Topic 6 Vocab-IM

An object that orbits a planet

• satellite

• star

A ball of hot gases, primarily hydrogen and helium, that undergoes nuclear fission

• star

• comet

An object that orbits a star, is large enough to be have become rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the area of its orbit

• planet

• meteor

A streak of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in Earth's atmosphere

• meteor

• comet

A loose collection of ice and dust that orbits the sun, in a long, narrow orbit

• comet

• star

A pattern or grouping of stars that people imagine represent a figure or object

• constellation

• eclipse

Term describing a model of the universe in which the Earth is at the center of the revolving planets and stars

• geocentric

• heliocentric

Term describing a model of the solar system in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun

• heliocentric

• geocentric

The shape of the planet's orbits

• ellipse

• revolution

An imaginary line that passes through a planet's center and its north and south poles, about which the planet rotates

• axis

• ellipse