GSW Astronomy and Cosmology Crossword

2. The stretching of light toward longer, redder wavelengths.
6. A huge collection of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter held together by gravity.
8. A region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing crossing a certain boundary, including light, can escape.
9. The name given to the unknown phenomenon believed to be causing the expansion of the universe to speed up.
11. The distance light travels in one year, about 5.9 trillion miles.
12. A recognized pattern or region of stars in the night sky.
15. A powerful stellar explosion that occurs during the death of certain stars.

1. The force that attracts objects with mass toward one another.
3. Faint microwave radiation found throughout the universe.
4. A large cloud of gas and dust in space. Some nebulae are places where new stars form, while others are remains of dead or dying stars.
5. A large object that travels around a star, is nearly round because of its own gravity, and has cleared most other objects from its orbital path.
7. The scientific model describing how the universe began expanding from an extremely hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago.
10. The curved path one object follows around another because of gravity, such as Earth traveling around the Sun.
13. A massive ball of hot gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, that produces energy through nuclear fusion.
14. A form of matter that does not give off or reflect light but appears to exist because of its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies.