Final Flashcards
Venus
Brightest planet, rotates backwards, volcanic surface, “morning/evening star”
Mercury
Closest to the sun, fastest orbit period, almost no atmosphere, volcanic surface, extreme temps
Mars
Thin CO2 atmosphere, two moons (Phobos & Deimos), “Red planet”, geologically dead, trace amounts of water detected
Asteroids
Smaller rocky objects that orbit the sun, Ceres was the largest but was reclassified as a dwarf planet
Jupiter
The largest planet, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, fastest spinning planet, made of light gases
Saturn
Largest ring system, Titan is its largest moon, least dense of the planets, very quick day
Uranus
Discovered by Herschel, rotates nearly perpendicularly Westward
Neptune
Discovered because of Uranus, blue color due to raging storms of methane gas, 165 year orbit
4 criteria for planetary status
- Must orbit the sun
- Cannot be a moon
- Must have obtained hydrostatic equilibrium
- Must have cleared its orbital path
New moon
Beginning of the lunar period
Waxing phases
14 days, visible part increasing
Full moon
Halfway into the lunar period
Waning phases
14 days, visible part decreasing
Crescent
Less than half the moon visible
Gibbous
More than half the moon visible
Maria
Depressed areas on the moon
Highlands
Higher areas of the moon
Photosphere
Glowing surface of the sun
Prominences
Glowing pieces of the sun’s atmosphere radiating outward
Corona
Sun’s atmosphere, made of reactive ions
Solar winds
Ions ejected from the corona
Parallax
A shift in a star’s perceived location due to the earth’s movements
Light-year
The distance light travels in a year
Luminosity
Measure of the total amount of light produced by a star
Brightness
Measure of light reaching the earth
Variable stars
Stars that have fluctuating brightness
Cepheid variables
Stars that have a regular period related to luminosity, these are used to calculate the distance to other galaxies
Moho
The boundary between the crust and the mantle that bends P and S waves
