Term | Definition |
Asteroids | Also called minor planet.Any of the thousands of small bodies of from 480 miles (775 km) to less than one mile (1.6 km) in diameter that revolve about the sun in orbits lying mostly between those of Mars and Jupiter. |
Big Bang | a theory that deduces a cataclysmic birth of the universe (big bang) from the observed expansion of the universe, cosmic background radiation, abundance of the elements, and the laws of physics. |
Comets | a celestial body moving about the sun, usually in a highly eccentric orbit, consisting of a central mass surrounded by an envelope of dust and gas that may form a tail that streams away from the sun. |
Earth | It is the only planet known to have an atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of liquid water on its surface, and, of course, life. ... About a fifth of Earth's atmosphereis made up of oxygen, produced by plants. |
Geocentric | having or representing the earth as a center:
a geocentric theory of the universe.
using the earth or earthly life as the only basis of evaluation.
viewed or measured as from the center of the earth: |
Gravity | the force of attraction by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the center of the earth. |
Heliocentric | measured or considered as being seen from the center of the sun |
Jupiter | the king of the Roman gods in mythology. Jupiter is called a gas giant planet. Its atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen gas and helium gas, like the sun. The planet is covered in thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds. |
Lunar Eclipse | the obscuration of the light of the moon by the intervention of the IT between earth and the sun. |
Mars | Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is also often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. |
Mercury | Like our Moon, Mercury's surface is covered with craters caused by space rock impacts. |
Meteors | a meteoroid that has entered the earth's atmosphere.
a transient fiery streak in the sky produced by a meteoroid passing through the earth's atmosphere; a shooting star or bolide. |
Milky Way | the spiral galaxy containing our solar system. With the naked eye it is observed as a faint luminous band stretching across the heavens, composed of approximately a trillion stars, most of which are too distant to be seen individually. |
Moon | The moon is a cold, dry orb whose surface is studded with craters and strewn with rocks and dust |
Neptune | The planet eighth in order from the sun, having an equatorial diameter of 30,200 miles (48,600 km), a mean distance from the sun of 2794.4 million miles (4497.1 million km), a period of revolution of 164.81 years, and two moons. |
Pluto | is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt |
Saturn | Saturn is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. |
Solar Eclipse | the obscuration of the light of the moon by the intervention of the earth between it and the sun (lunar eclipse) or the obscuration of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and a point on the earth |
Solar System | a similar system with celestial bodies revolving around a star other than the sun. |
Sun | the star that is the central body of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heatmillion km), its diameter about 864,000 miles (1.4 million km), |
Uranus | 80 percent or more of its mass is made up of a fluid mix of water, methane, and ammonia ices. Unlike the other planets of the solar system, its side, with the axis of its spin nearly pointing at the star. |
Venus | Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earth's sister planet due the their similar size and mass |