Asteroid  Chunks of space rock that orbit the Sun, mostly between Mars and Jupiter

Comet  A small body of ice, rock, and cosmic dust  Example: Halley’s Comet  There are thousands of these in the solar system.

Galaxy  A huge collection of millions or billions of stars.  Example:  The Milky Way Galaxy & the Andromeda Galaxy

Meteor  Dust and rock fragments from space that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up (shooting stars)

Star  A large ball of gas and plasma that produces light  Example: The Sun & Polaris (the North Star)

Planet  A large, spherical object orbiting a star that dominates its orbit.  Example: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Satellite  Anything that orbits a planet, such as a moon or a man-made object (like the hubble telescope)

Solar system  The sun and all the other objects that orbit around it; planets, asteroids, comets, moons…

Star and the Sun  A gigantic spinnin ball of hot, glowing gas in space  Sun: the star at the center of our solar system!

Universe  The vast space which includes EVERYTHING that exists!

Black Hole  An object whose surface gravity is so great that waves traveling at the speed of light cannot escape from it.  m/watch?v=eI9CvipHl_ c

Nebula  A huge cloud of gas and dust in space  Example: These are either remnants or dead stars or birthplace of new stars

Dwarf Planet  A Large, spherical object orbiting a star that does not dominate its orbit.  Example: Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Make Make Haumea