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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 | Chunks of rock smaller than an 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 evolve the sun in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud |
| Inner planets | Terrestrial planets Solid and rocky Mercury Venus earth mars. |
| Outer planets | Gas giants Ice gas Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Rings and moons Hydrogen helium |
| Mercury | Closest to the sun Not hottest planet Gravity and atmosphere |
| Venus | Hottest planet Greenhouse effect Day is longer than a year rotation than revolution Acid clouds |
| Earth | Only planet with life Liquid water Protective atmosphere |
| Mars | Largest known mountain 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, great red spot |
| Saturn | Home of the titan-a moon, most similar to earth. |
| Uranus | Tilted 90 degrees, |
| Neptune | Swirling storms |
| Gas giant | Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune nickname for 4 outer planets. |
| Galilean moon | 4 moons |
| Dwarf planets | Pluto was first , same as planet but mass is different. |