Charles Burney Jr. und der Begriff 'Asteroid'

[karmaka]

Dies ist doch eine interessante historische Anekdote:

Greek scholar invented the term asteroid, researcher reveals

Quelle

Alan Rubins treffender Kommentar von der metlist dazu:

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).