Boulder to mountain-sized piece of rock remaining from the early solar system. The
largest asteroid is only 1000 kilometers across but most are much smaller.
Craters
A hole in the ground made by the impact of a meteorite.
Earth
The third planet from the Sun.
Galaxy
A very large cluster of stars (tens of millions to trillions of stars) gravitationally
bound together.
Great Red Spot
A giant hurricane like storm that is about 2 times bigger than the size of Earth.
Greenhouse Effect
The trapping of heat energy close to a planet's surface by certain types of gases
in the atmosphere (e.g., water, methane, and carbon dioxide). These gases allow visible
light from the Sun to reach the surface but prevent the infrared light from the heated
surface to radiate back to space.
Jupiter
The fifth planet from the Sun.
Mercury
The closest planet to the Sun.
Milky Way Galaxy
The large spiral galaxy in which our Sun and planets reside. Our Sun is one star of
several hundred billion in the Milky Way.
Moon
A rocky sphere that orbits the Earth.
Nebula
An enormous cloud of gas and dust.
Neptune
The eighth planet from the Sun.
Observatory
A place or building that uses large telescopes for observing outer space.
Olympus Mons
The largest mountain in the solar system. This mountain is a volcano and found on
Mars.
Orbit
The path one object takes around another object.
Planetarium
A domed room in which shows the night sky from any locations at any time far in the
past to far in the future. Some planetariums are able to show all dome films surrounding
the audience with the action.
Revolve
When an object moves in a circular-like pattern (orbits) another object
