Across
- 3. a small body of rock, ice, & cosmic dust that follows an elliptical orbit around the sun & that gives off gas & dust in the form of a tail as it passes close to the sun
- 6. a relatively small, rocky body that travels through space
- 9. the passing of the moon through Earth's shadow at full moon
- 10. a natural or artificial body that revolves around a larger celestial body
- 12. a large, dark area of basalt on the moon (plural, maria)
- 13. in the orbit of a satellite, the point at which the satellite is closest to Earth
- 14. a celestial body that revolves around a body that's larger in mass; a natural satellite
- 15. a spherical region that surrounds the solar system, that extends from the Kuiper Belt to almost halfway to the nearest star, & that contains billions of comets
Down
- 1. the passing of the moon between Earth & the sun; during a solar eclipse, the shadow of the moon falls on Earth
- 2. a region of the solar system that starts just beyond the orbit of Neptune & that contains dwarf planets & other small bodies made mostly of ice
- 4. an event in which the shadow of 1 celestial body falls on another
- 5. a bowl-shaped depression that forms on the surface of an object when a falling body strikes the object's surface or when an explosion occurs
- 7. any 1 of the 4 largest satellites of Jupiter--lo, Europa, Ganymede, & Callisto--that were discovered by Galileo in 1610
- 8. in the orbit of a satellite, the point at which the satellite is farthest from Earth
- 11. a small, rocky object that orbits the sun; most asteroids are located in a band between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter
- 13. in astronomy, the change in the illuminated area of 1 celestial body as seen from another celestial body; phases of the moon are caused by the changing positions of Earth, the sun, & the moon
- 14. a bright streak of light that results when a meteoroid burns up in Earth's atmosphere