Planets of the Solar System Flashcards
solar system
the sun and all of the planets and other bodies that travel around it.
planet
a celestial body that orbits the sun,is round because of its own gravity, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbital path.
solar nebula
a rotating cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and planets formed; also any nebula from which stars and exoplanets may form.
planetesimal
a small body from which a planet originated in the early stages of development of the solar system.
eccentricity
the degree of elongation of an elliptical orbit.
orbital period
the time required for a body to complete a single orbit.
inertia
the tendency of an object to resist being moved or, if the object is moving, to resist a change in speed or direction until an outside force acts on the object.
terrestrial planet
one of the highly dense planets nearest to the sun; Mercury,Venus,Mars, and Earth.
gas giant
a planet that has a deep massive atmosphere, such as ,Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,or Neptune.
Kuiper Belt
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