planetesimal

noun (a planetesimal, planetesimals)

«planetesimal» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

Everyday

A planetesimal is a small solid lump of rock, dust or ice, from a few metres to a few kilometres across, that moved around a young star; scientists think many of them crashed and stuck together to build planets. tree →

In the lessons

In space science lessons it explains how the planets of our Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago; asteroids and comets are thought to be leftover planetesimals. Phrases: dust grows into planetesimals.

Examples

Planets formed from millions of planetesimals. tree →
A planetesimal is like a building block of a planet. tree →
Some asteroids may be leftover planetesimals. tree →
The planetesimals bumped and stuck together. tree →
Scientists study planetesimals to learn how Earth formed. tree →
Earth may have grown from planetesimals crashing together. tree →

Note

Countable. Say plan-uh-TES-im-ul. Built from «planet» and «infinitesimal» (very tiny). An advanced science word; «building blocks of planets» is a simple way to explain it.

On Mova

Trees and pragmatics of «planetesimal» in the school dictionary: every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
«planetesimal» in the school dictionary on Mova free.

This page in Markdown → https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/planetesimal/