ESC 1000 Earth Science Name:__Answers___
Chapter 22 Part K: Key Terms
1.
Asteroid – Thousands of small
planet-like bodies, ranging in size from a few hundred kilometers to less than
a kilometer, whose orbits are mainly between those of Mars and Jupiter.
2.
Asteroid Belt – A region roughly
halfway between Mars and Jupiter where most of the asteroids in the Solar System
are found are considered to be leftover debris from the Solar
nebula.
3.
Coma – The fuzzy, gaseous component
of a comet’s head.
4.
Comet - A small body that generally
revolves around the Sun in an elongated orbit.
5.
Cryovolcanism – a manifestation of volcanism, the eruption of ice and refers to the
eruption of magmas derived from the partial melting of ice rather than silicate
rocks.
6.
Dwarf Planet – A new class of planet
that include celestial bodies that orbit around the Sun, are essentially round
due to their self-gravity, but are not the only objects to occupy their area of
space.
7.
Escape velocity – The initial
velocity an object needs to escape from the surface of a celestial body.
8.
Impact craters – Indentations that
are produced on the surface of a planet or moon by the impact of rapidly moving
debris (meteoroids, asteroids, and comets) and was a phenomenon that was
considerably common in the early history of the solar system that it is today.
9.
Inner planets - Any of the
Earth-like or terrestrial planets, including Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth,
which are located closet to the Sun.
10.
Iron meteorite – One of the three
main categories of meteorites. This group is composed largely of iron with
varying amounts of nickel
(5-20%).Most meteorite finds are of this type.
11.
Jovian planets (or
Gas Giants) – Jupiter-like planets: Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn which
have very low densities because they are large planets that are not
primarily composed of rock or other solid matter.
12.
Jupiter - The fifth planet from the Sun and the
largest planet within the Solar System. It is two and a half times as massive
as all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. It is classified as a
gas giant, along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Together, these four planets
are sometimes referred to as the Jovian planets.
13.
Kuiper belt – A region outside the orbit of
14.
Lunar highlands – (or highlands) The extensively cratered highlands of the Moon.
15.
Lunar regolith
– A thin gray layer on the surface of the Moon, consisting of loosely
compacted, fragmented material believed to have been formed by the repeated
meteorite impacts.
16.
Maria – The Latin name for the
smooth areas of the Moon formerly thought to be seas.
17.
Mars – often called the “Red
Planet”, the fourth planet from the Sun and about half the size of Earth. It is
the only planet, except Mercury, that we can study its surface with a telescope
as all other planets have their surface hidden by clouds. It is fourth
terrestrial planet most distant from the Sun.
18.
Mercury – The
innermost and smallest planet, that is hardly larger than the Earth’s moon and
is smaller than three other moons in the solar system. It revolves quickly, 88
Earth days, but
rotates slowly, 179 days.
19.
Meteor – The luminous phenomenon
observed when a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up
20.
Meteorite – Any portion of a
meteoroid that survives the traverse through Earth’s atmosphere and strikes the
Earth’s surface
21.
Meteoroid - Small solid particles that have orbits
in the solar system.
22.
Meteor shower – Many meteors
appearing in the sky caused when Earth intercepts a swarm of meteoritic
particles.
23.
24.
Oort cloud – A spherical shell composed of comets that orbit the Sun at
distances generally greater than 10,000 times the Earth-Sun distance.
25.
Outer planets – Jupiter-like
planets: Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn which have very low densities and
are the four planets most distant from the Sun.
26.
Planetesimals – Within the spinning disk created by the solar nebula, matter
gradually formed clumps of materials that collided and stuck together and grew
into the asteroid sized objects.
27.
Plutoids – Dwarf planets located in the Kuiper belt beyond the planet Neptune
28.
Protoplanets –
Through repeated collisions and accretion planetesimals
grew into the eight larger bodies and their satellites mainly during the first
billions years of the solar system.
29.
Saturn - the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar
System, after Jupiter. It is classified as a gas giant. And sometimes referred
to as one of the Jovian planets. It has a prominent
system of rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of
rocky debris and dust. It is composed of hydrogen, with small proportions of
helium and trace elements with an interior consisting of a small core of rock
and ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen and a gaseous outer
layer.
30.
Scattered Disc (or Scattered
Disk) is a distant region of the
Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy minor planets known as scattered disc objects (SDOs) and a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian
objects (TNOs).
31.
Scattered Disc Objects (or SDO) are icy
minor planets which populate the Scattered Disk region of the Solar System.
32.
Solar nebula – A large rotating
cloud of interstellar dust and gas from which the Sun and the planets were
formed at the same time.
33.
Stony-iron meteorite – One of the three main
categories of meteorites. This group, as the name implies, is a mixture of iron
and silicate minerals.
34.
Stony-meteorite – One of the three
categories of meteorites. Such meteorites are composed largely of silicate
minerals with inclusions of other minerals.
35.
Terrae - The extensively cratered highlands of the Moon.
36.
Terrestrial planet - Any of the
Earth-like planets, including Mercury, Venus, mars and Earth.
37. Trans-Neptunian object (or TNO) is
any object in the solar system that orbits the sun at a greater distance on
average than
38. Uranus - The seventh planet from the Sun and the third-largest and fourth-most massive planet in the solar system. It has a unique configuration among the planets because its axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its revolution about the Sun; its north and south poles lie where most other planets have their equators. Like the other giant planets, it has a ring system, a magnetosphere, and numerous moons.
39.
Venus – similar in size to Earth and
is second planet from the Sun. It orbits the Sun in a nearly perfect circle,
once every 255 earth days. It is similar in size, density, mass, and location
in the solar system to the Earth and is often called “Earth’s Twin”.
Chapter 22 Touring Our Solar System
Word List:
Asteroid Asteroid Belt coma Comet Cryovolcanism Dwarf Planet Escape velocity Impact craters Inner planets Iron meteorite Jovian planets Jupiter Kuiper belt |
Lunar highlands Lunar regolith Maria Mars Mercury Meteor Meteorite Meteoroid Meteor shower Oort cloud Outer planets Planetesimals |
Plutoids Protoplanets Saturn Scattered disc Scattered disc object Solar nebula Stony-iron meteorite Stony-meteorite Terrae Terrestrial planet Trans-Neptunian Object Uranus Venus |