space chapter 7

Home > Preview

The flashcards below were created by user Anonymous on FreezingBlue Flashcards.


  1. celestial object
    • an object in outer space
    • stars, planets, moons are some
  2. astronomer
    • a scientist that professionally travels into space
    • eg. chris hadfield
  3. revolution
    • a complete turn around a star or planet by a smaller celestial object
    • eg. earth revolution=365.24 days
  4. rotation
    • a complete spin of a celestial body on its axis
    • eg. earth's rotation=24 hours
  5. constellation
    • a group of unrelated stars that form a design
    • none are perfect
  6. light year
    • how far light travels in a year
    • equal to 9.5*10^5 km
    • used to measure distances in space
  7. apparent magnitude
    how bright a star is from earth
  8. asterism
    • a small group of stars within constellations
    • eg. the big dipper
  9. pointer stars
    the stars at the far end of the big dipper that point to polaris on a 5 to 1 ratio
  10. circumpolar
    • stars visible all year long
    • eg. polaris
  11. zenith
    look straight up for this constellation
  12. tides
    • caused by stretching of earth by moon
    • not moon's gravity
  13. moon's phases
    • the positions at which the moon is seen
    • eg. new moon, waxing crescent
  14. solar eclipse
    • when the moon totally covers the sun
    • can be partial
    • don't look at it
  15. lunar eclipse
    • when you can no longer see the moon in earth's shadow
    • the one you're more likely to see
  16. why we have seasons
    do to earth's tilt, sometimes different parts of the earth recieve different amounts of sunlight
  17. planet
    • a body of circular matter that emits no energy on its own
    • inner planets are rocky
    • outer planets are gassy
  18. solar system
    • the sun and everything that revolves around it
    • includes oort cloud and kuiper belt
  19. retrograde motion
    when the planets do weird things in the sky because we are on a different orbit
  20. Astronomical unit
    • 149 597 871 kilometers
    • used to measure space stuff
    • the distance between the sun and earth
  21. orbital radius
    • how large an orbit's radius is
    • measured in AU
  22. geocentric model
    • earth is centre of solar system
    • believed to be true until recently (a few hundred years)
  23. heliocentric model
    • sun is at centre
    • common model today
    • everything orbits around sun
  24. comet
    • flying ice particle with other stuff that leaves a con trail
    • has weird orbit
    • named after discoverer
  25. asteroid
    • small planet-like object without any form of atmosphere
    • basically a space rock
  26. meteroid
    • space rock that isn't orbiting anything
    • potential meteor
    • tiny
  27. meteor
    • a meteroid when it enters earths atmosphere
    • potential end of world
  28. meteorite
    meteor after falling through earth
  29. trans neptunian object
    an object past neptune's orbit

Card Set Information

Author:
 Anonymous
ID:
 252817
Filename:
 space chapter 7
Updated:
2013-12-12 16:30:58
Tags:
space chapter
Folders:

Description:
glossary terms for chapter 7
Show Answers:

What would you like to do?

Home > Flashcards > Print Preview