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The solar System
unit 3
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| solar system | a group of planets and other bodies that revolve around a star. |
| heliocentric | a theory that places the Sun at the center of the Solar System. |
| geocentric | focused on the earth. |
| parallax | the apparent shift of an object's position relative to more distant background objects caused by a change in the observer's position. |
| gravity | the force of fundamental attraction between all things that have mass or energy. |
| orbit | a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. |
| aphelion | 3rd of July |
| perihelion | Aphelion is the point of the Earth's orbit that is farthest away from the Sun. |
| centripetal force | The inward force required to keep a particle or an object moving in a path |
| solar nebula | A rotating cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and planets formed. |
| planetesimal | a small body from which a planet originate in the early stages of development of the solar system. |
| nuclear fusion | the process where two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier nucleus, releasing immense amounts of energy |
| sunspot | temporary, relatively dark and cool patches appearing on the Sun's photosphere (surface) caused by intense, concentrated magnetic field flux that inhibits convection |
| solar flare | a sudden, intense explosion of energy, light, and radiation originating from the Sun's surface, typically triggered by the snapping of tangled magnetic fields above sunspots |
| prominence | the state of being easily seen, famous, important, or physically jutting out from surroundings |
| terrestrial planet | a rocky planet composed primarily of silicate rocks, metals, and a solid surface, similar in structure to Earth |
| astronomical unit | a unit of length used to measure distances within our solar system, representing the average distance from the Earth to the Sun |
| gas giant | a large planet composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, lacking a well-defined solid surface |
| planetary ring | vast, flat, disc-shaped structures composed of countless small particles—ranging from dust to house-sized boulders of ice and rock—orbiting closely around a planet |
| dwarf planet | a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity (hydrostatic equilibrium) but has not cleared its neighboring region of other objects |
| Kuiper Belt | a massive, donut-shaped ring of icy bodies, comets, and dwarf planets (including Pluto) that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune |
| Kuiper Belt object | millions of icy bodies, dwarf planets, and comets |
| comet | a small, icy celestial body that orbits the Sun, composed of dust, rock, and frozen gases |
| Oort cloud | a theoretical, vast, spherical shell surrounding the Solar System, located far beyond the Kuiper Belt at roughly 2,000 to 100,000+ Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun |
| asteroid | small, airless, rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system roughly 4.6 billion years ago |
| meteoroid | a small, solid, rocky or metallic body traveling through interplanetary space, ranging in size from dust grains to small,1-meter-wide asteroids |
| meteor | the streak of light—commonly called a "shooting star" or "falling star"—produced when a small piece of space debris (a meteoroid) burns up upon entering Earth's atmosphere |
| meteorite | a solid piece of debris—primarily from asteroids, comets, or other celestial bodies—that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of Earth or another planet |
Created by:
Gabriella coimbra