Esprit S.F.

Meaning “shaped as a planet”, the term planetoid refers to a (small) celestial body possessing some planet characteristics, notably its almost spherical shape, but not the size.

It’s also called “dwarf planet” or “minor planet”.

Matching … Lire la suite...

In astronomy, a planet is a celestial body orbiting around the Sun and possessing a sufficient mass for its own gravity gives it a (almost) spherical shape.

In science fiction, this term is generalised to every celestial body matching the … Lire la suite...

A meteorite designates a small celestial body which reaches the Earth surface.

To properly speak about meteorite, its size must be under fifty meters (beyond that, we speak about asteroid). The luminous trail leaved behind by a meteorite during its … Lire la suite...

An exoplanet designates a planet gravitating around a star different than our Sun.

See: Planet… Lire la suite...

A comet is a small celestial body gravitating around a star on a very elliptical orbit (unlike the asteroids). During its travel, it approaches very close to the star and, under the solar wind effect, adorns with a luminous trail … Lire la suite...

An asteroid is a small celestial body (between several dozens meters and several hundreds of kilometres) gravitating around a star on an faintly elliptical orbit (unlike the comets). Asteroids are solitary and don’t orbit around planets.

The more often, the … Lire la suite...

Matching words: Star, Star cluster

A star cluster designates a small star concentration in a relatively reduced space to the astronomical scale (a few dozens to a few hundreds parsecs), bounded together by gravitational forces.

A cluster is distinct from a galaxy by the … Lire la suite...

In astrophysics, a collapsar, contraction of the words “collapsed” and “star”, designates a massive star’s collapsing theoretical model, allowing to explain the phenomenon of gamma-ray bursts.

In The Forever War written by Joe Haldeman, the collapsar jump is an … Lire la suite...