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Solar system
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Astronomical unit | Used to measure far distance in space 1 AU= Distance from earth to sun |
| Meteroid | Chunks of rock smaller than asteroid |
| Meteor | Streak of light |
| Meteorite | Space rock found on Earth |
| Asteroids | Millions of small rocky objects that orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter |
| Comets | Made of gas , dust and ice the revolve around the Sun in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud |
| Inner planets | *Terrestiral planets *solid and rocky *Mercury, Venus , Earth, Mars |
| Outer planets | *Gas giants *made of ice and gas *Jupiter,saturn,uranus,Neptune *rings and moons *hydrogen and Helium |
| Mercy | * closest planet to the sun *Not the hottest- so small it lacks gravity and gravity |
| Venus | * hottest planet *greenhouse effect *day is longer than a year-rotation time is longer than it’s revolution *acid clouds |
| Earth | * only planet with known life *moderate temperatures *protective atmosphere *liquid water |
| Mars | * largest known mountain-Olympus Mons *possible signs of life |
| Terrestrial planets | The four inner planets |
| Greenhouse effect | Occurs when a planets atmosphere traps Solar energy and causes the temperature to increase |
| Jupiter | *largest planet *galliean moons *great red spot |
| Saturn | *most complex ring system * least dense planet-it would float *home of titan a moon |
| Uranus | * rotation axis is tilted 9p degrees so rotates like a bowling ball |
| Neptune | * longest period of revolution * swirling storms- windiest outer plantes |
| Gas ginats | Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune nickname for the outer planets |
| Galliean moons | 4 moons Galileo discovered around Jupiter, lo, Europa, Ganymede,Callisto |
| Dwarf planet | *pluto was the first *same as planet but not larger than it’s neighbors *ceres in the asteroid belt |
| Planet | Spherical, orbits the Sun, clears it’s orbit |