Science Final Space Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering solar system formation, celestial bodies, stellar lifecycles, and orbital mechanics based on the science review notes.

Solar system formation

The process where a star exploded creating planets and other rocks, gas, and liquid formations that gravity pulled together.

Sol formation

Occurred when a massive cloud of gas and dust collapsed under its own gravity.

Sol

A big yellow star also known as a big ball of hot plasma.

Planet Mnemonic

my(mercury), very(venus), eager(earth), mother(mars), just(jupiter), served(saturn), us(uranus), nacho's(neptune).

Asteroid

An irregular shaped object made of rock and metal found in a Kuiper belt.

Comet

A cosmic snowball made of frozen gas, ice, rock, and dust that orbits the sun.

Blackhole

An infinity dense point that exerts such a strong gravitational pull that no light can escape.

Meteroid

A small piece of metal or rock.

Meteor

A meteoroid that enters the earth's atmosphere.

Meteorite

When a meteor reaches the earth's surface.

Terrestrial planets

Rocky celestial bodies composed of rocks, metals, and minerals with an iron or nickel core; includes mercury, venus, earth, and mars.

Gas giants

Planets composed of liquid, gas, hydrogen, and helium; includes jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune.

Star's lifecycle

The progression from a nebula, to a protostar, to a main sequence star, and then to a red giant or a super giant.

Hertzsprung diagram

A graph that shows how a star's brightness relates to its temperature, helping astronomers map a star's entire lifecycle.

Asteroid belt

A vast area of rocky and metal debris containing everything from microscopic dust to dwarf planets.

Kuiper belt

A donut shaped region of icy debris located at the edge of our solar system.

Oort cloud

A thick shelf of billion icy pieces of space rocks and comets surrounding our solar system that marks the edge to the limit of what orbits the sun.

Constellation

A grouping of stars that make up an animal, person, or thing.

Archaestronomy

The study of how people in the past understood and used the sky.

Nebulae

Two or more massive clouds of cosmic dust, hydrogen, helium and other gases in space.

Protostar

The earliest stage of a star's life.

Main sequence

A star in its longest, stable phase of its lifecycle, which fuses hydrogen & helium core.

Red giant

A large bright star in the last stages of its lifecycle.

Planetary nebula

A glowing cloud of dust and gas left behind after a star sheds its outer layers.

White dwarf

The star left at the core of a planetary nebula.

Black dwarf

What a medium-mass star becomes at the end of its life.

Supergiant

A large, bright star near the end of its life cycle.

Supernova

A powerful explosion that happens when a massive star dies.

Neutron star

The remains of a high mass star.

Rotation

When an object spins around its own axis.

Revolution

When an object moves a path around another object in space.

Seasons

Changes in weather and daylight caused by earth's tilt as it orbits the sun.

Equinox

When day and night are equal in time.

Solstice

When the sun reaches its highest or lowest points in the year, creating the longest or shortest day.

Moons

Natural satellites that orbit planets or dwarf planets.

Dwarf planets

Celestial bodies that orbit the sun and are almost round, but have not cleared their orbital path of past debris.

Dwarf planet examples

ceres, pluto, makemake, hamea, eres.

Planet criteria

Must orbit the sun, clear their orbit, and dominate their orbit.