Vocabulary
Natural, solid, and rocky object that orbits a planet
What is a moon?
The names of the inner planets (in order)
What are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars?
If the Earth’s atmosphere were too dense, water would _______ and the surface temperature would _______.
What is "freeze" and "decrease"?
The gravitational force of attraction between two objects ______ as the mass increases.
What is "increases"?
Hot, glowing ball of gas at the center of the solar system
What is the sun?
Celestial body that orbits a star and has significant mass
What is a planet?
The names of the outer planets in order.
What are "Jupiter", "Saturn", "Uranus", and "Neptune"?
What is "Mercury and Venus"?
The gravitational force of attraction between two objects _______ if the distance between them increases.
What is "decreases"?
Object made of dust and ice orbiting far from the Sun that releases gas and forms a tail as it moves closer to the Sun
What is a comet?
Small, metallic, and rocky object that orbits close to the Sun in a belt
What is an asteroid?
The planets in our solar system that do not have moons.
What are Mercury and Venus?
If the Earth were to move further away from the sun, the earth would orbit ______ and have a ________ orbital path.
What is "slower" and "greater"?
What two factors keep an object in its orbit?
What is "the force of gravity and inertia"?
A non-contact force of attraction between two objects
Large, spherical shell of comet-like objects orbiting our solar system
What is the Oort Cloud?
Meteors are fragments that break from the icy bodies of ______ or the rocky bodies of ______ and enter Earth’s atmosphere.
What is "comets" and "asteroids"?
Known as a planet's natural satellite
What is a moon?
The two factors that affect the force of gravity between two objects, and in turn, the orbit of the object.
What is distance and mass?
Region just beyond Neptune that contains millions of icy objects thought to be one source of comets
What is the Kuiper Belt?
The area around a star in which water can exist as a liquid on the surface of a planet like Earth
What is the habitable zone or Goldilocks zone?
The two locations where a comet could start its motion without developing a tail.
What is "the Kuiper Belt" and "the Oort cloud"?
The main two gases that make up the earth's atmosphere
If there were no longer a gravitational force between Earth and the moon, what would happen to the moon’s orbit?
Space object that enters Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds and burns up
What is a meteor?