Chapt. 3 The Solar System, Astronomy
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21 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 astronomical unit (AU) | The mean or average distance of the Earth from the sun or about 150,000,000 (million) kilometers. |
| Light year (ly) | The distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year or about 9,500,000,000,000 (trillion) kilometers. |
| geocentric | A model of the universe in which the Earth is at the center of the revolving planets and stars. |
| heliocentric | A model of the solar system in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. |
| ellipse | An oval shape, which may be elongated or nearly circular; the shape of the planets' orbits. |
| Terrestrial planets | The name often given to the four inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. (terrestrial - of the land). |
| Jovian planets | The name often given to the four outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (Jovian - Jupiter-like) |
| gas giants | The name often given to the four outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. |
| retrograde motion | An apparent backward motion of a planet or asteroid. |
| ring | A thin disk of small ice and rock particles surrounding a planet. |
| comet | A loose collection of ice, dust, and small rocky particles, typically with a long, narrow orbit. |
| coma | The fuzzy outer layer of a comet created as the comet warms as it moves closer to the sun. |
| nucleus | The solid inner core of a comet. |
| Kuiper belt | A doughnut-shaped region that stretches from around Pluto's orbit to about 100 times Earth's distance from the sun. |
| Oort cloud | A spherical region of comets that surrounds the solar system. |
| asteroids | Rocky objects revolving around the sun that are too small and numerous to be considered planets. |
| asteroid belt | The region of the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where many asteroids are found. |
| meteoroid | A chunk of rock or dust in space. |
| 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. |
| extraterrestrial life | Life that exists other than that on Earth. |
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