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Glossary Explore Some Big

Questions about
Earth and Space!
A-F (#A) G-M (#G) N-R (#N) S-Z (#S)
() ()

Asteroid: Rocks floating around in space. Some are the size of a

pick-up truck. Others are hundreds of miles across.

Atmosphere: The gases held by gravity around Earth and around

other planets. "Atmosphere" can also be used to talk about gases
around stars. What is the Big Bang? (/big-
bang)

Atom: The basic building block of

matter. It is made of protons, neutrons,
and electrons. There are many
different kinds of atoms. For example,
the simplest atom with one proton and
one electron is a hydrogen atom. An
atom with six protons, six neutrons,
and six electrons is a carbon atom.

Aurora australis: Bright glows and bands of light that appear in

the skies at night near the South Pole. They are also called the
Where does the sun
southern lights.
get its energy? (/sun-heat)

Aurora borealis: Bright glows and bands of light that appear in

the skies at night near the North Pole. They are also called the
northern lights.

Black hole: A place in space where matter and light cannot

escape if they fall in.
Comet: An icy rock that lets off gas and dust, which may form
tails when it is flying close to a sun.

Constellation: A group of stars in the sky. They're often named

after an animal, object, or person. The stars form certain patterns
based on where you are. We have one view of stars here on
Earth, but from another solar system or galaxy, the constellations
would look different.

Corona: The outer atmosphere of a star.

What causes
the seasons? (/seasons)

Cosmos: The universe seen as an orderly, harmonious whole.

Crater: A large, bowl-shaped

dent in the ground. They can
be caused by an explosion or
the impact of a meteorite.
What is a planet? (/planet-
what-is)
Dwarf planet: Objects that are round and orbit the sun, just like
planets do. But unlike planets, dwarf planets are not able to clear
their path around the sun. That means there are other objects
orbiting at roughly the same distance from the sun. A dwarf
planet is much smaller than a planet (smaller even than Earth's
moon), but it is not a moon. Pluto is the best known of the dwarf
planets.
()

El Niño: A weather condition that sometimes occurs in the

Pacific Ocean. It is so big that it affects weather all over the
world. It starts with unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean
near the equator.
()

Electromagnetic Spectrum: The name for all the different kinds

of light and energy in the universe. This includes radio waves
(#radio), microwaves (#micro), infrared radiation (#infra), visible
light (#vis), ultraviolet light (#UV), X-rays (#x), and gamma rays
(#gamma).
Equator: The circle around a planet or moon that is the same
distance from its north pole and its south pole.

Exoplanet: A planet that freely floats between stars or one that

orbits a star outside our solar system.
()

Galaxy: A collection of thousands to

billions of stars held together by
gravity. The galaxy we live in is called
the Milky Way.
()

Gamma rays: Part of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec),

also called gamma radiation. These waves have lots of energy.
They come from big events like solar flares and exploding stars.

Gas: A loose collection of atoms moving around each other.

GPS: This stands for Global Positioning

System. It’s a system that uses satellites,
ground stations, and receivers to tell you
exactly where you are on Earth.

Gravity: A force that pulls matter together.

Greenhouse gas: Gases in the atmosphere that trap heat from

the sun. Some greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane,
water vapor, and nitrous oxide.
()

Infrared: Part of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec) that

we cannot see with our eyes but can feel as heat. It is made of
waves released by hot objects, such as stars. We call it infrared
because these waves are just a little longer than the wavelengths
of red light we can see.
Kuiper Belt: A donut-shaped ring of icy objects beyond the orbit
of Neptune. Pluto is the best known of these icy worlds.

La Niña: The opposite of El Niño (#nino). La Niña happens

because of unusually cold sea surface temperatures across the
east-central Equatorial Pacific. During a La Niña year, winter
temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and
cooler than normal in the Northwest United States.

Light year: It’s not a year, or an amount of time at all. It’s the
distance light travels in one year. It’s the same as
5,878,499,810,000 miles (or 9,460,538,400,000,000 meters).
When things are very far away, it’s easier to talk about their
distance in light years than millions or billions or trillions of
miles.

Magnetic field: The space around a magnet where the magnetic

force is active. Earth has a magnetic field and its extension into
space helps protect us from space weather (#spaceweather).
()

Mass: The amount of matter something is made of.

()

Matter: The stuff that everything is made of. Atoms are a tiny bit
of matter. Big planets have lots of matter. Even you are made of
matter!

Meteor: The streak of light caused when a meteoroid enters a

planet’s atmosphere and starts to burn from the heat of friction.

Meteorite: A meteoroid that lands on the surface of a planet.

Meteoroid: A little chunk of rock in space

smaller than a pick up truck. If it were
bigger, it would be an asteroid (#ast).
()
Microwaves: Part of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).
These waves of energy are made by stars, the clouds of gas
between stars, and supernovae. There is also something called
“cosmic microwave background radiation.” It’s all over the
universe, and scientists study it to learn how the universe began.

