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space chapter 7
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celestial object
an object in outer space
stars, planets, moons are some
astronomer
a scientist that professionally travels into space
eg. chris hadfield
revolution
a complete turn around a star or planet by a smaller celestial object
eg. earth revolution=365.24 days
rotation
a complete spin of a celestial body on its axis
eg. earth's rotation=24 hours
constellation
a group of unrelated stars that form a design
none are perfect
light year
how far light travels in a year
equal to 9.5*10^5 km
used to measure distances in space
apparent magnitude
how bright a star is from earth
asterism
a small group of stars within constellations
eg. the big dipper
pointer stars
the stars at the far end of the big dipper that point to polaris on a 5 to 1 ratio
circumpolar
stars visible all year long
eg. polaris
zenith
look straight up for this constellation
tides
caused by stretching of earth by moon
not moon's gravity
moon's phases
the positions at which the moon is seen
eg. new moon, waxing crescent
solar eclipse
when the moon totally covers the sun
can be partial
don't look at it
lunar eclipse
when you can no longer see the moon in earth's shadow
the one you're more likely to see
why we have seasons
do to earth's tilt, sometimes different parts of the earth recieve different amounts of sunlight
planet
a body of circular matter that emits no energy on its own
inner planets are rocky
outer planets are gassy
solar system
the sun and everything that revolves around it
includes oort cloud and kuiper belt
retrograde motion
when the planets do weird things in the sky because we are on a different orbit
Astronomical unit
149 597 871 kilometers
used to measure space stuff
the distance between the sun and earth
orbital radius
how large an orbit's radius is
measured in AU
geocentric model
earth is centre of solar system
believed to be true until recently (a few hundred years)
heliocentric model
sun is at centre
common model today
everything orbits around sun
comet
flying ice particle with other stuff that leaves a con trail
has weird orbit
named after discoverer
asteroid
small planet-like object without any form of atmosphere
basically a space rock
meteroid
space rock that isn't orbiting anything
potential meteor
tiny
meteor
a meteroid when it enters earths atmosphere
potential end of world
meteorite
meteor after falling through earth
trans neptunian object
an object past neptune's orbit
Author
Anonymous
ID
252817
Card Set
space chapter 7
Description
glossary terms for chapter 7
Updated
12/12/2013, 4:30:58 PM
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