Astronomy Terms
Astronomy terms are used to describe the various phenomena in space. In this section you can learn what every astronomy term means and how it helps us to better understand the cosmos.
There's a 45-million-ton asteroid out there with Earth's name on it. In 2029, it'll be closer to us than our moon is. And that's not even the fly-by that scientists are worried about.
A black hole occurs when a massive star dies -- its enormous mass implodes and becomes so heavy that it bends space. So how do astronomers detect something that they can't see?
How do scientists find details about the early days of our solar system? One way is to investigate comets. Find out how the Deep Impact spacecraft fired an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 to get some answers.
Every November, the Leonid meteor shower fills the sky with "shooting stars." This year, the shower is expected to peak twice. Learn how Leonid and other meteor showers work.
Eros is 21 miles long and 8 miles thick -- a mini planet! Explore the mission that landed on this asteroid after orbiting it for a year!
Comets are remarkable pieces of our universe's past, and they tell us a great deal about how the universe was formed. Learn about the long but rewarding process of discovering and analyzing comets.
When satellites go off to places like Jupiter or Saturn (or even out of the solar system), they follow crazy orbits. They will often loop around a planet to get a "gravity assist" or "gravity boost." How does that work? I know the Galileo probe looped around Earth twice to get a boost, and the Pioneer and Voyager probes used Jupiter.
Have you ever really thought about the scale of the universe? A good starting point is the teaspoon.
If you were to move all of the matter in the universe into one corner, how much space would it take up?
If you took all of the matter in the universe and you pushed it all into one corner, how much space would it take up? I am trying to understand how much of the universe is 'empty.'
A light year is a way of measuring distance. That doesn't make much sense because "light year" contains the word "year," which is normally a unit of time. Even so, light years measure distance.
