Oceanography Chapter 1
Terms
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- A smaller, usually nonluminous body orbiting a star.
- planet
- An increase in the mass of a body by accumulation or clumping of smaller particles.
- accretion
- The name of our galaxy. Sometimes applied to the field of stars in our home spiral arm, which is correctly called the Orion arm.
- Milky Way Galaxy
- The hypothetical event that started the expansion of the universe from a geometric point. The beginning of time.
- Big bang
- The initial formation of life on Earth
- biosynthesis
- A large construct explaining events in nature that have been observed to occur with unvarying uniformity under the same conditions.
- law
- A speculation about the natural world that may be verified or disproved by observation and experiment.
- hypothesis
- Test that simplify observation in nature or in the laboratory by manipulating or controlling the conditions under which observations are made.
- experimen
- The explosive collapse of a massive star.
- supernova
- The formation of layers in a material, with each deeper layer being denser (weighing more per unit of volume) than the layer above.
- density stratification
- Premise that stars and planets accumulate from contracting, accreting clouds of galactic gas, dust, and debris.
- condensation theory
- The volcanic venting of volatile substances.
- outgassing
- A large rotating aggregation of stars, dust, gas, and other debris held together by gravity. There are perhaps 50 billion galaxies in the universe and 50 billion stars in each galaxy.
- galaxy
- Diffuse cloud of dust and gas.
- nebula
- The process (or result) of applying the scientific method to the ocean, its surroundings, and the life forms within it. Also called oceanography or oceanology.
- marine science
- The science of the ocean. See also marine science
- oceanography
- (1) The great body of saline water that covers 70.78% of the surface of Earth. (2) One of its primary subdivisions, bounded by continents, the equator, and other imaginary lines.
- ocean
- Tightly condensed knot of material that has not yet attained fusion temperature
- protostar
- A systematic way of asking questions about the natural world and testing the answers to those questions.
- science
- The sun together with the planets and other bodies that revolve around it.
- solar system
- The diffuse cloud of dust and gas from which the solar system originated.
- solar nebula
- The orderly process by which theories explaining the operation of the natural world are verified or rejected.
- scientific method
- The great body of saline water that covers 70.78% of Earth's surface.
- world ocean
- A massive sphere of incandescent gases powered by the conversion of hydrogen to helium and other heavier elements.
- star
- A general explanation of a characteristic of nature consistently supported by observation or experiment.
- theory