The Solar System Vocabulary Review

A model of the universe in which Earth is at the center of the revolving planets and stars.

• geocentric

• heliocentric

• rotation

• revolution

A model of the solar system in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun

• heliocentric

• geocentric

• solar nebula

• ellipse

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

NGSS.MS-ESS1-2

A rotating cloud of gas and dust from which the sun and planets formed

• solar nebula

• protoplanetary disk

• frost line

• eccentricity

A rotating disk of gas and dust grains surrounding a newly formed star or protostar. Over time, accretion within the disk tends to produce planets

• protoplanetary disk

• solar nebula

• planetesimal

• frost line

the boundary in the protoplanetary disk beyond which ices could condense; only metals and rocks could condense within this boundary

• frost line

• eccentricity

• perihelion

• aphelion

A small body from which a planet originated in the early stages of development of the solar system

• planetesimal

• ellipse

• solar nebula

• geocentric

A regular oval shape, traced by a point moving in a plane so that the sum of its distances from two other points is constant

• ellipse

• eccentricity

• perihelion

• aphelion

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

A measure of the elongation of an ellipse

• eccentricity

• aphelion

• perihelion

• heliocentric

The point in a planet's orbit that is farthest from the sun

• aphelion

• perihelion

• ellipse

• planetesimal

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS2-4

The point in a planet's orbit that is closest to the sun

• perihelion

• aphelion

• eccentricity

• orbit

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS2-4