Molecule: The smallest unit of a

substance that still acts like the main
substance. A molecule can be a single
atom or a group of atoms. Water is a
substance, and one molecule of water is
made of two hydrogen atoms and one
oxygen atom, which we write as H2O. That
molecule of water still has the same properties as a glass of
water. But if you split it into hydrogen and oxygen, it’s not water
any more.

Moon: A natural object that travels around a bigger natural

object. Planets can have moons. Dwarf planets can have moons.
Even some asteroids have moons! Astronomers usually call
them satellites or natural satellites.
()

Nebula: A cloud of dust or gas found between stars.

Neutron star: A very dense star made mostly of neutrons. It has

very powerful gravitational force nearby because the whole mass
of a star is pulled into one object just a few miles across.
()

Oort Cloud: A spherical shell around our solar system. It may

contain more than a trillion icy bodies. Long-period comets
(which take more than 200 years to orbit the sun) come from the
Oort Cloud.

Orbit: The curved path that a planet, satellite,

or spacecraft moves as it circles around
another object.
Ozone layer: A part of Earth’s atmosphere that absorbs lots of
the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It is made of a gas called ozone,
which is a molecule of three oxygen atoms.

Particle: A tiny amount or small piece of something.

Planet: A large body in outer space that circles around the sun or
another star.

Pulsar: An object, thought to be a rapidly rotating neutron star. It

releases short pulses of radio waves and other electromagnetic
radiation.

Quasar: Compact area in the center of a massive galaxy that is

around a supermassive black hole. They are some of the
brightest objects in the universe and can be observed across the
entire electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).

Radiation: The energy or particles released

from sources like radioactive materials,
explosions, and chemical reactions. This
includes energy waves on the
electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).

()

Radio waves: Part of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).

Radio waves are around us here on Earth, and they’re out in
space too. These waves are low energy. We use them every time
we listen to the radio. They’re used to talk to satellites, too. They
are also common in outer space, since they are sent out by
forming stars, pulsars, supernovae, the sun, and even colliding
galaxies.

Radioactive: How we describe some atoms that are unstable.

They change into different kinds of atoms and release lots of
energy.
()
Satellite: An object that orbits another object. A moon is actually
a satellite. We also say satellite to refer to spacecraft people
build that orbit Earth, other planets, moons, asteroids, or other
objects out in space.

Solar flare: A burst of energy and particles from the sun. It

releases gases, radiation waves, and magnetic storms.

Solar Panel: A piece of material that can capture sunlight and

turn it into electricity.

Solar system: A set that includes a star and all of the matter that
orbits it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other
objects.

Solar wind: The constant stream of particles and energy emitted

by the sun.
()

Space weather: The conditions in space that can affect Earth,

satellites, and space travel. Space weather is mostly the result of
solar wind and solar storms.

Spacecraft: A vehicle used for traveling in

space.

Speed of Light: Light is the fastest thing in the universe. It travels

186,282 miles (299,792,458 meters) every second.

Star: A ball of shining gas, made mostly of hydrogen and helium,

held together by its own gravity. Turning hydrogen into helium
creates the energy that makes stars shine.

Sun: The star in the center of our solar

system.
Supermassive: How we describe objects that
have a million times (or more!) mass (#mass)
than our sun.

Supernova: The explosion of a star that

makes it as bright as a whole galaxy.

Tectonics: Big movements of Earth’s crust. Tectonics creates

mountain ranges, deep sea trenches, volcanoes, and
earthquakes that can cause destructive tsunami waves that can
cross oceans.
()

Ultraviolet: Part of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).

It’s called ultraviolet because the waves are shorter than violet
light. We can’t see ultraviolet light with our eyes, but some birds
and insects can. Our sun emits ultraviolet radiation, and it can
give you a sunburn if you’re outside without sunblock for too
long.

Universe: All of space and time,

and everything in it. It’s
everything ever!

Vacuum: An empty space that

doesn't have any matter
(#matter).

Volcano: A mountain or hill that has an

opening where lava, rock fragments, or gas
erupt from deep inside a planet or moon.
()

Visible light: The part of the electromagnetic spectrum

(#elecspec) that we can see with our eyes. It’s all the colors of
the rainbow.

Wave: A way energy moves from one place to another.

Sometimes waves move materials the way water ripples in a
pond move the water. Other times, waves don’t move anything
 around when they transfer energy. For example, X-rays and other
waves on the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec) don’t make
any ripples when they move energy from place to place. We
classify waves based on how long their wavelengths are. A
wavelength is the distance from peak to peak (or valley to valley)
of the wave.
()

X-Rays: Radiation with lots of energy made by very hot gases,

stars, neutron stars, and gas around black holes. X-rays have so
much energy they can pass though solid materials. They are part
of the electromagnetic spectrum (#elecspec).

article last updated April 24, 2018

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