Planetary science

Planetary science

The scientific study of planets including Earth, moons, and planetary systems of the Solar System in particular and the processes that form them.

Industry: Astronomy

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Planetary science

A table of positions in right ascension (celestial coordinate corresponding to longitude on Earth) and declination (celestial coordinate corresponding to latitude on Earth), as a function of time for ...

torino scale

Astronomy; Planetary science

The official scale (created by Professor Richard P. Binzel and formalized in Torino, Italy in 1999) for categorizing the Earth impact hazard for asteroids and comets. Values range from 0 (no chance ...

asteroid family

Astronomy; Planetary science

Group of asteroids with similar orbital elements (distance from the Sun, inclination of the orbital plane to the Earth's orbital plane, and eccentricity of the orbit) thought to be remnants of one ...

fissure

Astronomy; Planetary science

Crack extending far into a planet or moon through which magma travels to and erupts onto the surface.

cosmic rays

Astronomy; Planetary science

Extremely high-energy subatomic particles that continuously bombard Earth from all directions. Most cosmic rays hit and break up atomic nuclei in Earth's upper atmosphere. Airless bodies are not ...

olivine

Astronomy; Planetary science

Mineral found in basalt; ranges from Mg 2 SiO 4 to Fe 2 SiO 4 .

ordinary chondrite

Astronomy; Planetary science

The most common class of meteorite to fall on Earth. They contain variable amounts of metal and chondrules in a matrix of mostly silicate minerals. See chondrite.