Unit G - Exploring Space (Vocab)

Any object, natural or manufactured, that orbits another object

Any vehicle, piloted or unpiloted, designed to travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere

A device used to view or otherwise obtain information about distant objects

A scientist who studies objects and events beyond Earth’s atmosphere, such as the composition and movement of stars and planets

A “dirty snowball” of ice and dust that orbits the Sun; appear to have a fuzzy head and a long tail that streams away from the sun

An object that orbits a start and is larger than an asteroid and smaller than a star

A body of gas sufficiently compressed by its own gravity for nuclear fusion to take place. The nuclear fusion creates the light, heat and other radiation associated with stars

A group of billions of stars, planets, etc.

The Sun and all the objects, including Earth, that orbit the Sun

An irregularly shaped rocky object that orbits the Sun

A piece of rock from space that burns upon entering Earth’s atmosphere

A unit of measurement equal to the distance between Earth and the Sun, approximately 150,000,000 km

A nuclear reaction in which the nuclei of two smaller atoms combine to form a larger nucleus

A process in which the nuclei of atoms either split or combine, releasing a large amount of energy

The collection of information gathered at a distance

The pull on one object that results from the force of gravity acting between it and another object

The attractive force that occurs between two objects; Greater mass produces more gravitational attraction

The amount of matter in an object

The gravitational pull on a mass

A space mission in which people are aboard the spacecraft

A space mission in which people are not aboard the spacecraft

The study of objects and events beyond Earth’s atmosphere