CELESTIAL OBJECTS DEFINITIONS

Asteroid

Chunks of space rock that orbit the Sun, mostly between Mars and Jupiter

Comet

A small body of ice, rock, and cosmic dust

Example: Halley’s Comet

There are thousands of these in the solar system.

Galaxy

A huge collection of millions or billions of stars.

Example:   The Milky Way

Galaxy & the Andromeda Galaxy

Meteor

Dust and rock fragments from space that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up (shooting stars)

Star

A large ball of gas and plasma that produces light

Example: The Sun & Polaris (the North Star)

Planet

A large, spherical object orbiting a star that dominates its orbit.

Example: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Satellite

Anything that orbits a planet, such as a moon or a man-made object (like the hubble telescope)

Solar system

The sun and all the other objects that orbit around it; planets, asteroids, comets, moons…

Star and the Sun

A gigantic spinnin ball of hot, glowing gas in space

Sun: the star at the center of our solar system!

Universe

The vast space which includes EVERYTHING that exists!

Black Hole

An object whose surface gravity is so great that waves traveling at the speed of light cannot escape from it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9CvipHl_c

Nebula

A huge cloud of gas and dust in space

Example: These are either remnants or dead stars or birthplace of new stars

Dwarf Planet

A Large, spherical object orbiting a star that does not dominate its orbit.

Example: Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Make Make Haumea

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU…