The Night Sky And Solar System Flashcards
Artificial satellite
A manmade spacecraft
Orbit
The path taken by one body in space around another
-I.e earth orbiting the sun
Earth
- Rocky inner planet
- third from the sun
Moon
- Rocky body orbiting the earth
- is earth’s only natural satellite
Natural satellite
A moon in orbit around a planet
Planet
A large body that orbits a star in a solar system
Sun
The star at the centre of our solar system
Solar system
The sun and the planets and other bodies around them
Comet
-dust particles frozen in ice that orbit the sun
Meteor
A piece of rock or dust that heats up and creates streaks of lights
Meteorites
- strong metallic object
- any meteor that has touched the ground is this
Star
A body in space that gives out its own light
Galaxy
Immense groups of stars and solar systems
Milky Way
The galaxy containing our sun and solar system
Universe
Everything that exists
Astronomers
Scientists who study space
Ellipse
-squashed circle or oval shape
Asteroid
Lumps of rock orbiting the sun left over from when the solar system was created
Mercury
- a rocky inner planet
- first from the sun
Venus
- rocky inner planet
- second from the sun
Mars
A rocky inner planet
-fourth from the sun
Terrestrial
-made from rock
Gas giant
- outer planets in the solar system
- coldest planets
- larger
- made from mainly gas
Dwarf planet
-small lump of rock in orbit around the sun
Gravity
- non contact force that acts between two masses
- hold planets in orbit
How many inner and outer planets are there name from order
- four inner and four outer planets
- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus , Neptune
Where is the asteroid belt
Between Mars and Jupiter
Inner planets qualities
- all terrestrial
- Mercury does not have an atmosphere
- Venus is the hottest as it has an atmosphere of co2
Outer planets qualities
- a lot bigger and colder
- many moons in orbit around them
- made up of mainly gases like helium and hydrogen
Where do comets come from
-believed to come from beyond the Kuiper belt in a region called Oort Cloud