| A | B |
|---|
| seafloor | many of the same features as land, higher mountains, extensive plains, deeper canyons |
| continental shelf | sloping part of the continent that is covered with water from its shoreline to the continental slope |
| continental slope | steeply sloping area that connects the continental shelf and the deep ocean floor |
| continental rise | gently sloping surace at the base of the continental slope |
| abyssal plains | flat, level parts of the ocean floor |
| seamount | undersea volcano peak that is at least 1000 meters avove the ocean floor |
| guyot | a submerged flat-topped seamount |
| mid ocean ridges | are continuous undersea mountain chains found in the middle of the oceans |
| ocean trenches | long,narrow trouchs or depressions formed where ocean floors collide with another section of ocean floor or continent |
| Marianas Trench | ll km deep, deepest trench in the Pacific Ocean |
| submerged shoreline | sea has risen or land has shrunk |
| hydrosphere | covers 70 percent of the earth's surface that is covered in salt water (mass 1.4 X 10 to 24th power grams) |
| Oceans | 7 North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, Antarctic |
| Salinity | number of grams of these dissolved salts in 1000 grams of sea water (3.5%) salt being most abundant (low near river mouths and high in areas of high evaporation rates) |
| Ocean temperature | constant to depths of 90 meters (28 degrees C at equator to 2 degrees C at poles) Freezing point of seawater is lower than freezing point of pure water) Freezing point varies with the salinity of the water (-2 C to 0C) |
| Temperature zones of the ocean | Surface layer, mixed area- called thermocline (wind and waves churn where living creatures live) and third layer that is cold dark to barren ocean floor |
| oozes | name given to the sediment that contains at least 30% plant or animal shell fragments -contains calcium carbonate |
| authigenic deposits | deposits formed directly from sea water |
| seamounts | underwater wolcanoes-magna rising from the hot spot punches through the plate and forms a volcano - Hawaiian islands |
| Laterites | wet and tropical, red-orange soil rich in iron and aluminum oxides little humus soil not very fertile |
| refracting telescope | uses lenses to bend light rays in focusing the image (Galilee) |
| reflecting telescope | uses mirrors to gather light rays on a curved mirror which produced image (Newton) |
| Hubble Space telescope | uses a single relector mirror. It observes objects seven times farther away |
| optical telescopes | refracting and reflecting telescopes since they gather visible light and focus it to produce an image |
| radio telescope | collects invisible radio waves created by the sun and stars- It has a reflector or dish with special receivers (advantages- receive 24 hrs a day, operate in any kind of weather, ability to detect objects from great distances in space) largest in Puerto Rico dish more than 300 meters in diameter) |
| spectroscope | device attached to telescopes used to separate white light into a series different color by wave lengths called a spectrum (used to observe spectra, temperatures, pressures, and movement of stars) |
| spectograph | photographs a spectrum (red longest wavelength, violet the shortest) |
| electromagnetic spectrum | arrangement of wavelengths- range from very long radio waves to very short gamma rays |
| Star moving toward earth | light waves compress and wavelenghs are shorter so moves toward blue or violet |
| Star is moving away from earth | light waves expand and wavelengths seem longer. moves toward the red end of the spectrum |
| AU or astronomical unit | the distance from the earth to the sun (150 X 10 to the sixth power)- used to measure distances within our solar system |
| LY or light year | the distance light travels in one year or 9.5 X 10 to the twelth power - used to measure distances in space |
| parsec | measures large distances in space =a distance of 3.26 light years |
| Planets in our solar system | Mercury Venus Earth Mars (inner planets) Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune and Pluto (outer planets) |
| Mercury | closest planet to the sun, craters and rocks, hydrogen, helium and sodium in the atmosphere (named after Roman messenger god) |
| Venus | slow rotation , rotates opposite the earth (retrograde rotation), extensive cloud coverage so cannot see surface, atmosphere mostly carbon dioxide, clouds contain sulfuric acid giving a yellow appearance, clouds trap heat (named Roman goddess of love) |
| Earth | a water planet, gravity holds water in place, different temperatures on earth allow water to exist as a solid, liquid and gas. Atmosphere is mostly oxygen and nitrogen, only planet known to support life |
| Mars | numerous craters, active and extinct volcanoes, ridges and valleys, iron oxide in soil giving rust color to surface, atmosphere has carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon oxygen and water vapor, polar ice caps of water, two satellites (named after Roman war god) |
| Jupiter | largest planet, 16 moons, atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia, rising and and descending gases caused by heat from the core, Great Red Spot thought to be hurricane cloud, strong magnetic field |
| Saturn | seond largest planet, rings of ice and rock and dust particles, stmosphere of hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia, 20+ satelites (named after Roman god of agriculture) |
| Uranus | retrograde (reverse) rotation, gaseous planet, 10 dark rings and 15 satellites, atmosphere is hydrogen, helium, and methane (named after Greek god of the heavens) |
| Neptune | gaseous planet, atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane, 3 rings and 2 satellites,(named after Roman sea god, atmosphere has the color of the seas) |
| Pluto | smallest planet, atmosphere thought to contain methane, ammonia, and frozen water, 1 satellite, revolves around the sun every 250 years (named after Roman god of the underworld) |
| Asteroids | found in the region between Mars and Jupiter |
| Comets | masses of frozen gases, cosmic dust, and small rocky particles, think they originate in a comet cloud beyond Pluto- it has a nucleus, a coma, and a tail, The tail points away from the sun |
| Halley's comet | discovered in 240 BC it returns every 75 to 76 years |
| Meteoroids | composed of particles of rock and metal, it burns in our atmosphere and then called a meteor or a shooting star |
| Meteorites | meteors that strike the earth's surface, Barringer Crater in Arizone |
| constellations | patterns of stars as a reference to locate other stars |
| Ursa Major | big bear constellation |
| Ursa Minor | little bear constellation |
| The Big Dipper | found within the Ursa Major |
| The Little Dipper | found within Ursa Minor |
| Magnitude stars | 21 of the brightest stars seen from earth |
| galaxies | Vast collection of stars |
| irregular galaxy | no real structed appearance, early stage of life |
| elliptical galaxy | smooth ellipses containing little dust and gas composed of millions and millions of stars |
| spiral galaxy | disk shaped with extended arms that rotate around a dense center, earth is in the Milky Way Galaxy and it is a spiral galaxy |
| pulsar | variable radio source that emits signals in very short regular bursts, it is believed to bea rotating neutron star |
| quasar | object that photographs like a star but has an extremely large redshift and a variable energy output, believed to be the active core of a very distant galaxy |
| black holes | object that has collapsed to such a degree that light can not escape from its surface, light is trapped by the intense gravitational field |
| Blueshift | The shortening of a light wave from an object moving toward an observer. For example, when a star is traveling toward Earth, its light appears bluer. |
| Coma | The cloud of gas and dust that forms around a comet's nucleus. This cloud is created when the solar wind strikes the surface of the nucleus. |
| Corona | The outermost layer of the atmosphere of a star, including the Sun. The corona is visible during a solar eclipse or when special adapters or filters are attached to a telescope to block the light from the star’s central region. The gaseous corona extends millions of kilometers from the star’s surface and has a temperature in the millions of degrees. |
| Infrared | Radiation that has longer wavelengths and lower frequencies and energies than visible light. |
| Parallax | The apparent shift of an object’s position when viewed from different locations. Parallax, also called trigonometric parallax, is used to determine the distance to nearby stars. As the Earth’s position changes during its yearly orbit around the Sun, the apparent locations of nearby stars slightly shift. The stars’ distances can be calculated from those slight shifts with basic trigonometric methods. |
