asteroid

American  

[as-tuh-roid] / ˈæs təˌrɔɪd /

noun

1. Astronomy. any of millions of small celestial objects revolving around the sun, often irregularly shaped and having a great range in size, from as small as 6 feet (2 meters) across to about 620 miles (998 kilometers) across: the vast majority of known asteroids exist within the asteroid belt.

2. Zoology. a starfish; an asteroidean.

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adjective

1. starlike.

asteroid British  

/ ˈæstəˌrɔɪd /

noun

1. Also called: minor planet.   planetoid.  any of numerous small celestial bodies that move around the sun mainly between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Their diameters range from 930 kilometres (Ceres) to less than one kilometre

2. Also called: asteroidean.  any echinoderm of the class Asteroidea; a starfish

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or belonging to the class Asteroidea

2. shaped like a star

asteroid Scientific  

/ ăs′tə-roid′ /

1. Any of numerous small solar system bodies that orbit the Sun primarily in the asteroid belt, a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are intermediate in size between planets and meteoroids with diameters that measure between approximately one hundred and several hundred kilometers. While more than 1,800 asteroids have been cataloged, and as many as a million or more smaller ones may exist, their total mass has been estimated to be less than three percent of the Moon's. Asteroids are thought to be left over from the early formation of the solar system, when planetesimals in a protoplanetary disk were scattered after coming under Jupiter's gravitational influence. The continuing collision of planetesimals that remained between Jupiter and Mars caused many of them to fragment, creating the asteroids that exist today.

2. Also called minor planet planetoid

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asteroid Cultural  

1. A small planet that revolves around the sun. The largest asteroid is only about six hundred miles in diameter. (See asteroid belt.)

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Other Word Forms

• asteroidal adjective
• interasteroidal adjective

Etymology

Origin of asteroid

First recorded in 1795–1805; from Greek asteroeidḗs “starry, starlike”; star, -oid

Example Sentences

Large asteroid impacts, like the one that contributed to the dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, typically leave a clear crater, such as the one beneath the Yucatan Peninsula.

From Science Daily

Scientists still have much to learn about what small asteroids are made of.

From Science Daily

We get treated to meteor showers when Earth passes through the trails of comets - icy objects which Nasa calls 'cosmic snowballs' - or in rarer cases, including the Geminids, asteroids, which are rocky.

From BBC

Like my favorite pet just died or an asteroid is slowly coming to destroy Earth—even though none of that is happening.

From Literature

After billions of years, two major planetesimal belts remain: the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the Kuiper belt beyond the giant planets.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• earth
• globe
• sphere
• world