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38 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Accretion
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An increase in the mass of a body by accumulation or clumping of smaller particles.
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Animal
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A multicellular organism unable to synthesize its own food and often capable of movement.
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Atom
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The smallest particle of an element that exhibits the characteristics of that element.
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Big Bang
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The hypothetical event that started the expansion of the universe from a geometric point; the beginning of time.
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Biosynthesis
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The initial formation of life on Earth.
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Cell
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The basic organizational unit of life on this planet.
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Compound
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A substance composed of two or more elements in a fixed proportion.
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Condensation Theory
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Premise that stars and planets accumulate from contracting, accretion clouds and galactic gas, dust, and debris.
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Density Stratification
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The formation of layers in a material, with each deeper layer being denser (weighing more per unit of volume) than the layer above.
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Element
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A substance composed of identical atoms that cannot be broken down into simpler substances by chemical means.
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Experiments
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Tests that simplify observation in nature or in the laboratory by manipulating or controlling the conditions under which observations are made.
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Galaxy
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A large rotating aggregation of stars, dust, gas, and other debris held together by gravity. There are perhaps 50 billion galaxies in the universe and 50 billion stars in each galaxy.
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Hypothesis
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A speculation about the natural world that may be verified or disproved by observation and experiment.
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Law
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A large construct explaining events in nature that have been observed to occur with unvarying uniformity under the same conditions.
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Marine Science
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A process (or result) of applying the scientific method to the ocean, its surroundings, and the life-forms within it; also called oceanography or oceanology.
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Mass
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A measure of the quanity of matter.
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Membrane
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A complex structure of proteins and lipids that forms boundaries around and within a cell. It is usually semipermeable, allowing some kinds of molecules to pass through but not others.
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Milky Way Galaxy
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The name of our galaxy; sometimes applied to the field of stars in our home spiral arm, which is correctly called the Orion arm.
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Mixture
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A close intermingling of different substances that still retain separate identities. The properties of a mixture are heterogeneous; they may vary within the mixture.
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Nebula
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Diffuse cloud of dust and gas.
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Nonconservative Constituent
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An element whose proportion in seawater varies with time and place, depending on biological demand or chemical reactivity. An element with a short residence time; for example, iron, aluminum, silicon, trace nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and carbon dioxide.
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Nonconservative Nutrient
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A compound or ion that is needed by autotrophs for primary productivity and that changes in the concentration with biological activity.
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Ocean
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(1) The great body of saline water that covers 70.78% of the surface of Earth. (2) One of its promary subdivisions, bounded by continents, the equator, and other imaginary lines.
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Oceanography
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The science of the ocean. See also Marine Science.
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Outgassing
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The volcanic venting of volatile substances.
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Oxygen Revolution
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The time span, from about 2 billion years to 400 million years ago, during which photosynthetic autotrophs changed the composition of the Earth's atmosphere to its current oxygen-rich mixture.
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Photon
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The smallest unit of light energy.
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Planet
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A smaller, usually nonluminous body orbiting a star.
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Protostar
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A tightly condensed knot of material that has not yet attained fusion temperature.
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Science
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A systematic way of asking questions about the natural world and testing the answers to those questions.
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Scientific Method
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The orderly process by which theories explaining the operation of the natural world are verified or rejected.
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Solar Nebula
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The diffuse cloud of dust and gas from which the solar system originated.
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Solar System
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The sun together with the planets and other bodies that revolve around it.
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Star
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A massive sphere of incandescent gases powered by the conversion of hydrogen to helium and other heaver elements.
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Supernova
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The explosive collapse of a massive star.
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Synoptic Sampling
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Simultaneous sampling at many locations.
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Theory
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A general explanation of a characteristic of nature consistently supported by observation or experiment.
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World Ocean
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The great body of saline water that covers 70.78% of Earth's surface.
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