Vocab 1
What are the Inner Planets?
The four solid planets closest to the sun
What are the Outer Planets?
The four gaseous planets furthest from the sun
What is Extraterrestrial Life?
Life beyond Earth
What are Extrasolar Planets?
Planets in orbit around stars other than our own
Yes?
No.
What is a Tide?
The natural rising and falling of ocean depth relative to land
What is a Moon Phase?
The change in the appearance of the moon as seen from Earth
What is a Lunar Eclipse?
Occurs when the shadow the Earth falls on the moon
What is the Asteroid Belt?
Region between Mars and Jupiter that contains a majority of the asteroids in our solar sytem
What wiped out the Dinosaurs? :(
An Asteroid
What is Revolution?
The motion of the object in a elliptical orbit around the Sun
What is Rotation?
The spinning of an object around a central axis
What is a Solar Eclipse?
Occurs when the shadow of the moon falls on the Earth
What are Asteroids?
Irregularly shaped objects, normally smaller than comets, orbiting the sun in a similar way to how planets orbit the sun
When days do Neap tides occur?
During first quarter and third quarter moon phases
What is a Solstice?
Special day when Earth's rotational axis is tilted directly towards the sun or away from the sun
What is an Equinox?
Special day when Earth's rotational axis is perpendicular to a line drawn from the center of the Earth to the center of the sun
What is the Kuiper Belt?
Disk/donut shaped region in space found just beyond the space behind Neptune and is mostly made of frozen bodies of ammonia and methane
What are Comets?
Celestial bodies made of dust and ice that fly around the sun in an elliptical orbit
When days do Spring tides occur?
On full and new moon phases
What is the Geocentric Model?
Idea that Earth is the center of the solar system and everything else revolves around it
What is the Heliocentric model?
Idea that the sun is the center of the solar system and everything else revolves around it
What is an Oort Cloud?
Sphere shaped cloud of matter that envelopes the entire solar system
What is the difference between a Meteoroid, Meteor, and Meteorite?
Meteoroids are objects flying through space that is smaller than comets and asteroids and moves randomly throughout the solar system
Meteors are objects that form when meteoroids fly into Earth's atmosphere causing friction and the release of light and heat
Meteorites are meteors that manage to not completely burn up in our atmosphere and actually hit Earth
Why is the time for a complete tidal pattern 24 hours and 50 minutes?
Because the moon is also moving while the Earth is moving and it takes the moon 25 extra minutes to line up properly between any two high tides or two low tides (12 hours)