The two days of the year on which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the Equator. |
Equinox | Nether pole is closer to the sun and the days are as long as night |
Gravity | force that attracts all objects toward each other; measured in Newtons. |
Mass | the amount of matter in an object |
Weight | force of gravity on an object |
Law of Universal Gravitation | every object in the universe attracts every other object |
Inertia | the tendency of an object to resist change in motion |
Newton’s first law of motion | 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 an unbalanced force. |
Phase | one of the different apparent shapes of the moon as seen on 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 occurs when Earth is directly between the sun and the moon |