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MR V SOL 6.3
Earth Sun Moon System
Term | Definition |
---|---|
satellite | a body that orbits a planet |
star | a giant ball of superheated gas, or plasma, composed of hydrogen and helium |
planet | an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become rounded by its own gravity |
meteor | a streak of light produced when a small piece of rock or ice, known as a meteoroid, burns up as it enters Earth's atmosphere |
comet | a cold mixture of dust and ice that develops a long trail of light as it approaches the sun |
constellation | a pattern or grouping of stars that people imagine to represent a figure or object |
geocentric | a model of the universe in which Earth is at the center of the revolving planets and stars |
heliocentric | a model of the solar system in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun |
ellipse | an oval shape, which may be elongated or nearly circular; the shape of the planets' orbits |
axis | an imaginary line that passes through a planet's center and its north and south poles, about which the planet rotates |
rotation | the spinning motion of a planet on its axis |
revolution | the movement of an object around another object |
orbit | the path of an object as it revolves around another object in space |
solstice | either of the two days of the year on which the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of the equator |
equinox | either of the two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun |
gravity | the attractive force between objects; the force that moves objects downhill |
law of universal gravitation | the scientific law that states that every object in the universe attracts every other object |
inertia | the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion |
phase | one of the different apparent shapes of the moon as seen from Earth |
eclipse | the partial or total blocking of one object in space by another |
umbra | the darkest part of a shadow |
penumbra | the part of the shadow surrounding the darkest part |
tide | the periodic rise and fall of the level of water in the ocean |
spring tide | the tide with the greatest difference between consecutive low and high tides |
neap tide | the tide with the least difference between consecutive low and high tides |