[meteorite-list] Charles Burney Jr. and the term 'asteroid'

[Alan Rubin]

The article concludes that "asteroid" is the right word for these objects. 
The term is certainly familiar and entrenched, but it means "star-like" and 
is appropriate only to the appearance of these objects in a small telescope. 
Other terms that have been used frequently are "minor planet" and 
"planetoid."  These may be more accurate, but are certainly not euphonious. 
And we now have one asteroid, Ceres, that is also a "dwarf planet."  "Vermin 
of the skies" has a nice ring to it, but what would we call the asteroid 
belt -- "zone of sky vermin?"  I think we're stuck with "asteroid," but must 
not forget that the term also refers to starfish (which are, of course, 
echinoderms from the class Asteroidea).

Alan Rubin
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
University of California
3845 Slichter Hall
603 Charles Young Dr. E
Los Angeles, CA  90095-1567
phone: 310-825-3202
e-mail: aerubin at ucla.edu
website: http://cosmochemists.igpp.ucla.edu/Rubin.html


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "karmaka" <karmaka-meteorites at t-online.de>
To: "met-list" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 3:31 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Charles Burney Jr. and the term 'asteroid'


> Dear list members,
>
> this sounds interesting:
>
> Greek scholar invented the term asteroid, researcher reveals
>
> http://www.lodinews.com/ap/nation/article_3c86d500-3070-11e3-9637-10604b9f0f42.html
>
> Best regards
>
> Martin
>
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