The Solar System Flashcards
(49 cards)
What is the difference between a rotation and a revolution?
Rotation: spin on own axis
Revolution: one trip around the sun
What is true about the axis of Earth?
axis is not perpendicular
tilted forwards or away from sun
When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, it experiences_____
winter
The southern hemisphere experiences______ tilted forward from the sun
summer
The line that separates the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is called the
equator
Why don’t areas along the equator have seasons?
They have 12 hour days and 12 hour nights
What is an equinox, and what months does it occur in?
equal night
day where 12 hours day and 12 hours night
everywhere on the planet
occurs in march and September
What is a solstice, and what months does it occur in?
most and least amount of sunlight
June northern: most sun light of any day of the year
December southern: least sun light of any day of the year
What is the Arctic circle, and what is this area based upon?
imaginary circle
able to see center of the sun
on December solstice
What is the Antarctic circle, and what is this area based upon?
imaginary circle
something as arctic circle but June solstice
Where is the Tropic of Cancer and where is the Tropic of Capricorn
Cancer: northern, Capricorn: Southern
Some plants (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter) have very little axial tilt. What effect does this have on them?
They don’t have seasons
Uranus rotates on its side. What affects does this have on its seasons?
42 years of straight sunlight and 42 years of straight darkness
What is a moon?
natural satellites that orbit planets or dwarf planets
What is an asteroid, and what are they made up of?
smaller in size than dwarf planets and moon
not large enough gravity to form a spherical shape
made of rock and metal
What is a meteoroid?
Small pieces of metal and rock
can be as small as a speck of dust
When does a meteoroid become a meteor or meteorite?
once it reaches our planets atmosphere we call it a meteor
once it hits the earth it is a meteorite
What is a comet?
large chucks of ice, dust, and rock
they have 2 tails( sun’s heat, debris)
What is the first layer beyond our gas giants, and what can be found there?
Kulper belt
full of dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and ice and dust
What lies at the boundary of our solar system, and what is most commonly found there?
Oort Cloud (named after Jan Oort, you don’t need to know this I just like putting random bits of info)
billions of comets with long, elliptical orbit
What galaxy are we located in?
The Milky Way
What is the largest object by mass in our solar system?
Sun
From innermost to outermost, list our planets:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
What three things must be true in order to be considered a planet?
be in orbit around a star
have enough mass to be pulled into a stable sphere by gravity
dominate its orbit(i.e. its mass must be greater than anything else that crosses its orbit)
