Space Glossary terms chapter 7 Que cards

  1. Celestial object
    any object that exists in space, such as a planet, a star, or a moon

    Image Upload 2
  2. astronomer
    a scientist who studies astronomy

    Image Upload 4
  3. revolution
    the time it takes for an object to orbit another object; Earth's revolution around the sun is 365.24 days

    Image Upload 6
  4. rotation
    the turning of an object around an imaginary axis running through it; Earths rotation around its axis is 24 hours

    Image Upload 8
  5. constellation
    a group of stars that seem to form a distinctive pattern in the sky

    Image Upload 10
  6. light-year
    the distance that light travels in one year, about 9.5 X 10 to the power of 12 km

    Image Upload 12
  7. apparent magnitude
    the brightness of a star as seen from earth

    Image Upload 14
  8. asterism
    a smaller group of stars that form a pattern inside of a constellation

    Image Upload 16
  9. pointer stars
    The pointer stars are the two end stars of the plough, they are referred to as the 'pointer' because they show the way to the Pole Star or Polaris which is the main star in the Ursa Minor constellation. All of the stars seen in the night sky emerge to revolve around the Pole Star.

    Image Upload 18
  10. circumpolar
    A circumpolar star is a star that, as viewed from a given latitude on Earth, never sets (that is, never disappears below the horizon), due to its proximity to one of the celestial poles

    Image Upload 20
  11. zenith
    The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere

    Image Upload 22
  12. tides
    the rising and falling of ocean waters caused by the moon's and earth's gravity

    Image Upload 24
  13. phases of the moon
    the monthly progression of the changes in the appearance of the moon that result from different portions of the moon's sunlit side being visible from other

    Image Upload 26
  14. lunar eclipse
    the phenomenon in which the full moon passes into earth's shadow

    Image Upload 28
  15. solar eclipse
    the phenomenon in which the shadow of the moon falls onto earth's surface

    Image Upload 30
  16. why do we have seasons?
    We have seasons because the earth is tilted (wonky) as it makes its yearly journey around the sun.

    Image Upload 32
  17. planet
    an object that orbits one or more stars (and is not a star itself), is spherical, and does not share its orbit with another object

    Image Upload 34
  18. retrograde motion
    the movement of an object in the sky, usually a planet, from east to west, rather than its normal motion from west to east; this effect is generally produced when earth is passing the planet in its orbit

    Image Upload 36
  19. astronomical unit
    the average distance between the earth and the sun, about 150 X 10 to the power of 6 km

    Image Upload 38
  20. orbital radius
    the average distance between the sun and and object that is orbiting the sun

    Image Upload 40
  21. geocentric model
    a model of the solar system stating that the earth is the center of all planetary motion, with the planets and sun travelling in perfect circles around the earth

    Image Upload 42
  22. heliocentric model
    a model of the solar system in which the sun is in the center of the planets orbiting it

    Image Upload 44
  23. comet
    an object composed of rocky materials, ice and gases; comes from the kuiper belt and oort cloud

    Image Upload 46
  24. asteroid
    an object in space that ranges in size from a tiny speck, like a grain of sand, to 500 km wide; most asteroids originate in the asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter

    Image Upload 48
  25. meteoroid
    a piece of rock moving through space

    Image Upload 50
  26. meteor
    a meteoroid that hits earth's atmosphere and burns up

    Image Upload 52
  27. meteorite
    a meteorite that is large enough to pass through earth's atmosphere and reach the ground without totally being burned up

    Image Upload 54
  28. Trans-Neptunian object
    an object that circles the sun beyond the orbit of Neptune

    Image Upload 56
Author
Aidin
ID
253482
Card Set
Space Glossary terms chapter 7 Que cards
Description
Space Glossary terms chapter 7 Que cards
Updated