as·ter·oid

(ăs′tə-roid′)

1. Astronomy Any of numerous small solar system bodies that revolve around the sun, with orbits lying chiefly between Mars and Jupiter and characteristic diameters roughly between one and several hundred kilometers. Also called minor planet, planetoid.

2. Zoology See starfish.

adj. also as·ter·oi·dal (ăs′tə-roid′l)

Star-shaped.

[From Greek asteroeidēs, starlike : astēr, star; see ster- in Indo-European roots + -oeidēs, -oid.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

asteroidal

(ˌæstəˈrɔɪdəl)

adj

(Celestial Objects) relating to asteroids

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

asteroidal - of or relating to or resembling an asteroid

References in periodicals archive

PST) December 14th, is one of two major showers tied to asteroidal, rather than cometary, sources.

An Unusual Parent: The familiar Geminid meteor shower springs from an unfamiliar source

Earth's water may have originated from both asteroidal material and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, according to new research.

Scientists theorize new originated story for Earth's water

Summary: TEHRAN (FNA)- Earth's water may have originated from both asteroidal material and gas left over from the formation of the Sun, according to new research.

New Origin Story for Earth's Water

Summary: Tokyo [Japan], September 24 (ANI): The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) has successfully landed two rovers on an asteroid and the robots have sent the first set of photographs giving us a glimpse into what the asteroidal surface is like.

Japanese robots send pictures after landing on asteroid

Although 3200 Phaethon appears asteroidal most of the time, it occasionally shows low levels of activity when it approaches the sun, leading some astronomers to suggest it's an inactive comet nucleus.

Potentially hazardous three-mile-wide asteroid 3200 Phaethon to skim Earth TODAY in closest pass since 1974; The asteroid is widely thought to be the parent body for the Geminids meteor shower

application to asteroidal motion," Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy, vol.

Predictability of Extreme Waves in the Lorenz-96 Model Near Intermittency and Quasi-Periodicity

Gounelle, "Nebular and asteroidal modification of the iron isotope composition of chondritic components," Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol.

Fe Isotopic Compositions of Modern Seafloor Hydrothermal Systems and Their Influence Factors

They draw upon thermodynamic explosions, asteroidal activity, fluid turbulence, insect behavior, natural selection, gravity, and other natural phenomena to create sculptures, drawings, paintings, videos, sound art, gadgets, and installations.

Objects of Wonder

An asteroidal triple (or AT for short) of a graph is a set of three vertices such that every pair of vertices are joined by a path outside of the closed neighborhood of the third.

A four-sweep LBFS recognition algorithm for interval graphs

209P/LINEAR was discovered as an apparently asteroidal object of 18th magnitude on 2004 February 3.40.

Comet prospects for 2014