Module 9A Flashcards
Our star (the Sun), the eight regular planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, the Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs, including the Kuiper Belt), and the Oort Cloud.
What our Solar system is composed of
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
The eight planets of our solar system
Planets that have a rocky surface
Terrestrials
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Terrestrials in our solar system
Planets that are composed of gas and ice
Jovians
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Jovians in our solar system
The two planets closer to the sun than earth
Mercury and Venus
The inferior planets
Mercury and Venus.
The planets farther away from the sun than the earth
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
The superior planets
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
planetary retrograde motion
All planets can exhibit this
When the Sun, Earth and an inferior planet
are lined up, with the inferior planet between the Sun and the Earth
The three celestial bodies are in inferior conjunction
When the Sun, Earth and an
inferior planet are lined up, with the Sun
between the inferior planet and Earth
The three celestial bodies are in superior conjunction
When the Sun, Earth and a superior planet
are lined up, with the Earth between the Sun and the planet
The three celestial bodies are in opposition
When the Sun, Earth and a superior planet
are lined up, with the Sun between the Earth and the planet
The three celestial bodies are in conjunction
When an inferior planet is highest in the evening sky
It is at its greatest elongation east point in its orbit
When an inferior planet is highest in the morning sky
It is at its greatest elongation west point in its orbit
The last planet in our solar system
Neptune
situated about 30 AU from the Sun
Neptune
dividing line for “the regular Solar System, and everything outside, everything past Neptune
the Trans-Neptunian region
from 30 AU out to about 120 AU
home to Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs).
extends from 30 AU to 50 AU
The Kuiper belt
While there may be more than 100,000 of these objects
Kuiper belt objects
3 dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt
Pluto, Haumea and Makemake.
objects that orbit the Sun and are spherically shaped, but are too small to rise to the designation of planet
Dwarf planets
discovered by the American astronomer Clyde
Tombaugh in 1930, was long considered the ninth planet in the Solar System, but it was demoted in 2006 to the status of a dwarf planet.
Pluto
Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, as well as a moon of Saturn called Phoebe
considered by some astronomers to be Kuiper Belt Objects gravitationally captured by their mother planets.
At the edge of the Trans-Neptunian region, at about 120 AU, the effects of the solar wind suddenly die off
Heliopause
In a hollow bubble that spherically surrounds our Solar System, there lies perhaps as many as a trillion icy objects
The Oort Cloud
ranges from 2000 to 100,000 AU
The Oort Cloud
its outer edge is almost 40% of the distance to the nearest star other than
our Sun, the star Proxima Centauri.
The Oort Cloud
the Moon roughly follows the Ecliptic path
the apparent yearly orbit of the Sun around the Earth.
second planet from the Sun
Venus
is the second brightest reflecting object (after the Moon) in the solar system.
Venus
0.7 AU from the Sun
Venus
The Greeks called Venus, when the “morning star”
Phosphorus
Romans called Venus, when the “morning star”
Lucifer
The Greeks called Venus, when the “evening star”
Hesperus
the Romans called Venus, when the ”evening star”
Vesper
an atmosphere that is 96% carbon dioxide and 4% nitrogen
Venus
atmospheric pressure is a crushing 93 bar
Venus
One bar
100,000 Pascal
surface temperature is a steady 872 degrees Fahrenheit, day and night, due to a runaway greenhouse gas effect
Venus
Hot enough to melt lead
872 degrees Fahrenheit
clouds contain sulfur dioxide and microdroplets of sulfuric acid and Lightning
Venus
Air speed at the top of the cloud cover is a staggering 220 miles per hour, but at the surface it is a mere 2.5 miles per hour.
Venus
Only 5,000 to 10,000 lux of sunshine
illuminates the surface
Venus
With a year being about 225 Earth days
Venus
each year is composed of about two days
Venus
the planet rotates clockwise.
Venus
you will weigh about 16% because of the gravity and the atmosphere
Venus
the sixth planet from the Sun
Saturn
is about 9.6 AU from the Sun
Saturn
the sixth brightest reflecting object in the Solar System
Saturn
Its volume is 764 times that of Earth
Saturn
A year is about 30 Earth years
Saturn
A day is about 11 Earth hours
Saturn
has 146 moons
Saturn
Titan, Enceladus, Iapetus, and Rhea
Saturn
is the largest and most interesting of Saturn’s main moons, having an atmosphere similar to Earth’s atmosphere, at 1.5 atmospheres
Titan
has a very low specific gravity, about 0.7
gm/cm3
Saturn
They were first noticed by Galileo, but first adequately described as rings by Cassini
Saturn’s Rings
Rings
All the gas giants in our solar system have them
Polaris
The north star
Currently the only star in the northern celestial hemisphere that does not move circumpolarly over the course of the night.
Polaris
directly above the Earth’s Geographic North Pole
Polaris
a group of three stars, the brightest of which (Polaris Aa) is a cepheid variable star
The north star
433 light years away from Earth
Polaris
is at the end of the Little Dipper’s Handle
Polaris
the total or partial masking of an Earthbound observer’s view of a celestial body by another celestial body (including Earth)
Eclipse
the Moon’s masking of the Sun, as seen from an Earthbound observer’s view, at New Moon
Solar Eclipse
When the Moon is at or near perigee (its closest approach to the Earth), its angular size is almost exactly the same as the Sun’s angular size
A total solar eclipse
But when the Moon is at or near apogee (its farthest distance from Earth), its angular size is smaller than the Sun’s angular size,
Annular Solar Eclipse
the Earth’s masking of sunlight otherwise incident on the Moon, as seen from an Earthbound observer’s view, at the time of Full Moon.
Lunar Eclipse
the Earth’s shadow blocking sunlight to the otherwise Full Moon, the Moon appears to be a dark red or brown, not black.
Total Lunar Eclipse
celestial object is eclipsed by the Moon or another solar system body
Occulation
the masking of a planet or star by the Moon, or the masking of a star or moon by a planet.
Occulation
a minor masking occurring when one celestial body passes in front of another.
Transit
When the Egyptians were building their
pyramids in 3000 BCE (5000 years ago)
The North Star was Thuban, of the constellation Draco
the Earth’s North Pole points to different places (on a circle in the sky) repeating the pattern every 26,000 years
the Circle of Precession
