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| a large cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space; a region in space where stars are born |
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| a rotating cloud of gas and dust form which the sun and planets formed |
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| the average distance between Earth and the sun; approximately 150 million kilometers (symbol, AU) |
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| one of the highly dense planets nearest to the sun; Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth |
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| the counterclockwise spin of a planet or moon as seen from above the planet's North Pole; rotation in the same direction as the sun's rotation |
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| the clockwise spin of a planet or moon as seen from above the planet's North Pole |
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| a planet that has a deep, massive atmosphere, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, or Neptune |
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| a natural or artificial body that revolves around a planet |
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| the change in the sunlit area of one celestial body as seen from another celestial body |
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| an event in which the shadow of one celestial body falls on another |
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| a small body of ice, rock, and cosmic dust that follows an elliptical orbit around the sun and that gives off gas and dust in the form of a tail as it passes close to the sun |
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| a small, rocky object that orbits the sun; most asteroids are located in a band between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter |
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| a relatively small, rocky body that travels through space |
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| a bright streak of light that results when a meteoroid burns up in Earth's atmosphere |
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| a meteoroid that reaches Earth's surface without burining up completely |
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