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

Luna

Astronomy; Planetary science

One of two successful series of Soviet unpiloted lunar missions. There were 24 missions to the Moon in the Luna series launched from 1959 to 1976. (The other series, Zond, had 5 lunar missions ...

Declination

Astronomy; Planetary science

Celestial coordinate which is equivalent to the latitude of an object on Earth. This is an angular measure of how far above the celestial equator an object lies.

Comet

Astronomy; Planetary science

A small body (a "dirty iceball", typically 1 km across, with dust and plasma tails) that circles the Sun with a highly elliptical orbit.

Albedo

Astronomy; Planetary science

The brightness of an object or surface; it is the percentage of incoming radiation (light) that the object or surface reflects.

Angstrom

Astronomy; Planetary science

(Å), a unit of length equal to 10 -8 centimeter.

The fourth state of matter beyond solid, liquid, and gas. Plasma may be the most common state of matter in the universe. Our Sun is plasma. In space science, plasma is hot, ionised gas--a mixture of ...

Solar wind

Astronomy; Planetary science

Streams of plasma--charged particles (mainly ionised hydrogen and some helium but actually a mixture of all electrons and protons in the Sun)-- ejected from the outer atmosphere (corona) of the Sun ...