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Showers |
When many meteors enter our atmosphere at once, or almost at once. |
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Radio telescope |
An antenna or set of antennas that is used to detect radio radiation from space. |
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One Year |
the length of time the Earth takes to orbit the Sun. |
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Eclipse |
When one ""body"" (like the moon) passes through the shadow of another. |
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Dust tail |
the dust left behind a comet, reflecting sunlight. |
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Annular eclipse |
a type of solar eclipse in which a ring (annulus) of sunlight remains visible. |
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Asteroid belt |
a region of the solar system, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in which most of the asteroids orbit. |
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Double Star |
A binary star; two or more stars orbiting each other. |
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Black hole |
A region of space that nothing, not even light, can escape from. |
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Astrophysics |
The science of applying the laws of physics to the universe. |
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Astronomical Unit (A.U.) |
The average distance from the Earth to the Sun. |
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Coma |
The region around the head of a comet. |
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Core |
The center of a star or planet. |
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Belts |
Dark bands around certain planets, like Jupiter. |
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Comet |
A object orbiting the sun that when it gets close to the sun shows a coma and may show a tail. |
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Constellation |
one of 88 areas that the sky has been divided into to make finding a star or other object easier. |
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Meteoroid |
An chunk of rock from space that is smaller than an asteroid. |
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Light year |
the distance that light travels in one year. |
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Full moon |
The phase of the moon when the side facing the earth is completely lit by sunlight. |
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Fireball |
an very bright meteor. |
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Giant planets |
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. |
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Highlands |
Places on the moon that are above the level that may have been smoothed by flowing lava. |
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Geology |
the study of the Earth. |
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Great Red Spot |
Thel large red storm going around like a tornado on Jupiter. |
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Gibbous moon |
the phases between half moon and full moon. |
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Meteorite |
An chunk of rock from space after it hits a planet or moon, especially on the earth. |
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New moon |
The phase when the side of the moon facing the earth is the side that is not lit at all by sunlight. |
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Shooting stars |
Meteors. |
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Asteroid |
a "minor planet" ,a chunk of rock smaller than planet size but larger than a meteoroid, in orbit around a star. |
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Spring tides |
The tides of the ocean are at their highest when the earth, moon, and sun are in a line. |
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Terrestrial Planets |
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. |
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Star |
a ball of gas that makes its own light and heat because of nuclear reaction in its center. |
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Tail |
Gas and dust left behind as a comet orbits close to the sun. The sunlight makes the tail bright. |
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