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the sun and all of the planets and other bodies that travel around it; consists of the sun, planets, dwarf planets, and all of the other bodies that revolve around the sun

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solar system

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the primary bodies that orbit the sun; a celestial body that orbits the sun, is round because of its own gravity, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbital path

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planets

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hypothesis that states that the sun and the planets condensed at about the same time out of a nebula; created in 1796 by the French mathematician Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace

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nebular hypothesis

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a rotating cloud of gas and dust

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nebula

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the rotating cloud of dust and gas from which the sun and planets formed; also any nebula from which stars and exoplanets may form

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solar nebula

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a small body from which a planet originated in the early stages of formation/development of the solar system

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planetesimal

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larger bodies than planetesimals; formed when planetesimals join together through collisions and through the force of gravity; eventually became large enough to form planets and moons

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protoplanets

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the smaller bodies that orbit the planets; planets and _____ are smaller and denser than the protoplanets

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moons

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planets close to the sun; Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars

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inner planets

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huge planets that are composed of mostly gases, have low density; a planet that has a deep, massive atmosphere, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune (the outer planets)

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gas giants

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the four planets farthest from the sun which are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; formed in colder regions of the solar nebula far away from the sun

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outer planets

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Uranus and Neptune are different from Jupiter and Saturn and are sometimes called ___ ______ because they have more frozen gases

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ice giants

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any object that orbits the sun, is round because of its own gravity, has not cleared the region around its orbit, and is not a satellite of another planet; Pluto is best described as an ice ball made of frozen gases and rock and has a very tilted orbit. Many astronomers disagreed with Pluto's classification as a planet. As of 2006, Pluto is part of a new category of solar system bodies called _____ _______

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dwarf planets

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process during a planets developing stages; denser materials sink to the center and less dense materials are forced to the outer layers; caused Earth to form three distinct layers

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differentiation

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dense center layer of Earth composed of mostly iron and nickel

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core

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very thick layer of Earth around the core composed of iron and magnesium-rich rock

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mantle

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the outermost layer of Earth composed of less dense, silica-rich rock

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crust

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formed a new atmosphere; process of volcanic eruptions releasing large amounts of gases, mainly water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, methane, sulfur dioxide, and ammonia

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outgassing

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a molecule that contains three oxygen atoms; collected in a high atmospheric layer around Earth and shielded Earth's surface from the harmful ultraviolet radiation of the sun

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ozone

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Earth-centered or __________ model of the solar system; suggested by the Greek philosopher Aristotle; in this model the sun, the stars, and the planets revolved around Earth

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geocentric

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a pattern of planets that sometimes appeared to move backwards in the sky relative to the stars

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retrograde motion

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Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, suggested in 150 CE that planets moved in small circles called _________ as they revolved in larger circles around Earth

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epicycles

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sun-centered or ____________ model of the solar system suggested by a Polish astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543 CE; in this model the planets revolved around the sun in the same direction but at different speeds and distances from the sun; fast moving planets passed slow-moving planets, making planets slower than Earth to appear to move backwards

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heliocentric

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Kepler's first law; states that each planet orbits the sun in a path called an ellipse, not a circle

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law of ellipses

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a closed curve whose shape is determined by two points, or foci, within an _______; the shape of the planet's orbits

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ellipse

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the degree of elongation of an elliptical orbit (symbol, e); determined by dividing the distance between the foci of the ellipse by the length of the major axis

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eccentricity

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the eccentricity of this type of extremely elongated orbit is e=1

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parabolic orbit

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Kepler's second law; describes the speed at which objects travel at different points in their orbits; states that equal areas are covered in equal amounts of time as an object orbits the sun; Kepler calculated that a line from the center of the sun to the center of an object sweeps through equal areas in equal periods of time

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law of equal areas

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Kepler's third law; describes the relationship between the average distance of a planet from the sun and the orbital period of the planet; the cube of the average distance (a) of a planet from the sun is always proportional to the square of the period (p); scientists can find out how far away the planets are from the sun by using this law because they can measure the orbital periods by observing the planets

