bistellar formation
- noun
- Specialized
:
formación bistelar
- The guide pointed out a rare bistellar formation through the observatory telescope.
Examples
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Astronomers mapped the movement of the bistellar formation over several nights.
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Have you ever seen a bistellar formation through a telescope?
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The bistellar formation in the sky was breathtaking.
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The bistellar formation was observed by astronomers last night.
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The guide pointed out a rare bistellar formation through the observatory telescope.
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Astronomers mapped the movement of the bistellar formation over several nights.
-
Have you ever seen a bistellar formation in the night sky?
Synonyms
3
4.7
Two stars in space that move around a shared point because they pull on each other
3
6.6
Two stars that orbit each other
1
5.5
Two stars that are very close and usually move around each other
A system of two stars that orbit each other
Surface Forms
Morphology
bistellar + formation
The noun 'formation' is transparent as an arranged pattern, but 'bistellar' is not a common dictionary item; it can be analytically parsed as bi- (two) + stellar (relating to stars), yielding a compositional sense of a two-star/star-related configuration. Because understanding the MWE depends on morphological/technical knowledge of the prefix and the rarer adjective 'stellar'—knowledge that a typical B1 learner may not have—its meaning is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Bistellar formation comes from bi meaning 'two' and stellar meaning 'star', so it gives the image of two stars close together in the sky. That's why it now means a visible shape or arrangement of two or more stars.