Terms!
astronomy: Astronomy deals with the origin, evolution, composition, distance, and motion of all bodies and matter in the universe. Comes from Greek, "astron"= star, "nemein"=to name.
astrology: A belief that events in the heavens related to events on earth. From the Greek, "astro"=star, "logos"= divine law.
astronomical unit (AU): 149,597,870.691 km, the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. Used for measuring long distances in space.
atmosphere: one atmosphere is the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level, which equals 1.012 bars.
Aurora Borealis: the "Northern Lights"; caused by the interaction between the solar wind, the Earth's magnetic field and the upper atmosphere, producing glowing, colored bands close to the north pole.
Centaurs: Asteroids in the outer solar system; there are only a few.
Eccentricity: the more elliptical an orbit is, the more eccentric it is.
Elleptical: oval; if a planet has an elliptical orbit, it means that it's orbit is oval and not circular.
Gas Planets: Planets, such as Jupiter, which are comprised mostly of various gasses.
Geocentric Universe: the theory that the Earth was at the center of the universe.
Greenhouse effect: the theory that solar radiation passes into the atmosphere of a planet but the outgoing thermal radiation is blocked, thereby slowly warming the planet.
Heliocentric Universe: a theory that the sun is at the center of the univers, the opposite of the geocentric, or Earth-centerd, unverse
Kelvin: a scale of measuring temperatures, at which 0 is absolute zero, and water melts/freezes at 273K.
Kirkwood gaps: Gaps in the asteroid belt where the asteroids would (were) probably be thrown into another orbit by Juptier's gravitational pull.
Near Earth Asteroids:
Planetary nebula:
reflecting telecope:a telescope that uses two mirrors to bend light into focus. These telescopes are more powerful than refracting telescopes because the images are clearer and the telescopes can be made larger.
refracting telescope:a telescope that uses two lenses to bend light into focus. These are less powerful than reflecting telescopes because the images aren't as clear and the telescope can't be made too big because the lenses become too heavy.
retrograde motion: The earth travels faster in its orbit than the planets farther out in the solar system. As the earth overtakes the planet in it orbit the planet will appear to slow and then go backwards of its normal orbit in the sky. Once the earth is farther past the planet it will resume its normal motion.
Soft-Landing:
spectroscope: An instrument used to refract light into it's original colors; invented by Joseph von Fraunhofer.
Solar Wind:
Trojans:
Van Allen Belts: Radiation belts of charged particals from the sun that are kept in orbit around the earth by the earth's gravitation pull.
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