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Space Unit Exam
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Inner planets | Mercury Venus Earth and Mars |
Outer planets | Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune |
Jovian | scientific name for the gas giants |
Terrestrial | scientific name for the rocky planets |
altitude | the height of a planet or star you are looking at |
azimuth | the rotation from north |
sextant | used to find altitude |
compass | used to find azimuth |
celestial bodies | everything in space. Planets and stars |
constellations | groups of stars |
solar system | the planets and asteroids that revolve around our sun |
nebula | gas and dust region in space that forms stars |
geocentric | earth centered model of the solar system that circle orbits |
heliocentric | sun centered model of the solar system that has elliptical orbits |
ellipse | the shape of a squished circle. |
objective lens | the lens in a telescope closer to the object you're looking at |
ocular lens | the lens you look through in a telescope |
refracting telescope | telescope that uses lenses |
reflecting telescope | telescope that uses mirrors |
inertia | a body in motion wants to stay in motion |
spectroscope | allows you to view spectral lines and see what element stars are made of |
Doppler effect | expansion or compression of waves depending on which direction that object is moving |
red shifted | object is moving away from you |
blue shifted | object if moving towards you |
interferometry | combining powers of telescopes to increase magnification |
adaptive optics | mirrors adjusting for the dust in the atmosphere to stop the "twinkling" or stars |
Hubble telescope | a space telescope sent out past the atmosphere to stop atmospheric distortion |
triangulation (aka parallax) | a method of creating similar triangles to help find distances to far objects |
radio waves | electromagnetic waves that can travel through solids |
rockets | payload, tube, combustible material |
staged rocket | fuel containers fall off to decrease mass |
low earth orbit | satellites in orbit closer to earth |
geosynchronous orbit | satellites in orbit so far out that they follow one spot on earth |