Planets
This is the closest planet to the Sun.
What is Mercury?
The Moon does not make its own light. It shines because of this.
What is reflected sunlight?
This space laboratory orbits Earth and allows astronauts to live and work in space for months at a time.
What is the International Space Station (ISS)?
This powerful machine pushes hot gases downward to lift spacecraft into space.
What is a rocket?
This is the name of the galaxy that contains our solar system.
What is the Milky Way?
This planet is known as the “Red Planet” because of iron oxide (rust) on its surface.
What is Mars?
This is the name for the different shapes of the Moon we see from Earth.
What are moon phases?
This NASA program sent astronauts to the Moon between 1961 and 1972.
What is the Apollo program?
Astronauts wear this specially designed suit to survive in the vacuum of space.
What is a spacesuit?
A huge explosion at the end of a massive star’s life is called this.
What is a supernova?
This planet is the largest in our solar system and has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot.
What is Jupiter?
This was the first U.S. mission that landed humans on the Moon in 1969.
What is Apollo 11?
This robotic vehicle is currently exploring Mars and searching for signs of ancient life.
What is the Perseverance rover?
These objects orbit Earth and are used for communication, weather forecasting, and GPS.
What are satellites?
This icy object orbits the Sun and forms a glowing tail when it gets close to the Sun.
What is a comet?
These four planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars — are known by this term because they have solid, rocky surfaces.
What are terrestrial planets?
This term describes when Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon.
What is a lunar eclipse?
This telescope, launched in 2021, studies distant galaxies using infrared light.
What is the James Webb Space Telescope?
This type of telescope orbits Earth and takes detailed pictures of space without atmospheric distortion.
What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
This is a group of stars that are physically close together and formed from the same cloud of gas and dust.
What is a star cluster?
This planet rotates on its side at about a 98-degree tilt, making its seasons very unusual.
What is Uranus?
The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth at about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) per year because of this force between Earth and the Moon.
What is gravity?
This NASA spacecraft became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space in 2012.
What is Voyager 1?
This system uses a network of satellites to help determine exact locations on Earth.
What is GPS (Global Positioning System)?
This type of star is extremely dense and forms after a massive star explodes, sometimes spinning rapidly and emitting beams of radiation.
What is a neutron star?