Solar System Flashcards
Nebula
a cloud of gas and dust in outer space.
Solar Nebula
Our solar system began forming within a concentration of interstellar dust and hydrogen gas called a molecular cloud.
Nuclear Fusion
a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy.
Sunspot
are temporary phenomena on the Sun’s photo sphere that appear as spots darker than the surrounding areas.
Terrestrial
One of the highly dense planets nearest to the sun; Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth.
Prograde
The counter-clockwise spin of a planet or moon as seen from above the planet’s North Pole; rotation in the same direction as the sun’s rotation.
Retrograde
The clockwise spin of a planet or moon as seen from above the planet’s North Pole.
Gas Giant
A planet that has a deep, massive atmosphere, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Satellite
A natural or artificial body that revolves around a planet.
New Moon
The new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude.
Waxing Cresent
The moon is less than one-half illuminated by the sun but less than one quarter illuminated.
1st quarter moon
The First Quarter Moon is a primary Moon phase when we can see exactly half of the Moon’s surface illuminated.
Waxing Gibbous
Waxing means that it is getting bigger. Gibbous refers to the shape, which is less than the full circle of a Full Moon, but larger than the semicircle shape of the Moon at Third Quarter.
Full moon
The phase of the moon in which its whole disk is illuminated.
Waning gibbous
The waning (shrinking) gibbous Moon rises after sunset, transits the meridian after midnight and sets after sunrise.
Last quarter moon
The moon has moved another quarter of the way around Earth, to the third quarter position.
Waning crescent
Third Quarter. The moon is one-half illuminated by the sun. Occurs when the moon’s illumination is decreasing, Waning Crescent.
Solar eclipse
an eclipse in which the sun is obscured by the moon.
Lunar eclipse
an eclipse in which the moon appears darkened as it passes into the earth’s shadow.
Comet
a celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when near the sun, a “tail” of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun.
Asteroid
a small rocky body orbiting the sun.
Asteroid Belt
It is the circumstellar disc in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.
meteoroid
a small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth’s atmosphere.
meteorite
a meteor that survives its passage through the earth’s atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground.
Meteor
a small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of friction and appearing as a streak of light.
