The Solar System Flashcards
8 planets in order
Mercury, Venus Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Terrestrial Planets
Means earth-like, having a rocky surface (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars)
Ice giants
A giant planet composed of mostly ices (Uranus and Neptune)
Gas Giants
A giant planet composed of mostly gasses (Jupiter and Saturn)
Inferior Planets
Planets closer to the sun than Earth (Mercury and Venus)
Superior Planets
Planets further from the sun than Earth (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune)
Asteroid Belt
Orbit of millions of asteroids and meteoroids between Mars and Jupiter.
Kuiper Belt
Orbit of small icy bodies beyond Neptune
Oort Cloud
Huge body of icy bodies, loosely bound to the sun’s gravity, beyond the Kuiper belt
Dwarf Planet vs. Planet
While both orbit the sun and both are large enough to be rounded by the their own gravity, dwarf planets haven’t cleared their own orbit (living in the asteroid belt or the Kuiper belt)
Small Solar System Bodies (SSSBs) vs. Planets/Dwarf Planets
SSSBs are not big enough to be rounded by their own gravity (comets, asteroids, trojans, etc.)
Satellites vs. Planets/Dwarf Planets
Satellites orbit other objects; planets and dwarf planets orbit the sun.
Meteor vs. Meteorite V. Meteoroid
Meteoroids are rocks flying through space. The become meteors when they enter our atmosphere and burn up. If part of them survives to hit the ground or the water, they are meteorites.
Meteor Showers
When Earth passes through the debris field of something like a comet which has left behind a bunch of little particles, this can cause a meteor shower.
Elongation
The apparent separation between the sun and a planet in the sky; when at its greatest distance this is called maximum elongation.
