Logo
Pattern

Discover published sets by community

Explore tens of thousands of sets crafted by our community.

Planetary Science Terms

25

Flashcards

0/25

Still learning
StarStarStarStar

Orbit

StarStarStarStar

The gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, such as the path of planets around the sun.

StarStarStarStar

Solar Wind

StarStarStarStar

The stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the sun, including protons and electrons, that affects planetary magnetospheres.

StarStarStarStar

Volatile

StarStarStarStar

A substance that is easily vaporizable at relatively low temperatures, significant in the context of planetary geology and atmospheres.

StarStarStarStar

Terrestrial Planet

StarStarStarStar

A rocky planet, generally found in the inner part of a solar system, that has a solid surface, like Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

StarStarStarStar

Quasar

StarStarStarStar

An extremely bright and distant nuclear region at the center of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole.

StarStarStarStar

Yellow Dwarf

StarStarStarStar

A type of small, main-sequence star, which includes the Sun, characterized by yellowish color and moderate surface temperature.

StarStarStarStar

Zenith

StarStarStarStar

The point in the sky directly above an observer, used in astronomy to describe a position relative to the horizon.

StarStarStarStar

Celestial Equator

StarStarStarStar

An imaginary line around the sky directly above Earth's equator, used as a reference for celestial coordinate systems.

StarStarStarStar

Kuiper Belt

StarStarStarStar

A region of the solar system beyond Neptune's orbit containing many small icy bodies including dwarf planets like Pluto.

StarStarStarStar

Eccentricity

StarStarStarStar

A measure of how much an orbit deviates from being circular, with 0 being a perfect circle and values closer to 1 indicating more elongated orbits.

StarStarStarStar

Gas Giant

StarStarStarStar

A large planet that is predominantly composed of hydrogen and helium, with a relatively small rocky core, including Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system.

StarStarStarStar

Jovian Planet

StarStarStarStar

A planet that resembles Jupiter in being a large gas giant, such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in our solar system.

StarStarStarStar

Magnetosphere

StarStarStarStar

The region around a planet dominated by the planet's magnetic field, which protects the planet from solar wind and cosmic radiation.

StarStarStarStar

Differential Rotation

StarStarStarStar

Occurs when a rotating body such as a star or gas giant exhibits different angular velocities at different latitudes.

StarStarStarStar

Lunar Regolith

StarStarStarStar

The layer of loose, fragmented material found on the surface of the Moon, formed by the continuous bombardment of micrometeoroids.

StarStarStarStar

Impact Crater

StarStarStarStar

A depression on the surface of a planet, moon, or asteroid created by the collision with a smaller body, such as a meteoroid.

StarStarStarStar

Proto-Planet

StarStarStarStar

A large body of matter in orbit around the sun or another star, thought to be developing into a planet.

StarStarStarStar

Retrograde Rotation

StarStarStarStar

The rotation of a planet or moon in the opposite direction to that of most planets in the solar system, as seen from above the North Pole.

StarStarStarStar

X-ray Astronomy

StarStarStarStar

A branch of astronomy that studies astronomical objects at X-ray frequencies, particularly useful for studying high-energy phenomena like black holes and neutron stars.

StarStarStarStar

Albedo

StarStarStarStar

A measure of the reflectivity of a surface, typically used in the context of a planet or moon's surface, indicating how much sunlight it reflects.

StarStarStarStar

Nebula

StarStarStarStar

A large cloud of dust and gas in space, often the birthplace of stars and planetary systems.

StarStarStarStar

Habitable Zone

StarStarStarStar

The region around a star where conditions might be right for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface, thus potentially supporting life.

StarStarStarStar

White Dwarf

StarStarStarStar

The remnant of a small to medium-sized star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel, collapsing to a very small size and eventually cooling and fading.

StarStarStarStar

Asteroid

StarStarStarStar

A relatively small, often irregularly shaped rocky body orbiting the Sun, primarily found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

StarStarStarStar

Umbra

StarStarStarStar

The darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the shadow-casting object, including during solar eclipses.

Know
0
Still learning
Click to flip
Know
0
Logo

© Hypatia.Tech. 2024 All rights reserved.