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law of periods

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the time required for a body to complete a single orbit

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orbital period

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the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion unless an outside force acts on the object; Isaac Newton hypothesized that a moving body will remain in motion and resist a change in speed or direction until an outside force acts on it

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inertia

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an outside force that causes a planet's orbit to curve; this attractive force exists between any two objects in the universe; named by Newton

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gravity

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the inner planets are also called ___________ _______ because they are similar to Earth; highly dense planets nearest to the sun; Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth; consist mostly of solid rock and have metallic cores; number of moons per planet varies from 0-2

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terrestrial planets

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bowl-shaped depressions that occur on the surfaces of inner planets; caused by collisions of the planets with other space objects

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impact craters

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type of heating; occurs when the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere blocks most of the infrared radiation from escaping; on Earth, it warms Earth enough for organisms to live on the planet

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greenhouse effect

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phenomenon that makes Venus' surface temperature the highest known in the solar system (464degC)

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runaway greenhouse effect

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what Venus is called because it is usually visible in the early morning or evening; Venus has sulfur dioxide droplets in its upper atmosphere, which forms a cloud layer that reflects light so strongly that from Earth, Venus appears to be near the sun and appears to be the brightest object in the sky (besides the moon and sun)

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evening star or morning star

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satellite that orbited Venus for four years in the 1990s before the satellite was steered into the planet to collect atmospheric data; bounced radio waves off Venus to produce radar images of Venus' surface, which found landforms such as mountains, volcanoes, lava plains, and sand dunes

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Magellan

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European Space Agency's spacecraft that orbited Venus between April 2006 and May 2009

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Venus Express

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landing craft that detected two geological events that produced seismic waves on Mars

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Viking

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geological events on Mars that produced seismic waves; may indicate that volcanoes on Mars are more active

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marsquakes

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mars rovers which landed on Mars in 2004; found liquid evidence that water did exist on Mars' surface in the past

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Spirit and Opportunity

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lander that confirmed in 2008 that water also exists as ice just below the Martian surface of Mars

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Phoenix

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a ring of debris that separates the inner planets from the outer planets

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asteroid belt

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Jupiter's most distinctive feature; a giant rotating storm, similar to a hurricane of Earth, that has been raging for at least several hundred years

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Great Red Spot

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spacecraft that dropped a probe on Jupiter which measured wind speeds of up to 540 km/h on Jupiter

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Galileo

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scientist are learning more about Saturn and its moons from this spacecraft which reached Saturn in 2004

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Cassini

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carried by Cassini, this probe landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon

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Huygens

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has taken images that show changes in Uranus' atmosphere; images taken has also indicated that Neptune has an active weather system

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Hubble Space Telescope

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space probe that passed by Uranus and helped in the discovery of the rotation rate of Uranus; data from this probe indicate that Neptune's atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane; images taken by this probe indicate that Neptune has an active weather system

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Voyager 2

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a storm the size of Earth that appeared and disappeared on Neptune's surface

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Great Dark Spot

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(TNOs) hundreds of objects in our solar system beyond Neptune's orbit; some are similar to Pluto in size and composition, but most are simply small chunks of ice; scientists think that these bodies are the remnants of material that formed the early solar system

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trans-Neptunian objects

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the region beyond Neptune's orbit where TNOs exist; a region of the solar system that starts just beyond the orbit of Neptune and that contains dwarf planets and other small bodies made mostly of ice

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Kuiper Belt

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trans-Neptunian dwarf planets such as Eris, Makemake, and Haumea

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plutoids

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several hundred planetlike objects that circle stars other than Earth's sun; most known __________ circle stars like the Earth's sun therefore, the existence of __________ leads some scientists to wonder if life could exists in another solar system; most have been directly observed with telescopes; most are larger than Uranus and some are closer to the size of Earth; many __________ are closer to their stars than Mercury is to Earth's sun

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exoplanets

Earth Science Chapter 27: Planets of the Solar System – Flashcards

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