Download Celestial Objects Picture Vocabulary

Celestial Objects
Picture Vocabulary
Earth and Space
Celestial Objects
Objects such as planets, moons, and stars that
are located in the sky or in space.
System
Courtesy of NASA
A group of interacting or interdependent parts
forming a complex whole; for example, all the factors
or variables in an environment, or all the planetary
bodies revolving around a star.
Solar System
The Sun together with the group of planets and
other celestial bodies that are held by its
gravitational attraction and revolve around it.
Gravity
The force that causes objects with mass to
attract one another.
Orbital Path
The gravitationally-curved path of an object
around a point in space.
Sun
The luminous celestial body around which
Earth and other planets revolve and from which
they receive heat and light.
Star
A ball of gas in space that
produces its own light and heat.
Planet
Any of the large celestial bodies that
revolve around the Sun in the solar system
Inner Planet
Any of the rocky, terrestrial planets of
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars,
whose orbits are inside the asteroid belt.
Rocky
Made of rocks.
Terrestrial
Planet Venus
Earth-like.
Outer Planet
Any of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune, whose orbits lie beyond the asteroid belt.
Asteroids
Large and small rocks or metallic masses
orbiting the Sun; made up of materials similar to
those that formed the planets.
Asteroid Belt
The region between the inner and outer planets
where most asteroids orbit around the Sun.
Meteoroid
A natural chunk of rock or dust existing
outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor
A small object that enters Earth's atmosphere from
space and burns due to friction, emitting light.
Meteorites
Remains of meteoroids that strike
the surface of Earth or the Moon.
Satellite
Something that orbits around another object; for
example, a moon orbiting a planet or a
human-made object orbiting Earth.
Moon
A celestial body that revolves around a planet.
Galilean Moons
The four largest and brightest moons of
Jupiter, which were discovered by Galileo Galilei:
Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa.
Comet
A celestial body of ice, dust, and rock
with an elongated and elliptical orbit.
Coma
Glowing, heated dust and vaporized gas that surrounds
the icy comet nucleus as it travels near the Sun; solar
winds cause heated gases to stream out of the nucleus,
forming a tail, which points away from the Sun.