starburst

English

Etymology

star +‎ burst

Noun

starburst (plural starbursts)

  1. A violent explosion, or the pattern (likened to the shape of a star) supposed to be made by such an explosion.
    • 2002: Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror
      ... his arm striking brick and the bottle shattering in a starburst of black ...
    • 2003: Tim Cockey, Murder in the Hearse Degree: A Novel
      A starburst of red exploded on his chest and he flew backward a good six or seven feet.
    • 2004: Elizabeth George, Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life
      ... and another that creates a cicatrix starburst from her right eye to her temple. This scar is the result of an accident when she was ten years old, ...
  2. (typography) A symbol similar to an asterisk, but with additional rays: ✺.
  3. (astronomy) A region of space with an unusually high rate of star formation.
  4. (astronomy) A period in time during which a region of space experiences an unusually high rate of star formation.
    The Milky Way will see a starburst in approximately 200,000,000 years.

Translations
Translations

See also

Verb

starburst (third-person singular simple present starbursts, present participle starbursting, simple past and past participle starbursted)

  1. (astronomy, of a region of space) To experience an unusually high rate of star formation.
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