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Solar system
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Astronomical unit | Used to measure far distances in space 1 AU= Distance from earth to sun. |
| Meteoroid | Chunk 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, revolve around the sun in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. |
| Inner planets | Terrestrial 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 |
| Planets | Spherical, orbits the Sun, clears it’s orbit |
| Mercury | Closest planet to the sun, Not the hottest so small that it lacks gravity and atmosphere |
| Venus | Hottest planet, Green house affect, day is longer than a year rotation is longer than it’s revolution, acid clouds |
| Earth | Only planet with known life, moderate temperatures, protective atmosphere, liquid water |
| Mars | Largest known mountain Olympic mons, possible signs of life |
| Terrestrial planets | The four inner planets |
| Greenhouse affect | Occurs when a planet’s 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, titan largest moon |
| Uranus | Rotation axis is tilted 90 degrees so it rotates like a bowling ball |
| Neptune | Largest period revolution, swirling storms windiest planet |
| Gas giants | Nickname |
| Galilean moons | 4 moons Galileo discovered around Jupiter, -lo, Europe, ganymede ,Callisto |
| Dwarf planet | Pluto was the first, same as a planet but not larger than its neighbors,Ceres in the asteroid belt |