Across
- 1. small rocky body orbiting the sun. Large numbers of these, ranging enormously in size, are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, though some have more eccentric orbits
- 4. a piece of rock or metal that has fallen to the earth's surface from outer space as a meteor. Over 90 per cent of meteorites are of rock while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron and nickel
- 6. a spot or patch that appears from time to time on the sun's surface, appearing dark by contrast with its surroundings
- 10. a unit of astronomical distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year, which is 9.4607 × 1012 km (nearly 6 million million miles)
- 12. a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit round a star
Down
- 2. the curved path of a celestial object or spacecraft round a star, planet, or moon, especially a periodic elliptical revolution.
- 3. small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth's atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of friction and appearing as a streak of light.
- 4. the natural satellite of the earth, visible (chiefly at night) by reflected light from the sun.
- 5. a celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when near the sun, a ‘tail’ of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun
- 6. a big fireball
- 7. a star
- 8. a system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.
- 9. an artificial body placed in orbit round the earth or moon or another planet in order to collect information or for communication.
- 11. system he collection of eight planets and their moons in orbit round the sun, together with smaller bodies in the form of asteroids, meteoroids, and comets. The planets of the solar system are (in order of distance from the sun) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.