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The
glossary
from Amazing Space, which uses the Hubble Space Telescope's discoveries
to inspire and educate about the wonders of our universe, is very thorough.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/glossary/def.php.s=planets
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| ASTEROID |
- a rocky
object in space that can be a few feet wide to several hundred miles wide.
Most Solar System asteroids orbit in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. |
| ASTRO |
a prefix
that means "star" in the Greek language. |
| ASTRONAUT |
a person
who travels in space. The word, 'astronaut' comes from the Greek words meaning
"space sailor." |
| ASTRONOMER |
a scientist
who makes observations and studies planets, stars, galaxies any anything
else in space. |
|
|
a unit
of length used by astronomers. One astronomical unit equals the distance
from Earth to the Sun: 93 million miles. |
| ASTRONOMY |
the study
of everything that is or was in space beyond the Earth's atmosphere.
Astronomy is the oldest science, dating back thousands of years to
when people noticed objects in the sky overhead and watched how they
moved. |
| ASTROPHYSICS |
a branch
of astronomy. It is the investigation of objects in space by remote
sensing from Earth or its vicinity. |
| AURORA |
a glow
over the polar regions caused by the interaction between Earth's magnetic
field and charged particles from the Sun. |
| ATMOSPHERE |
The layer
of gases surrounding the earth that has gravity strong enough to prevent
the gases from escaping into space. |
| BIG
BANG THEORY |
a theory
that says that the universe
began with a super-powerful explosion. |
| BLACK
DWARF |
- the remains of a white dwarf after it cools. |
| BLACK
HOLE |
-
super dense invisible objects in outer space that form when a massive star
collapses from its own gravity. Black holes have such an enormous amount
of gravity that nothing, not even light, ca escape from them. |
| CELESTIAL
BODY |
-
an object that is located in outer space. |
| COMMANDER |
often
the pilot. Commanders are responsible for the vehicle, the crew, mission
success, and safety. |
| COMET |
-
a small frozen mass of gas, dust, and ice. Comets revolve around the Sun
or pass through the Solar System in elliptical
orbit. |
| CONSTELLATION |
-
groups of stars in that people have imagined to represent various objects
or mythical beings |
| COSMONAUT |
-
The Russian term for an astronaut |
| CRATER |
- a hole formed by a meteorite
hitting the surface of a planet or a moon. |
| DARK
MATTER |
-
nonluminous (not emitting light or visible) material that cannot be seen
in the sky. Dark matter is one of the most mysterious things in the universe.
Scientists think that dark matter occurs everywhere but they don't
yet know exactly what it is made of. |
| ELLIPTICAL |
- shaped like an egg, but with equal ends. |
| EMBRYONIC
STAR CLOUD |
-
(another name for nebula) huge cocoons of dust grains, gas, and molecules
that are the birthplace of stars. |
| GALAXY |
-
a huge collection of stars, nebulae,
star clusters, and dust and gas that measures many light
years across. A galaxy's shape can be elliptical,
spiral, or irregular. |
| GALILEO
GALILEI |
(1564-1642)
- Italian mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. In 1609, Galileo was
the first person to use a telescope to observe the skies. Galileo discovered
the rings of Saturn, was the first person to see the four major moons of
Jupiter, observed the phases of Venus, and studied sunspots. |
| GRAVITY |
-the
attractive force of a body. The larger or more dense the body, the greater
the gravitational force. |
| KILOMETER |
- 1,000 meters. A kilometer equals 0.6214 miles. |
| LIGHT
YEAR |
-units
used t o measure distance in space. One light- year is the distance light
can travel in one year, which is about 6,000,000,000,000 (6 trillion) miles,
or 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers. |
| METEOR |
-a meteoroid that enters the Earth's atmosphere, heats up, and looks like
a brief streak of fire in the sky. |
| METEOR
SHOWER |
- what you might see when Earth passes through the tail of a very old comet.
