Tools
An instrument that gathers electromagnetic radiation to magnify distant objects and make them appear closer and brighter.
What is a telescope?
Formulated the heliocentric model, which correctly placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the solar system.
Who is Nicolaus Copernicus?
The name of the habitat in which the astronauts operated for the entirety of their time in space.
What is the Orion spacecraft?
Categorized by Edwin Hubble’s "Tuning Fork" diagram, this type of galaxy, like our own Milky Way, features a central bulge and curving arms of gas and dust.
What is a spiral galaxy?
This term describes the Moon during the period when its illuminated portion is increasing, leading up to a Full Moon.
What is waxing?
An ancient device that tells the time of day by the position of a shadow cast by the sun onto a flat surface marked with hours.
What is a sundial?
Often called the "Father of Observational Astronomy," he was the first to use a telescope to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus.
Who is Galileo Galilei?
This number of crew members participated in the mission.
Located about 2.5 million light-years away, this "neighbor" is the closest large spiral galaxy to Earth and is currently on a collision course with the Milky Way.
What is the Andromeda Galaxy?
During this phase, the Moon is positioned between the Earth and the Sun, making it invisible to the naked eye from Earth.
What is a new moon?
An instrument that separates light from a celestial source into its component wavelengths, a spectrum.
What is a spectrograph?
Discovered the three laws of planetary motion, proving that planets move in ellipses (ovals) rather than perfect circles.
Who is Johannes Kepler?
Unlike Apollo, Artemis II will use this specific flight path, which uses the Moon’s gravity as a "slingshot" to pull the crew back to Earth without a major engine burn.
What is a Free-Return Trajectory?
This invisible substance is estimated to make up about 85% of the matter in galaxies, providing the gravitational "glue" that prevents them from flying apart.
What is dark matter?
Despite its name, the Moon looks like a "half-circle" during this phase, occurring when it has completed 25% of its orbit.
What is the first quarter?
An ancient, elaborate inclinometer used to calculate the position of stars, planets, and the sun.
What is an astrolabe?
Proved that other galaxies exist outside of our Milky Way and discovered that the universe is expanding.
Who is Edwin Hubble?
This man will be the only crew member that is not an American astronaut.
Who is Jeremy Hanson?
These extremely bright and distant objects are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, consuming matter and emitting massive amounts of energy.
What are quasars?
From the Latin word for "humpbacked," this term describes the Moon when it is more than half illuminated but not yet full.
What is gibbous?
An instrument that measures the intensity and color of light from a celestial body.
What is a photometer?
Discovered the relationship between the period and brightness of Cepheid variable stars, which act as "standard candles" for measuring cosmic distances.
Who is Henrietta Swan Leavitt?
Upon its successful launch, this vehicle will officially hold the title of the most powerful rocket ever flown to orbit, surpassing the record held by the Saturn V.
What is the Space Launch System?
These massive structures, often containing hundreds or thousands of individual galaxies bound by gravity, are the largest known organized structures in the universe.
What are galaxy clusters?
A total solar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is in this specific phase.
What is a new moon?