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Solar system
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Astronomical unit | Used to measure far distances in space 1 AU=Distance from Earth to sun |
| Meteoroid | Chunk of rock smaller than a asteroid |
| Meteor | Streak of light |
| Meteorite | Space rock found on earth |
| Meteor | Streak of light |
| Meteorite | Space rock found on earth |
| Asteroids | Millions of small rocky objects that orbit the Sun in the Astroid belt between mars and Jupiter |
| Comets | Made of gas,dust,and ice, revolve around the sun in the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud |
| Inner planets | Terrestrial planets Solid and rocky |
| Outer planets | Gas giants Made of ice and gas Rings and moons Hydrogen and helium |
| Mercury | Closest to the sun,not hottest planet-so small it lacks gravity and atmosphere |
| Venus | Hottest planet,greenhouse effect,day is longer than a year-rotation time is longer than its revolution,acid cloulds |
| Earth | Only planet with know life,moderate temperatures,protective atmosphere,liquid water |
| Mars | Largest know 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,Galilean 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 90 degrees so rotates like a bowling balll |
| Neptune | Longest period of revolution, swirling storms-windiest planet |
| Gas giants | Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune nick name for the 4 outer planets |
| Galilean moons | 4 moons Galileo discovered around Jupiter -lo Europa Ganymede callisto |
| Dwarf planet | Pluto was first, same as plane5 but not larger than its neighbors ,ceres in the asteroid belt |