- Industry: Astronomy
- Number of terms: 6727
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Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research by NASA-sponsored scientists on meteorites, asteroids, planets, moons, and other materials in our Solar System. The website is supported by the Cosmochemistry Program of NASA's Science Mission ...
A class of stony-iron meteorites consisting of metal and fragments of igneous rocks. These meteorites formed as breccias, but most have been recrystallized during metamorphism.
Industry:Astronomy
Kilometer-sized "dirty snowball" composed of dust (refractory material) and primarily water-ice which gives rise to all of the features observers associate with comets. As the nucleus approaches the Sun, the temperatures rise sufficiently to cause the sublimation of the ices. As the gas leaves the nucleus, it is able to drag some of the dust with it in the low gravity. Sunlight reflected off the dust is what we see as the yellowish coma and tail of the comet, and interaction of the solar radiation with the gases gives us the characteristic blue appearance of the plasma tail.
Industry:Astronomy
The streak of light and loud noise of a large meteor passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
Industry:Astronomy
Deposits of dark glass on the Moon, possibly products of volcanic fire fountaining.
Industry:Astronomy
A Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer (SIMS), a precision instrument used to quantitatively analyze the elements and isotopes of materials at microscopic scales.
Industry:Astronomy
The study of the shape and form of the landscape, and how the nature of landforms relates to their origin, development, and change over time.
Industry:Astronomy
The energy given to an electron by accelerating it through 1 volt of electric potential difference.
Industry:Astronomy
A term used in digital image processing to describe a unique, single picture element (or, a single data point on an image) which has a unique color (or brightness) value.
Industry:Astronomy
