Wikijunior:Solar System/Glossary

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Solar System

Introduction
Our Solar System
The Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Moon
Mars
Asteroid belt
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Comets
Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
Glossary
Test

A glossary of words used in this book:

  • Antimatter: the opposite of normal matter. Not usually found outside of a laboratory. When mixed with matter they cancel each other out and release lots of energy.
  • Arachnoid: a scientific term for something shaped like a spider, like the legend of the weaving contest.
  • Asteroid: a large rocky object that orbits a star, but is too small to be a planet. It is found in space.
  • Astronomer: a person who studies stars and planets. Also a person who explores new planets and solar systems.
  • Astronaut: a person who travels beyond the atmosphere of the Earth.
  • Atmosphere: a layer of gases around a planet.
  • Atom: a very tiny particle that is the basic building block of matter. It is the tiniest thing on Earth.
  • Basalt lava: molten basalt, a kind of rock from a volcano.
  • Belt: A name used for bands of dark-colored cloud layers on Jupiter.
  • Binoculars: a folding pair of small telescopes with an eyepiece for each eye.
  • Carbon dioxide: a gas that animals breathe out and plants take in.
  • Carbonaceous chondrite: A type of meteorite that contains a lot of water and organic compounds.
  • Centaur: an icy planetoid that orbits the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune.
  • Channel: a groove in the surface of something.
  • Comet: a small icy object orbiting a star.
  • Conjunction: when two objects orbiting the same body come closest together.
  • Continent: a huge landmass on a planet, usually made of tectonic plates that have locked together.
  • Convection: a type of movement in a gas or liquid that carries heat toward a cooler location. When the gas or liquid cools, it sinks back down again.
  • Core: the center of a planet or star.
  • Corona: a region of very hot gas that surrounds the photosphere of a star.
  • Crater: a dent in a planet's surface made by a meteorite falling on it.
  • Crust: the outermost layer of a planet's surface.
  • Dwarf planet: a rounded body that is in orbit around the Sun. It is not a moon and it is not big enough to sweep up the other objects along its orbit.
  • Eclipse: the shadow made when one object comes between another object and the Sun.
  • Energy: what you use to do work.
  • Environment: the conditions on a planet.
  • Equator: an imaginary line around a planet, perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
  • Erosion: the slow wearing away of a surface, usually from wind, water, and temperature changes.
  • Galaxy: a huge mix of gas, dust, stars, planets and other objects that are held together by their own gravity.
  • Gas giant: one of the four outer planets made out of giant balls of gas.
  • Hemisphere: one half of a planet's surface.
  • Ice cap: A huge body of ice at the pole of a planet.
  • Lagrange point: the places where the gravity from two orbiting objects balance each other.
  • Lava: molten rock above a planet's surface.
  • Latin: the language of the Roman Empire that was later used by scientists to name things.
  • Mantle: a layer of molten rock below a planet's crust.
  • Maria: a large sea of magma that has cooled into solid rock.
  • Matter: a scientific word for 'stuff'.
  • Meteor: a small or medium-size rock from space that has entered a planet's atmosphere but has not reached the ground.
  • Meteor shower: a large number of meteors that enter a planet's atmosphere at about the same time.
  • Meteorite: A meteorite that made it through a planet's atmosphere and landed on the ground.
  • Methane: a gas that makes up most of the gas giants.
  • Observatory: A special building where astronomers keep their telescopes ready for use.
  • Orbit: the path that an object takes around a larger object.
  • Orbit System: a planet and its moons rotating around a star.
  • Organic compounds: compounds (collections of atoms) containing carbon.
  • Phase: how a planet or moon looks to us at some part of its orbit, when it is lit by the Sun.
  • Planet: the celestial body that has a greater mass than all other objects of the same orbit system together and that describes a well-defined, special orbit around a star.
  • Planetary nebula: a great cloud of gas that was blown off by an old star.
  • Photosphere: the layer of a star that releases light and other energy into space.
  • Prominence: an eruption of hot gas at the surface of the Sun.
  • Provisional designation: a temporary name given to a newly-found object. Later a permanent name may be picked.
  • Radar: radio waves used to find distances to and make maps of things.
  • Regolith: loose soil on the Moon created by rocks hitting the surface at very high speed.
  • Retrograde motion: a rotation that is the opposite way from the rotation of most of the Solar System.
  • Retrograde orbit: an orbit that is the opposite way from the orbit of most of the planets and moons in the Solar System.
  • Ring: A flat, circular band of many small, loose objects that orbit a planet.
  • Rotate: to spin around on an axis.
  • Satellite: an object in a stable orbit around a much larger object.
  • Scarp: a type of cliff.
  • Sidereal day: the time for a planet or moon to rotate so that a distant star overhead is again overhead.
  • Silicate: an object composed mostly of the element silicon, which makes rocks.
  • Shooting star: another name for a meteor.
  • Solar day: the time for a planet or moon to rotate so that the Sun is again overhead.
  • Solar wind: a very hot gas that is being blown away from the Sun at a high speed.
  • Spacesuit: A special sealed suit that protects an astronaut. It has its own air supply so the astronaut can breath, and is insulated against the cold of space.
  • Spectrum: the colored band of light made when white light passes through a prism.
  • Star: a huge ball of gas that is so heavy that it causes nuclear reactions inside itself. This produces heat and light.
  • Sulfuric acid: a strong type of acid that is used in car batteries, and contains the element sulphur.
  • Supergiant: a star near the end of its life that puffs out into a huge body many times larger than a normal star.
  • Surface area: the area on the outside of something.
  • Tectonic Plate: a solid part of the crust that very slowly moves across the surface of a planet
  • Telescope: a system of lenses or mirrors that are used to see distant objects.
  • Terrestrial planets: the four planets closest to the Sun.
  • Tether: A cord that is used to keep two things attached to each other, such as an astronaut to a spaceship.
  • Tide: the rise in the surface caused by gravity from another object, such as the Moon or Sun.
  • Tidal lock: when tides have slowed rotation so that a moon or planet is always facing the same side toward the planet or star.
  • Transit: When astronomers observe one object pass in front of a larger object.
  • Trojan asteroid: an asteroid in the same orbit as a planet or moon that always stays the same distance ahead or behind.
  • Volcanic: something that relates to volcanoes.
  • Volume: the size of a three-dimensional object.
  • White dwarf: a star that has run out of fuel to burn and is slowly cooling off.
  • Zone: A name used for bands of light-colored cloud layers on Jupiter.