Solar System Vocabulary
Across
- 1. To travel in a closed path
- 4. A grouping of gas, dust, and many stars, plus any objects that orbit those stars
- 5. An icy chunk of frozen gases, water, and dust that continually orbits the sun
- 8. An imaginary line that passes through Earth's center
- 9. A huge ball of very hot gases in space
- 10. To spin on an axis
- 12. An imaginary line around Earth equally distant from the North and South Poles
- 14. planet An object that is spherical in shape, orbits the Sun, is not a satellite, and has not cleared the area of its orbit of smaller debris
- 16. Any natural body that revolves around a planet; also known as a "satelite"
- 17. Everything that exists
- 18. The path one body takes in space as it revolves around another body
Down
- 2. orbit The revolving of one object around another in an oval-shaped path; all 8 planets travel in this type of orbit
- 3. A pattern of stars, named after a mythological or religious figure, an object, or an animal
- 4. The force that pulls objects toward one another and keeps objects in orbit
- 6. An object made of frozen gases, rock, ice, and dust that orbits the Sun, found mostly in the region between Mars and Jupiter (asteroid belt)
- 7. A large, round body in space that orbits the Sun; there are 8 in our solar system
- 11. The star at the center of our solar system; medium size star with medium temperature
- 13. phases The changing appearances of the Moon as seen from Earth
- 15. system The Sun, the planets and other objects that orbit the Sun
- 16. A chunk of rock or metal from space that falls through the atmosphere, or layer of gases, surrounding Earth