What does asteroid mean?

Definitions for asteroid
ˈæs təˌrɔɪdas·ter·oid

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word asteroid.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. asteroidadjective

    any of numerous small celestial bodies composed of rock and metal that move around the sun (mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter)

  2. asteroid, star-shapedadjective

    shaped like a star

Wiktionary

  1. asteroidnoun

    A naturally occurring solid object, which is smaller than a planet and is not a comet, that orbits a star

  2. asteroidnoun

    In the Solar system, such a body that orbits within the orbit of Jupiter

  3. asteroidnoun

    Any member of the taxonomic class Asteroidea; a starfish

  4. Etymology: From ἀστεροειδής, from ἀστήρ + εἶδος.

Wikipedia

  1. Asteroid

    An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. Of the roughly one million known asteroids the greatest number are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, approximately 2 to 4 AU from the Sun, in the main asteroid belt. Asteroids are generally classified to be of three types: C-type, M-type, and S-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbonaceous, metallic, and silicaceous compositions, respectively. The size of asteroids varies greatly; the largest, Ceres, is almost 1,000 km (600 mi) across and qualifies as a dwarf planet. The total mass of all the asteroids combined is only 3% that of Earth's Moon. The majority of main belt asteroids follow slightly elliptical, stable orbits, revolving in the same direction as the Earth and taking from three to six years to complete a full circuit of the Sun.Asteroids have been historically observed from Earth; the Galileo spacecraft provided the first close observation of an asteroid. Several dedicated missions to asteroids were subsequently launched by NASA and JAXA, with plans for other missions in progress. NASA's NEAR Shoemaker studied Eros, and Dawn observed Vesta and Ceres. JAXA's missions Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 studied and returned samples of Itokawa and Ryugu, respectively. OSIRIS-REx studied Bennu, collecting a sample in 2020 to be delivered back to Earth in 2023. NASA's Lucy, launched in 2021, will study ten different asteroids, two from the main belt and eight Jupiter trojans. Psyche, scheduled for launch in 2023, will study a metallic asteroid of the same name. Near-Earth asteroids can threaten all life on the planet; an asteroid impact event resulted in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction. Different asteroid deflection strategies have been proposed; the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, was launched in 2021 and intentionally impacted Dimorphos in September 2022, successfully altering its orbit by crashing into it.

ChatGPT

  1. asteroid

    An asteroid is a small, rocky celestial body that orbits the sun. They are similar to planets but much smaller in size. Most asteroids are found in the asteroid belt, a region of space located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They are made up of various types of rock and metals and are considered remnants from the early solar system.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Asteroidnoun

    a starlike body; esp. one of the numerous small planets whose orbits lie between those of Mars and Jupiter; -- called also planetoids and minor planets

  2. Etymology: [Gr. starlike, starry; 'asth`r star + e'i^dos form: cf. F. astrode. See Aster.]

Wikidata

  1. Asteroid

    Asteroids are minor planets that are not comets, especially those of the inner Solar System. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet, but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatile-based surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids. Thus the term asteroid has come increasingly to refer specifically to the small bodies of the inner Solar System out to the orbit of Jupiter. They are grouped with the outer bodies—centaurs, Neptune trojans, and trans-Neptunian objects—as minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles. In this article the term "asteroid" refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System. There are millions of asteroids, many thought to be the shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun's solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets. The large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter or co-orbital with Jupiter. However, other orbital families exist with significant populations, including the near-Earth asteroids. Individual asteroids are classified by their characteristic spectra, with the majority falling into three main groups: C-type, S-type, and M-type. These were named after and are generally identified with carbon-rich, stony, and metallic compositions, respectively.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Asteroid

    as′tėr-oid, n. one of the minor planetary bodies revolving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.—adj. Asteroid′al. [Gr. astēr, a star, eidos, form.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of asteroid in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of asteroid in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of asteroid in a Sentence

  1. Ian Miller:

    Were it not for the asteroid, humans would never have evolved, one message I would like people to take from this is that their earliest ancestors - and by ancestors we're talking fuzzy little squirrel-like critters - had their origins in the wake of the extinction of the dinosaurs.

  2. Michael Benton:

    Some experts have said' well, it might be the day after or a month before... but I prefer the simplest explanation, which is that it really does document the day the asteroid hit in Mexico.

  3. Yasuhiro Oba:

    The discovery of uracil in the samples from Ryugu lends strength to current theories regarding the source of nucleobases in the early Earth, the OSIRIS-REx mission by NASA will be returning samples from asteroid Bennu this year, and a comparative study of the composition of these asteroids will provide further data to build on these theories.

  4. Lindley Johnson:

    The key to planetary defense is finding them well before they are an impact threat, the principle with all of them is just to change the orbital speed of the asteroid just a small amount. Changing that speed of the asteroid in its orbit changes its orbit so in the future, it won't be in the same place it was going to be to impact the Earth.

  5. Glenn Kelman:

    What I feel almost protective about, in this really sad elegiac way, is the Multiple Listing Services, scientists believe that the dinosaurs were living a very marginal existence when the asteroid hit. I think the ecosystem in real estate is already just extremely vulnerable.

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"asteroid." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/asteroid>.

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