Taivaankappaleisiin

Taivaankappaleisiin is a Finnish term that translates to "celestial bodies" or "heavenly bodies." It refers to any natural object located outside of Earth's atmosphere. This broad category encompasses a vast array of astronomical entities.

Within this classification, one can find stars, which are massive, luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity. Our own Sun is an example of a star. Planets are large celestial bodies that orbit a star, are massive enough to be rounded by their own gravity, and have cleared the neighborhood around their orbit. Earth and Mars are planets. Smaller than planets are dwarf planets, which meet the first two criteria but have not cleared their orbital path of other debris. Pluto is a well-known dwarf planet.

Moons, also known as natural satellites, orbit planets or dwarf planets. Our Moon orbits Earth. Asteroids are rocky, airless worlds too small to be called planets, often found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Comets are icy, small bodies that, when passing close to the Sun, heat up and begin to release gases. Meteoroids are small rocky or metallic bodies in outer space, which become meteors when they enter Earth's atmosphere and meteorites if they survive the passage and land on the surface. Galaxies are vast systems of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter, bound together by gravity. The Milky Way is our galaxy.