| Word |
Meaning |
| TEFLON |
A material used to coat cooking utensils and in industrial
applications where sticking is to be avoided |
| PARSEC |
A unit of astronomical length based on
the distance from Earth at which stellar parallax is one second
of arc and equal to 3.258 light-years, 3.086 × 1013 kilometers,
or 1.918 × 1013 miles |
| QUASAR |
An extremely distant, and thus old, celestial object whose
power output is several thousand times that of our entire galaxy |
| COSMOS |
The universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole |
| NEBULA |
A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible
as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way
the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation |
| CLUSTER |
A group of the same or similar elements gathered or occurring
closely together |
| ECLIPSE |
The partial or complete obscuring, relative to a designated
observer, of one celestial body by another |
| QUARK |
A subatomic particle |
| PULSAR |
Any of several celestial radio sources emitting short intense
bursts of radio waves, x-rays, or visible electromagnetic radiation
at regular intervals,
generally believed to be rotating neutron stars |
| METEOR |
A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid
is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere |
