Solar System Vocabulary

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Across
  1. 5. A small rock or piece of debris moving through space.
  2. 7. A small, round object that orbits the Sun but hasn’t cleared other objects out of its orbit (like Pluto).
  3. 8. A distant, round shell of icy objects that surrounds the solar system and is thought to be where many comets come from.
  4. 10. A ball of ice, rock, and dust that orbits the Sun. When it gets close, it forms a glowing tail.
  5. 12. A large round object that orbits the Sun and has cleared other stuff out of its path.
  6. 13. When a planet looks like it’s moving backward in the sky because of how Earth and that planet move around the Sun.
  7. 14. The Sun and everything that moves around it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and dust.
Down
  1. 1. A rocky object that orbits the Sun, usually found between Mars and Jupiter.
  2. 2. A region beyond Neptune filled with icy objects, dwarf planets, and comets.
  3. 3. A meteoroid that burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, what we call a “shooting star.”
  4. 4. When Earth passes through a trail of comet dust, and many meteors are seen in the sky.
  5. 6. The region between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids orbit.
  6. 9. A stretched-out circle or oval shape. The planets move around the Sun in ellipses.
  7. 11. A meteor that survives the trip through the atmosphere and lands on Earth.