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Space Vocabulary

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  • What is a little chunk of rock in space smaller than a pick up truck. If it were bigger, it would be an asteroid.
    Meteoroid
  • What is a natural object that travels around a bigger natural object.
    Moon
  • What is an icy rock that lets off gas and dust, which may form tails when it is flying close to a sun.
    Comet
  • What is a force that pulls matter together.
    Gravity
  • What is the curved path that a planet, satellite, or spacecraft moves as it circles around another object.
    Orbit
  • What is a burst of energy and particles from the sun. It releases gases, radiation waves, and magnetic storms.
    Solar flare
  • What is a vehicle used for traveling in space.
    Spacecraft
  • What is all of space and time, and everything in it. It’s everything ever!
    Universe
  • What is a large, bowl-shaped dent in the ground. They can be caused by an explosion or the impact of a meteorite.
    Crater
  • What are rocks floating around in space. Some are the size of a pick-up truck. Others are hundreds of miles across.
    Asteroid
  • What is a group of stars in the sky. They're often named after an animal, object, or person. The stars form certain patterns based on where you are.
    Constellations
  • What is a set that includes a star and all of the matter that orbits it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other objects.
    Solar system
  • What is the star in the center of our solar system.
    Sun
  • What is a large body in outer space that circles around the sun or another star.
    Planet
  • What is a meteoroid that lands on the surface of a planet.
    Meteorite
  • What is a place in space where matter and light cannot escape if they fall in.
    Black hole
  • What is the gases held by gravity around Earth and around other planets. It can also be used to talk about gases around stars.
    Atmosphere
  • What is an object that orbits another object. A moon is actually this. We also say X to refer to spacecraft people build that orbit Earth, other planets, moons, asteroids, or other objects out in space.
    Satellite
  • It’s not a year, or an amount of time at all. It’s the distance light travels in one year. It’s the same as 5,878,499,810,000 miles (or 9,460,538,400,000,000 meters). When things are very far away, it’s easier to talk about their distance i
    Light year
  • What is a part of Earth’s atmosphere that absorbs lots of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It is made of a gas called ozone, which is a molecule of three oxygen atoms.
    Ozone layer