Across
- 4. A model of the solar system with the Sun at the center.
- 7. A planet that is in orbit around the Sun, and that has enough mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it is a nearly round shape. It is has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
- 8. A solid piece of rock or iron that is in the process of falling from space into the Earth’s atmosphere.
- 11. The planets Mercury and Venus, so-called because their orbits are inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
- 12. A small celestial body that revolves around a planet.
- 15. A body composed of ice and dust in orbit around the Sun.
- 17. A celestial body that is in orbit around the Sun, has enough mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it is round, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
- 18. System A group of celestial bodies contained by the gravity of and orbiting around a star.
- 19. The orbit of a celestial body around another celestial body.
- 23. One of the many thousands chunks of rock or iron that orbit the Sun, also know by the older term, minor planets. Most are between Mars and Jupiter, where they are formed.
Down
- 1. The tilt of a planet’s orbit from the ecliptic. Or, the tilt of a moon’s orbit from the plane of the planet’s equator.
- 2. The planets Mars through Neptune, so-called because their orbits are beyond Earth’s orbit.
- 3. The solid piece of rock or iron that has fallen through the Earth’s atmosphere and landed on the Earth.
- 5. A circular depression on the surface of a planet or moon that occurred as a result of an impact by another celestial object, such as a comet or asteroid.
- 6. The average distance from the Sun to the Earth, about 150 million kilometers.
- 9. An attractive mutual physical force between any two masses.
- 10. The spinning of a body on its own axis.
- 13. The time an object takes to complete a certain repeating motion and return to it original position.
- 14. an area outside the orbit of Neptune at a distance from the Sun of 30 to 100 AU that contains an estimated 35,000 objects with diameters greater than 100 km.
- 16. Any motion that is in the opposite sense from the majority of the solar system bodies.
- 20. An oval, the shapes of the orbits of the planets of the solar system.
- 21. The visible streak of light produced when a solid piece of rock or iron from space falls toward Earth and bursts into flames from the friction caused by passing though the Earth’s atmosphere. Also called a falling star or shooting star.
- 22. A collection of objects up to 50,000 AU from the Sun that likely contains billions of non-periodic comets.