There are so many astronomical objects out there behaving in mysterious ways that astronomers are still trying to figure out. A brand new set of words and language has to be invented every time something is discovered and that is part of what makes the study of space so interesting. There’s so much out there that is waiting to be found.
The use of mythological and ancient names to name all the objects that are in space has also always given astronomy an air of mystery and wonder that attracts all kinds of people and incentivizes them to look at the sky every night.
There are so many space-related words and terms that it is hard to keep up.
This is why below, we have compiled a list of space words that start with B so you can learn more about the study of the universe. These are words that are related to astronomy and space, if what you are looking for is specifically for name ideas or the names of objects, check out our lists of star names, planets, or constellations. You will also find those sorted by letter.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Background Radiation | Low-level radiation present throughout the universe, a remnant of the Big Bang. |
| Barlow Lens | Telescope accessory used to increase magnification for planetary observations. |
| Barnard’s Star | Nearby red dwarf star, one of the closest stars to the Sun. |
| Barred Spiral Galaxy | Spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure. |
| Barycenter | Center of mass around which two or more celestial bodies orbit. |
| Baryon | Type of subatomic particle made up of three quarks, including protons and neutrons. |
| Basalt | Dark, fine-grained volcanic rock commonly found on the Moon’s surface. |
| Belt (Asteroid Belt) | Region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter containing numerous asteroids. |
| Beta Centauri | Bright star in the Centaurus constellation, also known as Agena. |
| Betelgeuse | A red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, one of the brightest stars visible from Earth. |
| Big Bang Theory | Cosmological model explaining the universe’s origin as a rapid expansion from a singularity. |
| Big Crunch | Hypothetical scenario in which the universe contracts and collapses back into a singularity. |
| Big Dipper | Prominent group of stars in the Ursa Major constellation, often used for navigation. |
| Binary Asteroid | System of two asteroids orbiting around a common center of mass. |
| Binary Star | System of two stars orbiting around a common center of mass. |
| Binary System | Two celestial objects that orbit around a common center of mass, such as a binary star system. |
| Black Hole | Extremely dense region in space with gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. |
| Blackbody Radiation | Idealized type of radiation emitted by an object that absorbs all incident radiation. |
| Blackbody Spectrum | Graph of the intensity of radiation emitted by a black body at different wavelengths. |
| Blue Giant | Very massive and luminous star with a blue-white color due to high temperature. |
| Blue Moon | Occurs when two full moons appear within a single calendar month. |
| Blue Shift | Phenomenon where light from an object appears shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum due to relative motion. |
| Bok Globule | Dark, dense cloud of gas and dust in space that may be a site of star formation. |
| Bolide | Bright meteor that explodes in the Earth’s atmosphere. |
| Bond Albedo | Measure of a planet’s reflectivity, indicating the fraction of sunlight it reflects. |
| Bow Shock | Shockwave formed by the interaction between a celestial body and the surrounding interstellar medium. |
| Brightness | Measure of how much light a celestial body emits or reflects. |
| Broadband Filter | Optical filter used to transmit a wide range of wavelengths, often in imaging systems. |
| Brown Dwarf | Substellar object too small to sustain nuclear fusion, not massive enough to be a star. |
| Bubble Nebula | Emission nebula in the Cassiopeia constellation, shaped like a bubble blown by a cosmic wind. |
| Bulge (Galactic Bulge) | Dense, central region of a spiral galaxy, often containing older stars. |
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