celestial body

noun

variants or less commonly celestial object

plural celestial bodies also celestial objects

: an aggregation of matter in the universe (such as a planet, star, or nebula) that can be considered as a single unit (as for astronomical study)

But many scientists began seriously rethinking their notions of the solar system in 1992, when we identified a small celestial body—just a few hundred kilometers across—sited farther from the sun than any of the known planets.

—Jane X. Luu et al.

As the observer looks at a star or other celestial body its light rays pass through a single point on the earth's surface.

—Dutton's Navigation and Piloting, 14th edition

A black hole forms when a star or other celestial object collapses under the pull of its own gravity.

—Mary Durack Miller

called also heavenly body

Examples of celestial body in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That means no country may claim territory in outer space, and all have the right to access all areas of the moon and other celestial bodies freely. —Michelle L.d. Hanlon, Space.com, 20 June 2025

The treaty prohibits the placing of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in Earth's orbit, on celestial bodies, or in outer space, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. —Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 May 2025

Typically, comets are named for their discoverers, and this one is named after SWAN, a camera aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which first detected the celestial body. —Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Apr. 2025

That could help avoid muddying the quality of the data sets collected by astronomers observing celestial bodies. —Abhimanyu Ghoshal, New Atlas, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1538, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for celestial body

• passamaquoddy
• afterbody
• antibody
• busybody
• everybody
• autoantibody
• bawdy
• gaudy
• khadi
• mahdi
• noddy
• oddi