astronomer: A scientist who works in the field of research that deals with celestial objects, space and the physical universe.
astrophysicist: A scientist who works in an area of astronomy that deals with understanding the physical nature of stars and other objects in space.
colleague: Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.
computer model: A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event.
cosmic: An adjective that refers to the cosmos — the universe and everything within it.
debris: Scattered fragments, typically of trash or of something that has been destroyed. Space debris, for instance, includes the wreckage of defunct satellites and spacecraft.
exoplanet: Short for extrasolar planet, it’s a planet that orbits a star outside our solar system.
infrared: A type of electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye. The name incorporates a Latin term and means “below red.” Infrared light has wavelengths longer than those visible to humans. Other invisible wavelengths include X-rays, radio waves and microwaves. Infrared light tends to record the heat signature of an object or environment.
light-year: The distance light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers (almost 6 trillion miles). To get some idea of this length, imagine a rope long enough to wrap around the Earth. It would be a little over 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) long. Lay it out straight. Now lay another 236 million more that are the same length, end-to-end, right after the first. The total distance they now span would equal one light-year.
New World: An adjective referring to all of the Western Hemisphere, meaning the Americas, In biology, the term is applied to five families of small- to medium-size tree-dwelling monkeys (mostly in South America). The term distinguishes these primates from those that evolved solely in Asia and Africa.
observatory: (in astronomy) The building or structure (such as a satellite) that houses one or more telescopes. Or it can be a system of structures that make up a telescope complex.
orbit: The curved path of a celestial object or spacecraft around a galaxy, star, planet or moon. One complete circuit around a celestial body.
planet: A large celestial object that orbits a star but unlike a star does not generate any visible light.
remnant: Something that is leftover — from another piece of something, from another time or even some features from an earlier species.
social media: Digital media that allow people to connect with each other (often anonymously) and to share information. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp.
star: The basic building block from which galaxies are made. Stars develop when gravity compacts clouds of gas. When they become hot enough, stars will emit light and sometimes other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The sun is our closest star.
survey: To view, examine, measure or evaluate something, often land or broad aspects of a landscape.
telescope: Usually a light-collecting instrument that makes distant objects appear nearer through the use of lenses or a combination of curved mirrors and lenses. Some, however, collect radio emissions (energy from a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum) through a network of antennas.
Twitter: The old name for an online social network that allows users to post messages containing no more than 280 characters. (Until November 2017, the limit had been just 140 characters.) Elon Musk, who bought the site in 2022, changed its name to X in mid-2023.
vaporize: To convert from a liquid to a gas (or vapor) through the application of heat.
visible light: A type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths that range between 380 nanometers (violet) and 740 nanometers (red). Visible light has wavelengths that are shorter than infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves but longer than ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays.