Earth and Space Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is a galaxy?
A huge group of stars
What is the Milky Way?
The galaxy that contains our solar system.
What is our universe?
Everything that exists: all galaxies
What is a solar system?
A group of planets and other objects that orbit a star
How is a solar system formed?
From a cloud of gas and dust that collapses under gravity and forms a star with planets orbiting around it.
What are the eight planets?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
What are the five dwarf planets?
Pluto, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, Ceres.
How many moons are there?
Over 290 known moons in our solar system.
How many asteroids and comets are there?
Over 1 million asteroids and around 4 thousand comets
What are comets?
Icy objects that orbit the Sun and grow tails when close to it.
What are asteroids?
Rocky objects that orbit the Sun
What is the Asteroid Belt?
It is a region between Mars and Jupiter filled with rocks (asteroids) that orbit the Sun.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
It is a region beyond Neptune full of icy objects and dwarf planets like Pluto.
What is a Meteorite?
It is a rock from space that survives its fall through Earth’s atmosphere and lands on the ground.
What is a Glacial Period?
It is when much of the Earth was covered by ice sheets (like during the Ice Age).
What is an Interglacial Period?
It is a warmer time between glacial periods when the ice sheets melt and temperatures rise.
What is a Meteoroid?
It is a small rock or particle in space.
What is a Meteor?
It is a meteoroid that burns up in Earth’s atmosphere (a “shooting star”).
