Across
- 1. A vast collection of stars, gas, and dust, typically 10,000 to 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing billions of stars
- 5. A solid body orbiting the Sun that consists of metal and rock. Most are only a few miles in diameter and are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
- 7. The fraction of the Moon or other body that we see illuminated by sunlight
- 9. Latin for “cloud",great clouds of glowing gas lit up by stars inside or nearby
- 10. A star ending its life in a huge explosion
- 11. An event that occurs when the shadow of a planet or moon falls upon a second body
- 12. An increase in meteor activity at certain times of the year due to Earth passing through a stream of particles along a comet’s orbit around the Sun
Down
- 2. A slight tipping and tilting of the Moon from week to week that brings various features along the limb into better view
- 3. A distinctive pattern of stars used informally to organize a part of the sky
- 4. A “dirty snowball” of ice and rocky debris, typically a few miles across, that orbits the Sun in a long ellipse
- 6. Two stars that lie very close to, and are often orbiting, each other
- 8. The two times each year, near March 20th and September 22nd, when the Sun is directly overhead at noon as seen from Earth’s equator