Solar System - General

Question 1

Asteroid

Answer 1

A small solar system object composed mostly of rock, many of these objects orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, their size can range anywhere from 10 meters in diameter to less than 1,000 kilometers

Question 2

Coma

Answer 2

The cloud that forms around a comet’s nucleus.

Question 3

Comet

Answer 3

A small solar system object consisting of ice and other compounds

Question 4

Dust Tail

Answer 4

This type of comet tail forms when the solar wind separates dust from the coma, pushing it outward away from the Sun in a slightly curved path

Question 5

Gas-Ion Tail

Answer 5

This type of comet tail forms when the solar wind separates gases from the coma, pushing them outward away from the Sun in a straight path

Question 6

Meteor

Answer 6

The flash of light that we see in the night sky caused by the friction of a meteoroid passing through the atmosphere

Question 7

Meteor Shower

Answer 7

Many and sustained flashes of light that are seen in the night sky as a result of the Earth passing through the former part of a comet

Question 8

Meteorite

Answer 8

Any part of a meteoroid that survives its fall through the atmosphere and lands on the Earth

Question 9

Meteoroid

Answer 9

An interplanetary chunk of matter that is smaller than a kilometer in diameter and most frequently measured in millimeters

Question 10

Comet Nucleus

Answer 10

The solid rocky part of a comet

Question 11

Solar Wind

Answer 11

A stream of charged particles ejected from the surface of a star

Question 12

Plasma

Answer 12

4th Phase of matter (excited gas)

Question 13

orbit

Answer 13

path around the sun

Question 14

elliptical

Answer 14

oval shaped path planets follow

Question 15

inertia

Answer 15

tendency to travel in straight lines or resist change in motion. Dependent upon mass of object.

Question 16

umbra

Answer 16

dark inner portions of a sunspot

Question 17

penumbra

Answer 17

lighter outer portions of a sunspot

Question 18

rotation

Answer 18

spinning on an axis

Question 19

axis

Answer 19

imaginary line about which a planet spins

Question 20

Aurora Borealis

Answer 20

The Northern Lights – where the magnetosphere meets the atmosphere

Question 21

solar wind

Answer 21

stream of high energy particles

Question 22

revolution

Answer 22

1 full orbit around the sun

Question 23

Convection Zone

Answer 23

This part of the sun contains enormous regions of gas traveling up and down as it is heated and cooled.

Question 24

Solar Cycle

Answer 24

The approximate 11yr variation in frequency of sunspots, CMEs, and solar flares

Question 25

Terrestrial

Answer 25

Earth like,dense, and rocky, – inner planets including Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

Question 26

Jovian

Answer 26

Outer Gaseous, low-density, planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.