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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 that asteroid |
| Meteor | Streak of light |
| Meteorite | Space rock found on earth |
| Asteroids | Millions of small rocky objects that orbit the sun and in the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter |
| Comets | Made of gas,dust,and ice, revole around arou d the sun in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud |
| Inner planets | Terrestrial planets Solid rocky Mercury Venus earth mars |
| Outer planets | Gas giants Made of ice and gas Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Rings and moon Hydrogen and helium |
| Mercury | Closet planet to the sun Not the hottest-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 clouds |
| Earth | Only planet with life Moderate temperature Protective atmosphere Liquid water |
| Mars | Largest know mountain-Olympus Mons Possible signs of life |
| Terrestrial planets | The four inner planets |
| Green house effect | Occurs when a planets atmosphere traps solar energy and causes the temperature to increase |