Space Jam
A phenomenon that occurs when the Earth passes into the shadow of the Moon.
What is a solar eclipse?
A small particle of rock or dust that burns away in the Earth's atmosphere. Also called a shooting star.
What is a meteor
A very small, white star formed when an average sized star uses up its fuel supply and collapses.
What is a White Dwarf?
A concentration of mass so dense that nothing — not even light — can escape its gravitational pull once swallowed up.
Black Hole
Also known as the northern lights, this is an atmospheric phenomenon that displays a diffuse glow in the sky in the northern hemisphere.
Aurora Borealis
a cataclysmic explosion caused when a star exhausts its fuel and ends its life and the most powerful forces in the universe.
What is a Supernova?
All existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.
What is the Universe?
What is a red dwarf?
When an object moves in the reverse sense of “normal” motion. For example, most bodies in the solar system revolve around the Sun and rotate counterclockwise as seen from above (north of) Earth’s orbit; those that orbit or spin clockwise have "this" motion.
Retrograde
The theory that suggests that the universe was formed from a single point in space during a cataclysmic explosion about 13.7 billion years ago.
Big Bang
A small planetary body in orbit around the Sun, larger than a meteoroid but smaller than a planet.
What is an asteroid?
An astronomical unit of measure equal to the distance light travels in a year, approximately 5.8 trillion miles.
What is a light year?
A stage in the evolution of a star when the fuel begins to exhaust and the star expands to about fifty times its normal size.
What is a red giant?
A group of people who get together to view the night sky.
Star Party
A term used to describe matter in the universe that cannot be seen, but can be detected by its gravitational effects on other bodies.
Dark Matter
A bright eruption of hot gas in the Sun's photosphere. Solar prominences are usually only detectable by specialized instruments but can be visible during a total solar eclipse.
Solar Flare
A phenomenon that occurs when the Earth passes into the shadow of the Moon.
Solar Eclipse
The path of a celestial body as it moves through space.
Orbit
A compressed core of an exploded star made up almost entirely of neutrons.
Neutron Star
A faint red star that appears to change in brightness due to explosions on its surface.
Flare Star