Other forms: asteroids
An asteroid is one of the countless rocky bodies drifting through space between the planets. A large asteroid, the asteroid belt, an asteroid impact.
Most orbit in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, and the largest, Ceres, is now classed as a dwarf planet. Near-Earth asteroids are the ones tracked closely, and the impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs is the standard reason anybody cares. A comet is different: comets are icy and grow tails. Note asteroid mining, meteor and meteorite, and that most asteroids are far apart rather than crowded.
1nounasteroidA rocky body orbiting the sun, smaller than a planet.
“Scientists are tracking a large asteroid that will pass close to the Earth next year.”
asteroid is a space object.
Greek asteroeides means star-like, from aster, a star. William Herschel coined the name in 1802 because through early telescopes they looked like points of light rather than discs — so asteroids are named for what they were mistaken for.
Ancient Greek
ἀστεροειδής — starlike
English, today
asteroid
Introduced by German–British astronomer William Herschel in 1802 upon the suggestion of classical scholar Charles Burney Jr. (1757–1817), the son of music historian Charles Burney, a friend of Herschel's. Probably coined as a Ancient Greek ἀστεροειδής (“starlike”), from ἀστήρ + -ειδής. by surface analysis, aster + -oid.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA