Space

Question 1

Orbit

Answer 1

The orbit of the Moon is nearly circular The planets in the solar system have a slightly elliptical orbit, while the orbit of comets is highly elliptical.

Question 2

Solar System

Answer 2

What is a system? Anything that is organized and predictable is a system. The orbits of the planets and the position of the Sun are fixed – they do not change. We always know where the planets and Sun will be. This system is called solar because the planets are controlled by the Sun’s gravity.

Question 3

Galaxy

Answer 3

Our solar system is located in a galaxy known as The Milky Way.

Question 4

Universe

Answer 4

Earth and the other planets of the solar system are all a part of the Milky Way Galaxy. The universe has numerous galaxies, like the Milky Way.

Question 5

Satellite

Answer 5

The Moon is a natural satellite that orbits Earth. The planet Jupiter has many moons, four of which are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Artificial satellites are made by man and launched to orbit Earth and other planets.

Question 6

Impact crater

Answer 6

An impact crater is an approximately circular depression in the surface of a planet, moon, or other solid body in the Solar System or elsewhere, formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller body.

Question 7

Rotation

Answer 7

the action of rotating around an axis or center

Question 8

Revolution

Answer 8

The movement of an object around another object, in an orbit,is called revolution. Earth completes one revolution around the Sun, every 365.26 days, in an elliptical orbit. The Moon also revolves around Earth in an orbit of 27.3 days.

Question 9

Season

Answer 9

As Earth revolves around the Sun, it’s tilted axis causes some parts to be pushed toward the Sun and others away from it. During June, the Northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, and places like North America, Europe, and Asia experience summer. During this time, the Southern hemisphere experiences winter.

Question 10

Equinox

Answer 10

An equinox is a date of the year when daylight and nighttime each last 12 hours everywhere on Earth. On all other days of the year, day and night last different amounts of time, and differ in length from location to location on Earth. There are two equinoxes each year. They occur when the plane of Earth’s tilt is tangent to its orbital plane. As a result, neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the Sun.

Question 11

Solstice

Answer 11

Because Earth’s rotation axis is tilted relative to its orbital path around the Sun, the apparent path of the Sun across the sky changes with the seasons. In the summer, the Sun gets higher in the sky than in the winter. The summer solstice is the day that the mid-day Sun reaches its highest point in the sky. The winter solstice is the day that the mid-day Sun is lowest.

Question 12

Mare

Answer 12

a large, level basalt plain on the surface of the moon, appearing dark by contrast with highland areas.

Question 13

Eclipse

Answer 13

An eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon caused by the revolution of the Moon around Earth. When the Moon moves into Earth’s shadow, we see a lunar eclipse. When the Moon is positioned directly between Earth and the Sun, its shadow falls on Earth, producing a solar eclipse.

Question 14

Umbra

Answer 14

the fully shaded inner region of a shadow cast by an opaque object, especially the area on the earth or moon experiencing the total phase of an eclipse

Question 15

Penumbra

Answer 15

the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse.

Question 16

Astronomical Unit

Answer 16

Astronomical unit is used to measure distance in the solar system. The distance from Earth to the sun is 1 AU and the distance from Mars to the sun is 1.5 AU.

Question 17

Ellipse

Answer 17

a regular oval shape, traced by a point moving in a plane so that the sum of its distances from two other points (the foci) is constant, or resulting when a cone is cut by an oblique plane which does not intersect the base.

Question 18

Terrestrial Planet

Answer 18

Within the Solar System, the terrestrial planets are the inner planets closest to the Sun, i.e. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The terms “terrestrial planet” and “telluric planet” are derived from Latin words for Earth (Terra and Tellus), as these planets are, in terms of structure, Earth-like.

Question 19

Gas Giant

Answer 19

a large planet of relatively low density consisting predominantly of hydrogen and helium, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune.

Question 20

Asteroid

Answer 20

Asteroids are irregularly shaped rocks that revolve around the Sun. Most asteroids are present in a band located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, known as the asteroid belt.

Question 21

Comet

Answer 21

Comets are balls of ice and rock that are seen moving across the sky. A comet’s body has two parts, a head and a tail. Comets move about the Solar System in orbits that take them far from the Sun. As they revolve around the Sun, their tail grows longer because the ice in the head boils away.

Question 22

Meteor

Answer 22

A view of the night sky might include a fast streak of light that quickly disappears. You might call it a “Shooting Star”. It is actually a meteor.

Question 23

Meteorite

Answer 23

When a meteoroid moving away from the asteroid belt hits Earth’s surface, it is called a meteorite. Due to the tremendous impact, a crater is formed on Earth’s surface where the meteorites strike.

Question 24

Geocentric

Answer 24

When the Earth is placed at the center of a system, the system is said to be geocentric. The Moon revolves around the Earth. The Earth-Moon system is geocentric.

Question 25

Heliocentric

Answer 25

Heliocentric comes from the Greek word “helios”, meaning Sun. The Sun is the center of the solar system. All the planets in the solar system orbit around the Sun.

Question 26

Gravity

Answer 26

The pull of gravity on the Earth and on the Moon is different. Earth is much larger than the moon. So, its mass is greater and the gravitational pull here is 9.8 m/s2. But on the Moon, the gravitational pull is only 1.6 m/s2. So, an object will weigh less on the Moon than it does on Earth.

Question 27

Tide

Answer 27

A tide is a periodic variation in the surface level of bodies of water caused by gravitational attraction of the Moon and Sun. The water levels during the tides vary with the relative positions of the Sun and Moon with respect to Earth.

Question 28

Waxing

Answer 28

Waxing is “Maxing,” or growing with light until a full moon is reached. Waning is the opposite, or decreasing after a full moon, and is always illuminated on the left. Then, there is a waxing or waning Gibbous moon, which means more than half of the moon is illuminated.

Question 29

Waning

Answer 29

Waning is the opposite, or decreasing after a full moon, and is always illuminated on the left. Then, there is a waxing or waning Gibbous moon, which means more than half of the moon is illuminated. And then a waxing or waning Crescent Moon, when less than half is illuminated.

Question 30

Gibbous moon

Answer 30

Just after the First Quarter Moon, when we can see exactly half of the face of the Moon illuminated, the intermediate phase called Waxing Gibbous Moon starts. … Gibbous refers to the shape, which is less than the full circle of a Full Moon, but larger than the semicircle shape of the Moon at Third Quarter.

Question 31

Crescent Moon

Answer 31

Noun. crescent moon (plural crescent moons) The Moon as it appears early in its first quarter or late in its last quarter, when only a small arc-shaped section of the visible portion is illuminated by the Sun.

Question 32

Full Moon

Answer 32

The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth’s perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon. This means that the lunar hemisphere facing Earth – the near side – is completely sunlit and appears as a circular disk.

Question 33

New moon

Answer 33

In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye, except when silhouetted during a solar eclipse. Daylight outshines the earthlight that dimly illuminates the new moon.

Question 34

Quarter moon

Answer 34

A quarter moon occurs when we see the Moon half illuminated by the Sun, and half enshrouded in darkness. Since the illuminated side points towards the Sun, it tells astronomers that the Moon and the Sun are separated by 90-degrees from our perspective here on Earth

Question 35

Perihelion

Answer 35

the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the sun.

Question 36

Aphelion

Answer 36

the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from the sun