asteroid

Etymology 1
From, lit. "star-like". Coined by.

Noun

 * 1)  A naturally occurring solid object, which is smaller than a planet and a dwarf planet, larger than a meteoroid and not a comet, that orbits a star and often has an irregular shape.
 * 2)  In the Solar system, such a body that orbits within the orbit of Jupiter

Usage notes
The term "asteroid" has never been precisely defined. It was coined for objects which looked like stars in a telescope but moved like planets. These were known from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and were later found co-orbiting with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids) and within the orbit of Mars. They were naturally distinguished from comets, which did not look at all starlike. Starting in the 1970s, small non-cometary bodies were found outside the orbit of Jupiter, and usage became divided as to whether to call these "asteroids" as well. Some astronomers restrict the term "asteroid" to rocky or rocky-icy bodies with orbits up to Jupiter. They may retain the term planetoid for all small bodies, and thus tend to use it for icy or rocky-icy bodies beyond Jupiter, or may use dedicated words such as centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, transneptunian objects, etc. for the latter. Other astronomers use "asteroid" for all non-cometary bodies smaller than a planet, even large ones such as Sedna and (occasionally) Pluto. However, the distinction between asteroid and comet is an artificial one; many outer "asteroids" would become comets if they ventured nearer the Sun. The IAU terminology since 2006 has been small Solar System body for any body that orbits the Sun directly and whose shape is not dominated by gravity.

Translations

 * Albanian: asteroid
 * Arabic: كُوَيْكِب
 * Armenian: աստերոիդ, աստղակերպ
 * Assamese: গ্ৰহাণু
 * Asturian: asteroide, planetoide
 * Azerbaijani: asteroid
 * Basque:
 * Belarusian: астэро́ід
 * Bengali:
 * Bulgarian: астерои́д
 * Burmese:
 * Catalan:, planetoide
 * Cherokee: ᏅᏯ ᏧᎳᎬᎭᎸᏓ
 * Chinese:
 * Cantonese: 小行星
 * Mandarin:
 * Czech:
 * Danish: småplanet,, planetoide
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto: asteroido
 * Estonian:
 * Faroese: smástjørna
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Galician: ,
 * Georgian: ასტეროიდი, მცირე ცთომილები
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Gujarati: લઘુગ્રહ
 * Hawaiian: hōkūnaʻi
 * Hebrew:
 * Hindi: क्षुद्रग्रह,
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Icelandic:
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian: ,
 * Irish: astaróideach, mionphláinéad
 * Italian:, ,
 * Japanese:
 * Kannada:
 * Kazakh: астероид
 * Khmer:
 * Korean:
 * Kurdish:
 * Northern Kurdish:
 * Kyrgyz: астероид
 * Lao: ດາວເຄາະນ້ອຍ
 * Latvian: asteroīds
 * Lithuanian: asteroidas
 * Macedonian: астерои́д
 * Malay: asteroid
 * Malayalam: ഛിന്നഗ്രഹം
 * Marathi: लघुग्रह
 * Mongolian:
 * Cyrillic: астероид, жижиг гараг
 * Navajo: tsé naatʼaʼí
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: asteroide
 * Nynorsk: asteroide
 * Pashto: استرويد
 * Persian:
 * Polish: ,
 * Portuguese:, planetoide
 * Quechuan: puriq quyllurcha
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:, ма́лая плане́та
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: астеро̀ӣд
 * Roman:
 * Sindhi: گِرَھِڙِي
 * Sinhalese: ක්ෂුද්ර ග්රහයා, ග්‍රහක
 * Slovak: asteroid
 * Slovene:
 * Spanish:, planetoide
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: malatala, asteroyde, asteroyd
 * Tajik: сайёрак, астероид
 * Tamil: நுண்கோள்
 * Tatar: астероид
 * Telugu: గ్రహశకలం
 * Thai: ดาวเคราะห์น้อย
 * Tibetan: སྐར་རྡོ
 * Turkish:
 * Turkmen: asteroid
 * Ukrainian:
 * Urdu: سَیّارْچَہ
 * Uyghur: ئاستروئىد, كىچىك سەييارە
 * Uzbek: asteroid, kichik sayyora
 * Vietnamese: (小行星)
 * Yiddish: אַסטערויד
 * Zulu:

Etymology 2
Borrowed from, from +. Analyzable as

Noun

 * 1)  Any member of the taxonomic class ; a starfish.

Related terms

 * See

Etymology
From.

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1) asteroid