Planets
This is the largest planet in our solar system.
What is Jupiter?
This is the star at the center of our solar system.
What is the Sun?
The Moon affects the Earth's oceans by creating these.
What are the tides?
The Māori name for the Pleiades star cluster, marking the Māori New Year.
What is Matariki?
This is the only planet in our solar system known to support life.
What is Earth?
This planet was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" in 2006.
What is Pluto?
A group of stars that form a pattern is called this.
What is a constellation?
When the Moon blocks sunlight from reaching the Earth, it's called this.
What is a solar eclipse?
Māori used the stars primarily for this purpose when traveling.
What is navigation?
These are the four planets with solid, rocky surfaces.
What are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars?
This planet has the most moons in the solar system.
What is Saturn?
The galaxy we live in.
What is the Milky Way?
When the Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the Moon, it's called this.
What is a lunar eclipse?
This is the Māori name for the month of May.
What is Haratua?
These are the four gas giants in our solar system.
What are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune?
This is the only planet (besides Earth) where scientists believe liquid water once existed on the surface for a long time.
What is Mars?
This term describes a huge explosion that happens at the end of a star’s life.
What is a supernova?
This is the term for when the Moon appears to be getting smaller.
What is waning?
This is a traditional Māori calendar based on lunar phases.
What is the maramataka?
This planet is closest in size and mass to Earth and is often called its “twin.”
What is Venus?
This planet rotates so slowly that one of its days is longer than its year.
What is Venus?
This is the name of a black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
What is Sagittarius A?
The Moon's surface is covered with these due to impacts from space rocks.
What are craters?
This star, often seen just before sunrise, is associated with well-being in Matariki.
What is Tupuānuku?
This planet spins the fastest, completing a full rotation in just under 10 hours.
What is Jupiter?