Across
- 3. the mysterious expansion force which does not interact with electromagnetic radiation but is causing the expansion rate of the universe to accelerate
- 7. ripples in the cosmic microwave background (hint: three words)
- 8. all of space and everything in it
- 10. the closest star to Earth besides the Sun, located 4.3 light-years from Earth
- 15. 10 raised to the twelfth power (written as a number followed by 12 zeros)
- 17. a form of matter that does not interact with electromagnetic radiation or light but can be inferred by its gravitational effect on its surroundings
- 18. the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy
- 20. the scientist who first predicted the existence of dark matter in the 1930s, long before Vera Rubin first discovered it
- 21. the astronomical term for the mass of the Sun
- 23. the name for the sixth largest moon of Saturn, which may harbor simple life forms in its underground oceans
- 26. the fundamental force which pulls all objects in the universe towards each other
- 27. a planet that orbits a star besides the Sun (hint: this is short for "extrasolar planet")
- 28. a black hole with a mass between 100 and 100,000 solar masses
- 29. microwave radiation from the early history of the universe, dating to only 380,000 years after the formation of the universe; another name for cosmic background radiation
- 30. another name of the universe itself
- 31. a group of galaxies bound together by gravity
Down
- 1. a group of three stars that are gravitationally bound together
- 2. the energy that is stored within an object
- 4. a theoretical ending of the universe in which gravity pulls all of the matter in the universe towards each other until a very small point is all that remains
- 5. a prefix that means "light" (hint: it is the first half of the word "photograph")
- 6. a theory created by Albert Einstein in 1919 that is considered to be a part of the laws of physics of our universe
- 9. a form of radiation predicted to be emitted by a black hole when one of two particles in a relationship becomes part of a black hole and the other particle in the pair steals energy from the black hole to change from a virtual particle to become a real particle in the universe
- 11. the form of electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelength
- 12. a galaxy that has not completely finished forming
- 13. the name for a star (or group of stars) and everything that orbits around it
- 14. the process by which a planet loses its atmosphere due to radiation from a star
- 16. the name for the largest moon in our solar system (hint: this moon orbits the planet Jupiter)
- 19. the largest moon of the planet Neptune
- 22. the event in which the universe formed from a very small point around 13.8 billion years ago
- 24. the last name of the first person to propose that the planets orbit around the Sun
- 25. the study of celestial objects, space, stars, galaxies, and the universe itself