regolith
3
9.8
- noun
- /ˈrɛɡəