Junior Scholars (Ages 9-12): The Solar System Trivia Word Search

Our Sun is one of billions of stars in a huge, spiral-shaped _ _ _ _ _ _ called the Milky Way.

One complete spin of a planet on its axis is what causes day and night to happen there.

Saturn isn't alone; Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have these too, just much fainter ones.

Every so often, the Sun lets out a sudden, powerful burst of energy called one of these.

This is simply the Russian word used for an astronaut.

Earth's tilted axis is the reason our planet experiences four very different times of year.

This is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, almost big enough to be its own dwarf planet.

This was the name of the NASA program that first landed astronauts on the Moon back in 1969.

This American space agency sent astronauts to the Moon during the historic Apollo missions.

This small moon of Jupiter is the most volcanically active place in the whole solar system.

A planet spins around and around on this invisible, imaginary line running through its middle.

A giant, swirling weather system on Jupiter is so huge that three whole Earths could fit inside it.

This planet is unusual because it spins on its side instead of standing up straight.

A giant, colorful cloud of gas and dust in space, where brand-new stars are often born, is called this.

This is a giant, glowing ball of hot gas that makes its own light and heat, just like our Sun.

Our solar system belongs to a huge, spiral-shaped galaxy nicknamed the Milky _ _ _.

During a total solar eclipse, you can briefly see the Sun's glowing outer edge, called this.

The largest moon of Uranus shares its name with a fairy queen from a Shakespeare play.

This car-sized NASA rover has been exploring the surface of Mars ever since it landed in 2012.

One of Saturn's moons looks a bit like a famous fictional space station, because of one giant crater.

This astronaut orbited the Moon alone in the command module while his two crewmates walked on its surface.

This planet is famous for its wide, beautiful rings made of ice and rock.

This is a place in space where gravity is so incredibly strong that not even light can escape it.

Scientists measure huge distances in space using this unit, the distance light travels in one year.

Earth makes one full spin on its axis every twenty-four hours, giving us both day and _ _ _ _ _.

This is the biggest planet in our solar system; about a thousand Earths could fit inside it.

The Moon's gravity tugs on Earth's oceans, causing the regular rise and fall known as these.

Named after a creation god, this dwarf planet orbits far out in the icy Kuiper Belt.

One of Mars's two tiny moons has a name that comes from an ancient Greek word for fear.

Any smaller object that circles around a bigger one in space, like a moon around a planet, is called this.

Astronauts live and work for months at a time aboard the International Space _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

After hydrogen, this is the second most common gas found inside the Sun and the giant gas planets.

Because there is so little gravity inside a spacecraft, objects and astronauts tend to _ _ _ _ _ around.

Far past Pluto, a huge, icy shell surrounds our whole solar system, known as the _ _ _ _ Cloud.

As the Moon circles Earth, it seems to change shape in our sky; these changing shapes are called this.

One of Uranus's moons is named after the king of the fairies in a Shakespeare play.

Scientists and astronomers use this special tool to see faraway planets, stars, and galaxies up close.

This is the curved path a planet follows as it travels endlessly around the Sun.

This is the smallest planet in our solar system and also the closest one to the Sun.

Saturn's beautiful rings are made mostly out of countless tiny pieces of ice and _ _ _ _.

This distant dwarf planet is nearly as big as Pluto, and its discovery sparked a big debate.

This dwarf planet is the largest object found inside the asteroid belt.

This moon of Jupiter is the largest moon in the entire solar system, even bigger than Mercury.

Saturn's largest moon has a thick, hazy atmosphere, unlike most other moons.

This NASA spacecraft became the first human-made object ever to leave our solar system.

Scientists think an icy moon of Jupiter with this name may hide a hidden ocean underneath.

One of Uranus's icy moons shares its name with a spirit from Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Earth's magnetic field sometimes creates a colorful, glowing light show in the sky near the poles.

Neptune's largest moon is unusual because it orbits backward compared to Neptune's own spin.

A dark, slightly cooler patch that sometimes appears on the surface of the Sun is called this.

Mars's other small moon has a name that comes from an ancient Greek word for dread.

This is the name given to a person who is specially trained to travel and work in outer space.

Discovered in 1930, this is probably the most famous dwarf planet in our solar system.

A bowl-shaped dent left behind after a moon or planet gets struck by a space rock is called this.

'_ _ _ _ Armstrong' became the first person in history to walk on the surface of the Moon.

One of Saturn's moons is unusual because one side of it is bright and the other side is very dark.

This invisible force pulls objects toward one another and keeps the planets circling the Sun.

This famous space telescope has been snapping amazing pictures of the universe since 1990.

Beyond Neptune's orbit lies a ring of icy objects known as the _ _ _ _ _ _ Belt.

Earth has just one of these, and it is the biggest one of any rocky planet in our solar system.

This giant, glowing star sits at the center of our solar system and gives us light and heat.

A tiny piece of space rock that burns up and streaks across Earth's night sky makes one of these.

This icy moon of Saturn shoots tall geysers of water out from cracks near its south pole.

Iron dust covering its surface gives this planet its famous red color.

This is one of Saturn's larger icy moons, second in size only to Titan.

This heavily cratered moon is one of Jupiter's four largest moons.

Pluto's biggest moon is so large that the two of them actually orbit a point in space between them.

An imaginary line around a planet's middle that splits it into two halves is called this.

If a chunk of space rock survives its fiery trip through the sky and lands on the ground, it becomes one.

Even though it isn't closest to the Sun, this planet is the hottest one in our solar system.

This is the only planet we know of so far that has living things on it.

This robotic vehicle explores the surface of Mars, snapping photos and gathering rock samples.

One of Uranus's darker, dimmer moons was named after a mischievous spirit in an old poem.

Astronauts wear this special protective outfit to safely survive outside their spacecraft.

This happens when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth, briefly blocking out sunlight.

One of Neptune's smaller moons travels on a long, unusually stretched-out orbit.

This was the name of the first artificial satellite, launched into space by the Soviet Union in 1957.

This Soviet cosmonaut became the very first human being to travel into outer space, back in 1961.

This is the most common element found anywhere in the universe, and it makes up most of the Sun.

This dwarf planet spins so fast that it has been squashed into an odd, stretched, egg-like shape.