Neptune: The Windy World

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Across
  1. 5. A word for something of monstrous or colossal size, often used to describe giant planets or massive corporations.
  2. 8. The strange geological phenomenon of volcanoes that erupt volatile substances like nitrogen or methane ice instead of molten rock.
  3. 10. The region of a planet's interior between the crust and the core, which in an ice giant is a bizarre slush of super-pressurized fluids.
  4. 13. The term for motion in a direction opposite to the primary direction of movement in a system, such as a moon orbiting against its planet's spin.
  5. 15. The gravitational act of a large body, like a planet, snagging a smaller object, like a moon, into its orbit.
  6. 16. A slightly more stylish or informal word for a name or a nickname.
  7. 17. The central, innermost part of a planet, often thought to be rocky or metallic.
  8. 18. The specific, vibrant shade of deep blue that gives a certain windy planet its signature look.
Down
  1. 1. An adverb describing an action performed with extreme care and attention to every last detail.
  2. 2. The makeup or constituent parts of something, like the specific mix of gases and ices that form a planet.
  3. 3. Another word for a color or a shade, like the deep blue one seen on the eighth planet.
  4. 4. The state of being savagely fierce, cruel, or violent; a perfect word for winds that break the sound barrier.
  5. 6. A word describing a state of conflict, confusion, or the violent, unsteady movement of air or water.
  6. 7. The quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and progress; a word for a constantly changing, energetic system.
  7. 9. Lasting for a very brief moment; a synonym for transient or ephemeral.
  8. 10. An independent-minded person or, in this case, a celestial object that behaves differently from others in its group, like a moon with a backward orbit.
  9. 11. A very strong wind, though this word feels like an understatement when applied to Neptune.
  10. 12. A poetic term for something that lasts for a very short time, like a beautiful storm that vanishes after a few years.
  11. 14. A word to describe something that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand, like a strange moon with a chaotic surface.
  12. 15. A metaphor for a system that operates with perfect, predictable regularity, like the idealized orbits of planets.