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Solar System Vocab
Solar System Vocabulary Flashcards
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Star | celestial body that produces its own light consisting of a mass of gas held together by its own gravity in which the energy generated by nuclear reactions in the interior is balanced by the outflow of energy to the surface. |
Moon | any planetary satellite |
Meteor | the luminous trail of heated air produced by meteoroids passage through the Earth’s atmosphere/ a streak of light caused when a meteoroid or comet dust burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere before it reaches the ground. |
Satellite | natural or artificial body that revolves around a planet |
Asteroid | a small (1 kilometer to 1000 kilometers), rocky body that revolves around the sun. Also called a minor planet, most asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt. |
Planet | a spherical body, larger than a comet or asteroid, that orbits the Sun, or a similar body that orbits a different star. |
Phases of the Moon | the different shapes of the moon caused by changes in the relative position of the moon, Earth, and sun. The phase of the moon you see depends on how much of the sunlit side of the moon faces Earth. |
Earth's Tilt | 23.5° |
Seasons | caused by the angle at which sunlight strikes the surface of Earth as it revolves around the Sun. If the Earth were not tilted, it could not occur. |
Aristotle | Greek scientist who thought that the universe is perfect and finite and that Earth is stationary at its center (geocentric). |
Tides | the rise and fall of the ocean’s water every 12.5 hours or so caused mainly because of differences in how much the moon pulls on different parts of Earth. |
Comets | chunks of ice and dust whose orbits are usually very long, narrow ellipses |
Revolve | the movement of one object around another object |
Space exploration | the investigation of the Universe by spacecraft |
Day and Night on Earth | caused by Earth’s rotation on its axis every 24 hours |
Copernicus | Polish astronomer who thought that the sun is at the center of the planets. His heliocentric system stated that Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. |
Rotate | the spinning motion of a planet on its axis. It takes Earth about 24 hours to rotate once on its axis, causing day and night to occur. |
Inertia | the force on an object to remain in motion |
Orbit | Earth’s path as it revolves around the sun |
Ptolemy | Greek astronomer who believed in a geocentric system where Earth is at the center of the system of planets and revolved around the Earth. |
Galileo | Italian astronomer observed the heliocentric system with a telescope wherein everything in the system of planets revolved around the Sun |
Axis | The imaginary line that passes through Earth’s center and the North and South poles causing the sun and moon to seem to move as if it is rotating on it |