During a shower you might see between 30 - 80 meteors an hour. Two well-known
major showers are the Perseid shower, which peaks on August 12, and the
Geminid shower which peaks on December 13. |
| METEORITE |
- a part of a meteor that does not burn up when it enters the Earth's atmosphere
but falls to the Earth's surface. |
| METEOROID |
-
a piece of stone or metal that travels in space around the sun. |
| MILKY
WAY |
-
The galaxy that contains the solar system. |
| MISSION
SPECIALIST |
- astronauts in charge of on-board operations. They release satellites into
space, operate scientific or engineering experiments, repair satellites
and operate equipment in the Shuttle's payload bay. |
| MOON |
- one of a planet's natural satellites, generally
no smaller than ten miles in diameter. There are more than fifty known moons
in the Solar System, including Earth's. |
| NASA |
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA is in charge of
all space programs for the United States. |
| NAVIGATION |
- Directing the course of a ship or other craft |
| NEBULA |
- (another name for embryonic star cloud) a cloud of dust and gas in space
in which a star is born. |
| NEUTRON
STAR |
-
a rapidly spinning, extremely dense star composed of mainly neutrons (parts
of an atom).. Neutron stars are the leftovers of a supernova. They
are only about 10 miles across, but are very dense. |
| OPTICAL
TELESCOPE |
-
a telescope that uses mirrors to reflect an image to the observer. |
| ORBIT |
- the path followed by an object in space as it moves moves around another
object. |
| PAYLOAD |
- In space flight, the passengers, crew, instruments, or equipment carried
by a spacecraft |
| PAYLOAD
SPECIALIST |
- professionals from life sciences or physical sciences fields. They can
also be skilled technicians who are trained to operate special equipment
on the mission. |
| PILOT |
- controls and operates the shuttle |
| PLANET |
- an spherical object that orbits a central star and reflects the suns light.
It's diameter can vary but is usually between 1,000 and 100,000 miles. |
| PULSAR |
- Pulsars are thought to be rapidly rotating neutron stars with very strong
magnetic fields. Bursts of energy are detected on earth from a pulsar at
spaced intervals of several seconds or less. |
| QUASAR |
- Quasars are not stars. They are galaxies traveling away from us at tremendous
speeds. |
| RADIO
TELESCOPE |
-
a telescope that studies planets, star, galaxies and other astronomical
objects by using the radio waves they emit. These waves are longer than
light waves and need very large antennas or arrays of antennas to capture
them. |
| RADIO
WAVE |
- electromagnetic radiation. Other types of electromagnetic radiation are
heat, light, and X-rays. |
| RED
GIANT |
- a star that becomes cooler, swells and glows with a red color. This happens
after a medium-sized star has used up all its energy and begins to collapse. |
| REFRACTOR |
-
a telescope in which the main light gathering element is a lens, known as
the objective, or object lens. |
| REFLECTOR |
- a telescope in which the main light gathering element is a mirror. |
| REMOTE
SENSING |
-
the process of collecting information with instruments that record various
forms of energy. |
| REVOLUTION |
-the orbital motion
of one object around another. The Earth revolves around the Sun in one
year. The moon revolves around the Earth in approximately 28 days.
|
| ROTATE |
-to turn
around a center point, or axis, like a wheel turns on a bicycle. |
| SATELLITE |
- a small object revolving around a larger object. Satellites can be natural,
such as moons, or they can be artificial objects sent into orbit around
the earth, such as communication, weather and navigation satellites. |
| SHOOTING
STAR |
- another name for a meteor. |
| SOLAR |
- something having to do with the sun. |
| SOLAR
FLARE |
-
a storm or eruption of hot gases on the sun. |
| SOLAR
SYSTEM |
- the sun, and all the planets and other objects that orbit around it. |
| SOLAR
WIND |
- streams of gas particles flowing out from the sun. |
| SPACE
PROBE |
- an unmanned research spacecraft sent into space. |
| SPECTROSCOPE
|
-
an instrument that breaks up white light from a star into its different
colors. This information is used to determine the surface temperature of
the star which helps to determine its age. |
| SPECTRUM |
- The colors you see when white light is split apart. The order of colors
is : violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. A rainbow is a natural
spectrum. |
| SPEED
OF LIGHT |
- Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, or 299,792,458 meters per second.
Albert Einstein predicted that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. |
| SUNSPOT |
-
a dark area on the sun's surface that is cooler than the area around it. |
| SUPERNOVA |
- a great explosion that gives off tremendous amounts of light at the end
of a star's life cycle. A supernova can become a neutron star or a black
hole. |
| TELESCOPE |
-
an instrument that can make faraway things appear closer. There are optical,
reflecting, refracting, radio, and telescopes in space. |
| UNIVERSE |
- the space that contains all of the matter and energy in existence. |
|
WHITE DWARF |
-
the remains of an old star after it uses its energy. It is a small, faint,
whitish star that is very dense. |
| Click
here to go to:
Planet LINKS
Planet FACTS Planet
REFERENCES |
