Universe Vocabulary

1. A place in space where matter and light cannot escape if they fall in.
3. The part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can see with our eyes. It’s all the colors of the rainbow.
6. A force that pulls matter together.
9. The explosion of a star that makes it as bright as a whole galaxy.
12. An icy rock that lets off gas and dust, which may form tails when it is flying close to a sun.
13. An object that orbits another object.
15. A set that includes a star and all of the matter that orbits it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other objects.
18. A way energy moves from one place to another.
20. The name for all the different kinds of light and energy in the universe. This includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

2. It’s not a year, or an amount of time at all. It’s the distance light travels in one year.
4. A large body in outer space that circles around the sun or another star.
5. A very dense star made mostly of neutrons. It has very powerful gravitational force nearby because the whole mass of a star is pulled into one object just a few miles across.
6. A collection of thousands to billions of stars held together by gravity. The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way.
7. Rocks floating around in space. Some are the size of a pick-up truck. Others are hundreds of miles across.
8. A natural object that travels around a bigger natural object.
10. All of space and time, and everything in it. It’s everything ever!
11. The streak of light caused when a meteoroid enters a planet’s atmosphere and starts to burn from the heat of friction.
14. The amount of matter something is made of.
16. A ball of shining gas, made mostly of hydrogen and helium, held together by its own gravity.
17. The star in the center of our solar system.
19. A cloud of dust or gas found between stars.