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Chapter 3 ss
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| solar system | the system containing of the sun and other objects that revolve around it |
| astronomical unit | a unit of distance equal to the average distance between earth and the sun about 150 kilometers |
| planet | an object that orbits a star is large enough to have become rounded by it's own gravity and has cleared the area of it's orbit |
| dwarf planet | an object that orbits the sun and is round but has not cleared the area of it's orbit |
| planetesimal | one of the small asteroid like bodies that formed the building blocks of the planets |
| 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 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 gasses |
| prominence | a huge reddish loop of gas that protrudes from the sun's surface linking parts of sunspot regions |
| solar flare | an eruption of gas from the sun's surface that occurs when the loops in the sunspot regions suddenly connect |
| terrestrial planet | the name often given to the four inner planets mercury, Venus, earth, and mars |
| greenhouse effect | the trapping of heat near a planets surface by certain gasses in the atmosphere |
| gas giant | the name given to the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. |
| ring | a thin disk of small ice and rock particles surrounding a planet |
| asteroid belt | the region of the solar system between Mars and Jupiter where many asteroids are found |
| Kuiper belt | a region where many small objects orbit the sun and that stretches from beyond the orbit of Neptune to about 100 times the distance from earth to 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 Ian a long narrow orbit |
| coma | the fuzzy outer layer of a comet |
| nucleus | the solid inner core of a comet |
| asteroid | 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 asteroid |
| meteor | a streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in earths atmosphere |
| meteorite | a meteoroid that passes through the atmosphere and hits earth's surface |
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