Space Word Search: 54 Words From the Sun to the Edge of the Universe
This space word search starts at home with the Sun, the Moon and all eight planets. Then it heads out past comets and nebulas to galaxies and black holes, and comes back with the rockets, rovers and astronauts that take us there. Each New Puzzle draws a fresh set from 54 words. Easy keeps every word reading across or down; Hard sends them off in all directions. You can also print a pack with an answer key.
📝 The Space Word List
Each puzzle uses 8, 12 or 18 of these, depending on the size.
- Our solar system: Sun, Moon, Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Dwarf Planet, Planet, Rings, Orbit, Lunar, Solar, Sunspot, Crater, Eclipse
- Deep space: Star, Comet, Asteroid, Meteor, Shooting Star, Galaxy, Milky Way, Nebula, Black Hole, Supernova, Constellation, Orion, Big Dipper, Light Year, Universe, Cosmos, Stardust, Gravity, Alien
- Getting there: Rocket, Astronaut, Satellite, Telescope, Space Station, Launch, Countdown, Liftoff, Spaceship, Capsule, Spacesuit, Helmet, Rover, Moonwalk, Mission Control
🪐 The Planets, in Order
Going out from the Sun, the eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A sentence like "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos" helps you remember the order. Pluto used to be the ninth planet. In 2006 astronomers decided it belongs with the smaller worlds and called it a dwarf planet.
Each one has its own claim to fame. Jupiter is the biggest, big enough to hold all the other planets with room to spare. Venus is the hottest, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, because its thick clouds trap the heat. Mars looks red because its dust is full of rusty iron, and robot rovers have been driving across it for more than twenty years. Saturn has the famous rings, but Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune have faint rings too. Uranus spins tipped over on its side.
🌠 Some Words Aren't What They Sound Like
- A shooting star is not a star. It is a meteor, a speck of space rock burning up as it falls through our air.
- A light year sounds like a time, but it is a distance: how far light travels in a year, nearly six trillion miles.
- The Big Dipper is not a constellation on its own. It is a pattern of seven bright stars inside a bigger one, the Great Bear. Orion is a real constellation, easy to spot by the three stars of his belt.
- The Sun is a star, an ordinary one, and its sunspots are patches that look dark only because they are a little cooler than the rest.
- A comet's tail always points away from the Sun, whichever way the comet is going.
👩🚀 People in Space
The first moonwalk was on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 stepped onto the Moon. Twelve people have walked there so far. Every launch starts with a countdown and liftoff, and Mission Control on the ground watches each step. Since November 2000, the International Space Station has always had people living on board, more than 25 years without a break.
📏 Which Words Fit Which Board
Two-word names are run together in the grid, so Mission Control becomes MISSIONCONTROL, 14 letters long.
| Size | Words that can appear | Left out |
|---|---|---|
| Small 9 × 9 | 49 of 54 | Constellation, Space Station, Dwarf Planet, Shooting Star, Mission Control |
| Medium 12 × 12 | 52 of 54 | Constellation, Mission Control |
| Large 15 × 15 | All 54 | Nothing |
Some short words hide inside longer ones, and a puzzle never uses both words of such a pair: Moon sits in Moonwalk, Star in Shooting Star and Stardust, and Planet in Dwarf Planet. Sun is the sneaky one. It sits in Sunspot, and read backward, N-U-S, it also sits at the end of Venus and Uranus. On Hard you could find it there, so Sun never shares a puzzle with either planet.
🔍 Tips for This List
Three words start with SPACE: Space Station, Spacesuit and Spaceship. When two of them share a board, finding S-P-A-C-E doesn't tell you which one you have, so check the end of the word as well. Rare letters do a lot of the work here. Jupiter has the only J, Galaxy the only X, and Mercury, Milky Way, Galaxy, Gravity and Light Year are the words with a Y. Doubles to scan for: mOOn, sateLLite, consteLLation, big diPPer, shOOting star, miSSion control and liftOFF. More tricks are in the main word search guide.
🔭 Ideas for Young Astronomers
- Line them up: once every planet on the board is found, write them in order from the Sun, then check with the sentence above.
- Star night: after a puzzle with Orion or the Big Dipper in it, go outside on a clear evening and find the real thing.
- Science week: print a pack for the class with the answer key at the back, and a name line on every sheet.
Happy stargazing! 🚀 Come back down to Earth with the weather word search, or travel back in time with the dinosaur word search.