Space Vocabulary

Question 1

Orbit

Answer 1

The path of an object in space as it moves around another object due to gravity

Question 2

Solar System

Answer 2

The sun and its family of orbiting planets and moons and other objects

Question 3

Galaxy

Answer 3

Millions or billions of stars held together by their own gravity

Question 4

Universe

Answer 4

Space and all the matter and everything in it

Question 5

Satellite

Answer 5

An object that orbits a more massive object

Question 6

Impact Crater

Answer 6

a round pit left behind the surface of a planet or other body in space after a smaller object strikes the surface

Question 7

Axis of rotation

Answer 7

An imaginary line about which a object rotates

Question 8

Revolution

Answer 8

the orbiting of an object around another object

Question 9

Season

Answer 9

a period of the year determined by the position of Earth as it revolves around

Question 10

Equinox

Answer 10

In an orbit, a position and time in which sunlight shines equally on the Northern and Southern Hemisphere

Question 11

Solstice

Answer 11

In and orbit a position and time during which one hemisphere receives it maximum area of sunlight while the other hemisphere receives it minimum amount. The time of year when the days are both longest or shortest

Question 12

Mare

Answer 12

A large dark plain of solidified lava on the moon

Question 13

Eclipse

Answer 13

An event during which one object in some casts a shadow onto another

Question 14

Umbra

Answer 14

The dark central region of a shadow such as the cone of complete shadow cast by an object

Question 15

Penumbra

Answer 15

A region of lighter shadow that may surround a dark central region. The spreading cone of lighter shadow cast by an object.

Question 16

Astronomical Unit (AU)

Answer 16

Average distance from the sun which is approximately 93,000,000 miles or 150 million kilometers

Question 17

Ellipse

Answer 17

An oval or flattened circle

Question 18

Terrestrial Planets

Answer 18

a planet that has rocky surfaces

Question 19

Gas Giant

Answer 19

A large planet that consists mostly of gases in a dense form

Question 20

Asteroid

Answer 20

a small solid rocky body that orbits the sun

Question 21

Comet

Answer 21

A body that produces a coma of gas and dust, a small icy body that orbits the sun

Question 22

Meteor

Answer 22

A brief streak of light produced by a particle entering Earths atmosphere at high speed

Question 23

Geocentric

Answer 23

Earth centered theory of the solar system

Question 24

Heliocentric

Answer 24

A sun centered theory of the solar system

Question 25

Gravity

Answer 25

The force that objects except on one another because of their mass

Question 26

Tide

Answer 26

the rise and fall of the ocean’s levels caused by the gravitational pull of the moon

Question 27

Waxing

Answer 27

The gradual increase of the illuminated surface of the moon

Question 28

Waning

Answer 28

(of the moon) have a progressively smaller part of its visible surface illuminated, so that it appears to decrease in size.

Question 29

Gibbous Moon

Answer 29

Any moon that appears more than half lighted but less than full is called a gibbous moon

Question 30

Crescent moon

Answer 30

A crescent is a thin, curved shape that’s thicker in the middle and tapers to thin points at each end, like the little sliver of moon you might notice in the sky.

Question 31

Full moon

Answer 31

the phase of the moon in which its whole disk is illuminated.

Question 32

New moon

Answer 32

the phase of the moon when it is in conjunction with the sun and invisible from earth, or shortly thereafter when it appears as a slender crescent.

Question 33

Quarter moon

Answer 33

The moon is one-half illuminated by the sun. Occurs when the moon’s illumination is decreasing, Waning Crescent. The moon is less than one-half illuminated by the sun but less than one quarter illuminated.

Question 34

Meteorite

Answer 34

A small object from outer space that passes through earths atmosphere and reaches the surface