Unit 4 vocab

5. system A gravitationally bound system consisting of a sun and the objects that orbit it.
8. Streaks of light in the sky produced by the burning of a meteoroid in Earth’s atmosphere.
9. A place that is empty of all matter.
11. Loose collection of ice, dust and small rocky particles, typically with a long, narrow orbit.
13. spinoff An item that has uses on Earth, but was originally developed for use in space.
14. A huge group of single stars, star systems, star clusters, dust, and gas bound together by gravity.
15. Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation.
16. belt A large region in the solar system past Neptune where Pluto and other dwarf planets orbit the Sun along with rocks, dust, and ice.

1. Shuttle Spacecraft that can carry a crew into space, return to Earth, and then be reused for the same purpose.
2. Rocky objects revolving around the sun that are too small and numerous to be considered planets.
3. All of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy.
4. An astronomical body that orbits a star, is big enough to have enough gravity to force a spherical shape, and is big enough that its gravity has cleared away any objects of a similar size near its orbit.
6. An attractive force between two masses by which a planet or other body draws objects toward its center. Asteroid belt A region in the solar system roughly located between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars that contains millions of irregularly shaped pieces of rock (called asteroids) as well as ice and dust.
7. Probe A spacecraft that has various scientific instruments that can collect data, including visual images, but has no human crew.
10. An object that revolves around another object in space.
12. Station A large artificial satellite on which people can live and work for long periods.