Astronomy
Terms
1.Asteroid-A
large rocky object
that orbits a star that is not big enough to be a planet
2.Astronomical
Unit- The average
distance from the Earth to the Sun, approx. 1.49 million kilometers
3.Big
Bang-The explosion approx.
14 billion years ago that created the Universe
4.Black
Hole-A collapsed star
that is so dense, its gravity does not let anything escape it
5.Comet-An
icy obect that orbits
the Sun
6.Constellation-A
group of stars
that orbits the Sun
7.Eclipse-When
the Moon moves in
front of the Sun or the Earth blocks the Sun's light from reaching the
Moon
8.Equinox-
Days when the Sun is
level with the Earth's equator
9.Galaxy-A
huge group of stars
10.Hubble's
Law-Galaxies that are
farther away from us are moving away faster
11.Kepler's
First Law-Planets
orbit the Sun in ellipses(ovals)
12.Light
Year-The distance light
travels in one year
13.Magnitude-Brightness
of
celestial objects
14.Meteor(ite-oid)-Small
pieces
of metal that travel through space, enter the atmosphere, and hit Earth
15.Nebula-A
cloud of gas or dust
in space
16.Neutron
Star-A very small,
dense star that is left over from supernovas
17.Orbit-Path
object takes when
it revolves aroung something
18.Parallax-The
change is the
position of a stardue to the Earth's orbit around the Sun
19.Planet-Large
celestial bodies
that orbit stars
20.Pulsar-A
star that has ever
changing magnitude
21.Quasar-Star
sized sources of
ultraviolet energy
22.Red
Giant-An orld star that
has used up almost all it's energy and has expanded enormously.
23.Rotation-The
spin an object
has as it revolves around something
24.Satellite-Anything
that
revolves around something else
25.Star-Balls
of gas in the
Universe
26.Supergiant-The
largest stars
known, they will explode
27.Supernova-When
a supergiant
explodes
28.Terrestrial-The
term for
something on Earth
29.White
Dwarf-A huge white star
30.Zodiac-The
group of 12
constellations
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