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Chapter 3 L 2-6
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| solar system | The system consisting of the sun and planets and other objects that revolve around it |
| planet | An object that orbits a star, large enough to have become rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the area of its orbit |
| planetesimal | One of the small astroid-like bodies that formed the building blocks of the planets |
| dwarf planet | An object that orbits the sun and is spherical, but has not cleared the area of its orbit |
| astronomical unit | A unit of distance equal to the average distance between the sun and the earth, about 150 million kilometers |
| core | The central region of the sun, where nuclear fusion takes place |
| nuclear fusion | The process in which two atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus, forming a heavier element and releasing huge amounts of energy. The process by which energy is produced in stars |
| radiation zone | A region of very tightly packed gas in the sun's interior where energy is transferred mainly in the form of electromagnetic radiation |
| convection zone | The outermost layer of the sun's interior |
| photosphere | The inner layer of the sun's atmosphere that gives off its visible light; the sun's surface |
| chromosphere | The middle layer of the sun's atmosphere |
| corona | The outer layer of the sun's atmosphere |
| solar wind | A stream of electrically charged particles that emanate from the sun's corona |
| sunspot | A dark area of gas on the sun's surface that is cooler than surrounding gases |
| prominence | A huge, reddish loop of gas that protudes from the suns surface, linking parts of sunspot regions |
| solar flare | An eruption of gas from the sun's surface that occurs when the loops in sunspot regions suddenly connect |
| terrestrial planet | The name often given to the four inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars |
| greenhouse | The trapping of heat near a planet's surface by gases in the planet's atmosphere |
| gas giant | The name often given to the outer planets: Jupiter,Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune |
| ring | A thin disk of small ice and rock particles surrounding a planet |
| astroid belt | The region of the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where many asteroids are found |
| kuipler belt | A region where many small objects orbit the sun and that stretches from beyond the orbit of Neptune to about 100 times Earth's distance from the sun |
| oort cloud | A spherical region of comets that surrounds the solar system |
| comet | A loose collection of ice and dust that orbits the sun , typically in a long-narrow orbit |
| coma | The fuzzy outer layer of a comet |
| nucleus | The solid inner core of a comet |
| astreoid | One of the rocky objects revolving around the sun that are too small and numerous to be considered planets |
| meteoroid | A chunk of rock or dust in space, generally smaller than an astreoid |
| meteor | A streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in Earth's atmosphere |
| meteorite | A meteoroid that passes through the atmosphere and hits Earth's surface |
| hello | :) |