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chapter12 vocab
Term | Definition |
---|---|
1.Astronomy | The study of the moon, stars, and other objects in space. |
2.Axis | An imaginary line that passes through Earth’s center and the North and South poles, about which Earth rotates. |
3.Rotation | The spinning motion of a planet on its axis. |
4.Revolution | The movement of an object around another object. |
5.Orbit | The path of an object as it revolves around another object in space. |
6.Calendar | A system of organizing time that defines the beginning, length, and divisions of a year. |
7.Solstice | The two days of the year on which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the equator. |
8.Equinox | The two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun. |
9.Force | A push or a pull exerted on an object. |
10.Gravity | The force that pulls objects toward each other. |
11.Law of Universal Gravitation | The scientific law that states that every object in the universe attracts every other object. |
12.Mass | A measure of how much matter is in an object. |
13.Inertia | The tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. |
14.Newton’s first law of motion | The scientific law that states than an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with constant speed and direction unless acted on by a force. |
15.Phase | One of the different apparent shapes of the moon as seen from Earth. |
16.Eclipse | The partial or total blocking of one object in space by another. |
17.Solar eclipse | The blocking of sunlight to Earth that occurs when the moon is directly between the sun and Earth. |
18.Umbra | The darkest part of a shadow. |
19.Penumbra | The part of a shadow surrounding the darkest part. |
20.Lunar eclipse | The blocking of sunlight to the moon that occurs when Earth is directly between the sun and the moon. |
21.Tide | The periodic rise and fall of the level of water in the ocean. |
23.Spring tide | The tide with the greatest difference between consecutive low and high tides. |
24.Neap tide | The tide with least difference between consecutive low and high tides. |
25.Telescope | A device built to observe distant objects by making them appear closer. |
26.Maria | Dark, flat areas on the moon’s surface formed from huge ancient lava flows. |
27.Crater | A large round pit caused by the impact of a meteoroid |
28.Meteor | A chunk of rock or dust in space. |