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28 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Asteroid
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Fragment of Rock that orbits the sun.
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Asteroid Belt
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The regions between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter in which most asteroids are found.
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Astronomical Unit
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Average distance betwen the earth and the sun, approximately 149.5 million km.
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Coma
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Spherical cloud of gas and dust that surronds the nucleus of a comet.
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Comet
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body of rock, dust, methane, ammonia, and ice that revolves around the sun in a long, eliptical orbit.
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Earth-grazer
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Asteroid that orbits the sun in an elongated ellipse that may pass close to the earth and sun.
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Ellipse
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oval whose shape is determined by two points within the figure.
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Epicycle
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small circular motion of the planets within thier orbits proposed as an explination for retrograde motion.
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Fireball
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brilliant flash of light produced by a meteor that vaporized quickly.
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Focus
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one of two points within an ellipse that determines the shape of the figure.
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Geocentric
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earth-centered
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Heliocentric
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sun-centered
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Inertia
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tendency of a moving body to remain in motion or a stationary body to remain at rest until an outside force acts on it.
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Iron Meteorite
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type of meteorite made of iron, with a characteristic metallic apperance.
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Jovian Planet
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any one of the first four outer planets---Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune---with properties similar to those of Jupiter.
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long-period comet
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comet with a period of several thousand or million years.
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meteor
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meteoroid that enters the earth's atmosphere.
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meteor shower
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phenomenon caused by the burning up of large numbers of meteors as they enter the earth's atmosphere.
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meteroite
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meteor or part of a meteor left after it hits the earth's surface.
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meteroid
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small bit of rock or metal moving through the solar system left by a comet or produced by a collision between asteroids.
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Oort cloud
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spherical cloud of dust and ice surronding the solar system that may contain as many as a trillion comets.
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Orbit Period
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time required for a planet to make one revolution around the sun.
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Retrograde Motion
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apparent periodic reversal in the motion of some planets as viewed from the earth.
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Short Period Comet
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comet with a period of up to 100 years.
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Stony meteorite
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most common type of meteroite simialr in compostion to rocks found on the surface of the earth.
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Stony-iron meteorite
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rare type of meteroite that contains both iron and stone.
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terrestrial planet
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anyone of the four planets closest to the sun---Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars---with properties similar to those on Earth.
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Trojan asteroid
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asteroid that orbits the sun just ahead of or behind the planet Jupiter.
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