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24 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Solar System |
The system consisting of the sun and planets and other objects that revolve around it. |
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Astronomical Unit |
A unit of distance equal to the average distance between earth and the sun. |
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Planet |
An object that orbits a star, is large enough to have become rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the are of its orbit. |
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Dwarf planet |
An object that orbits the sun and is spherical, but has not cleared the area of its orbit. |
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Planetesimal |
one of the asteroid-like bodies that formed the building blocks of planets. |
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Maria |
Dark, flat areas on the moon's surface formed from huge ancient lava flows. |
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Crater |
A large pit caused by the impact of a meteoroid. |
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Meteoroid |
a chunk of rock in space, generally smaller then an asteroid. |
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Terrestrial Planets |
The name often given the four inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. |
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Greenhouse effect |
The trapping of heat near planet's surface by certain gases in the planet's atmosphere. |
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Gas giant |
The name often given to the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. |
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Ring |
A thin disk of ice and rock particles surrounding a planet. |
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Asteroid belt |
The region of the solar system between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where many asteroids are found. |
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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 the sun. |
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Oort cloud |
A spherical region of comets that surrounds the solar system. |
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Comet |
A loose connection of ice and dust that orbits the sun, typically in a long, narrow orbit. |
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Coma |
The fuzzy outer layer of a comet. |
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Nucleus |
The solid inner core of a comet. |
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Asteroid |
One of the rocky objects that revolve around the sun that are too small and numerous to be considered a planet. |
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Meteor |
A streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in the Earth's atmosphere |
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Meteorite |
A meteoroid that passes trough the atmosphere and hit the Earth's surface |
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Geocentric |
Term describing a model of the universe in which Earth is in the center of the revolving planets and stars. |
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Heliocentric |
Term describing a model of the universe in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. |
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Ellipse |
An oval shape, which may be elongated or nearly circular, the shape of the planets' orbits. |
