An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Any of numerous small solid bodies in a → protoplanetary disk that in some cases clump together to form → planets but in other cases remain relatively small and become → asteroids and → comets. Similarly, → Kuiper Belt Objects are probably the remnants of the planetesimals that formed the planets.

From → planet + (infinit)esimal, → infinitesimal.

Xordesayyâré, from xordé "small, minute; crumbs," from xord "minute, little, small" (from Mid.Pers. xvart, xôrt "small, insignificant;" Av. ādra- "weak, dependent;" Skt. ādhrá- "small, weak, poor," nādh "to be oppressed;" Gk. nothros "sluggish;" PIE base *nhdhro-) + sayyâré, → planet.

A Belgian facility devoted to the detection and characterization of → exoplanets and to the study of → comets (→ transiting planet) and other → small solar system bodies. It consists of two 60 cm robotic telescopes located at the → European Southern Observatory, → La Silla, in Chile and at Oukaïmden Observatory in Marroco.

→ transit; → planet; → planetesimal; → small; → telescope.