Astronomy Flashcards
Light Year
The distance traveled by light in one year
Parsec
The unit of astronomical distance equal to the earth in stellar parallax. Equivalent to 3.262 light years
Nebula
A cloud of interstellar gas and dust that is visible as a hazy patch of light.
Constellation
Any of the 88 groups of stars seen from Earth and the soalr system. Many were named from the ancient Greeks.
Planetesimal
The small celestial bodies that were fused together to form the planets. Small bodies of gas and dust thought to have orbited the Sun during the formation of planets.
Protoplanetary
protoplanets are moon-sized or larger planetary embryos whis disk’s tht have undergone internal melting to differential interiors
Nuclear Fusion
A reation in when two nuclei combine to form a nucleas with the release of energy
Terrestrial Planets
A planet having a rocky surface like the Earth’s, Also the four innermost planets in the solar system.
Gas giant planet
A planet composed of almost entirely of gas
Comet
A celestial body moving around the sun in a high eccentric orbit, its body is surrounded by dust and gas that may form a tail that strems away from the sun.
Asteroid
Also called a minor planet, any of the thousands of small bodies that revolve around the sun.
Cosmologist
The study ofthe origin of the universe.
Angular Velocity
The time rate of change of a angular position of a rotating body
Orbit
The curvedp path tht planets, satellites, comets, etc follow around another celestial body under the influence of gravitation
Period Of Time
An amount of time
Revolve
Moving in a circular or curving course.
Rotation
the movement or path of the planets or heavenly body turning on its axis
Sidereal Day
The interval between two successive passages of the vernal uquinox. Its four minutes shorter than a mean solar day.
Solar Day
The period of time from sunrise to sunset
Year
365 Day’s
Accretion
The growth in size or extent
Spring Tide
The large rise and fall of the tide at or soon after the new or full moon
Leap Tide
WHen the sun and the moon oppose eachother and creat the smallest rise and fall in tidal level.
Eccenentricity
deviating from a circular from, as an elliptic orbit
Coma
The cloudy envolpement around the nucleus of a comet
Precession
Th slow motion of the Earths axs of rotation caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon on the equatorial bulge of the Earth
Orbital Plane
The plane on which a body is orbiting
Inclination
The angle between the plane of the orbit of a planet or comet and another plane.
