Chapter 1 Exploring Space Vocabulary

a group of stars that form a pattern in the sky constellation

a craft designed to land on a planet’s surface lander

energy that travels across distances in the form of waves electromagnetic radiation

a spacecraft that is sent into a planet’s atmosphere probe

a round pit left behind on the surface of a planet or other body in space after a smaller object strikes the surface and explodes impact crater

the range of colors that appears in a beam of visible light when it passes through a prism spectrum

a satellite in which people can live and work for long periods space station

space and all the matter and energy in it universe

millions or billions of stars held together in a group by their own gravity galaxy

an object that orbits a more massive object satellite

the Sun, planets, and various smaller bodies solar system

a device that gathers electromagnetic radiation telescope

the path of an object in space as it moves around another object due to gravity or to revolve around or move in an orbit orbit

the distance between one wave peak and the next wave peak wavelength