Astronomy Flashcards
What is an astronomical unit?
The distance from the earth to the sun
What is a light year?
The distance light travels in a year
What is a parsec?
3.25 light years .
What is a nebula?
A fuzzy cloud of dust .
What is a constellation?
A recongnizable group of stars in the night sky .
What is a planetesimal?
Small bodies that formed into a planet .
What is protoplanetary?
By condensation, a collection of matter forms a planet
What is a nuclear fusion?
Two or more neclei form together
What is a terrestrial planet ?
A planet composed primarily of rocks and/or metals
What is a gas giant planet?
A planet not composed of rock or solid matter .
jupiter, saturn, uranus etc.
What would you call a body that moves around the sun and sometimes drifts away when it gets its ‘tail’?
A comet
What is also referred to as a minor planet?
An asteroid
What does a cosmologist do?
They study origin, structure & space time relationships in the universe
What is the angular speed of an object and axis which it rotates?
Angular velocity
A curved path of an object usually around a star, planet or moon is called an _ ?
orbit
A portion of time is called a _ ?
Period
When something moves in a circle around an axis it is called _ ?
Revolving
(n) Revolve
Moving around an axis is called _ ?
Rotation .
When the stars are used to figure out something it is called _ ?
Sidereal
The time between sunrise and sunet or a period of twenty four hours is called a _ ?
Day
A day from midnight to midnight would be called a _ ?
Solar day
A period of three hundred sixty five days is
considered a _?
Year
What is natural external growth called?
Accretion
Spring Tide is the_ ?
Large rise and fall of a tide on the new or full moon.
A neap tide is _ ?
The tide that occurs when the high tide is at its lowest.
Eccentricity is _ ?
To turn off from an orbit
A coma is a wall around .. ?
The nucleus of a comet.
Precession is the _ ?
Motion of the earth rotating on its axis
The orbital plane is just _ ?
The area which a ‘body’ is orbiting
Inclination is _ ?
The angle of the Earth on its axis that in turn created seasons.
