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The vocabulary of outer space

Word List with 14 words
By Dictionary.com

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Words in This List

moon

any object that revolves around a planet.

sun

the star that is in the center of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heat.

star

any of the large, self-luminous, bodies, as the sun, that are made of gas and glows brightly in the night.

planet

a natural object revolving about a star, such as the sun.

revolution

a turning round or rotating around another planet; going around in orbit. The Earth makes one around the sun in 364 days.

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light-year

the distance traversed by light in one solar year.

gravity

the force of attraction by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the center of the earth.

Earth

the planet third in order from the sun.

asteroid

any of the thousands of small bodies that revolve about the sun in orbits lying mostly between those of Mars and Jupiter.

meteoroid

any of the small bodies, often remnants of comets, traveling through space; when such a body enters the earth's atmosphere it is heated to luminosity and becomes a meteor.

constellation

any of various groups of stars to which definite names have been given, as Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Bo.

galaxy

a large system of stars held together by mutual gravitation and isolated from similar systems by vast regions of space.

comet

a body moving around the sun, usually in a highly eccentric orbit, consisting of a central mass surrounded by an envelope of dust and gas that may form a tail.

elliptical

a path similar to a circle, but that is longer than it is wide.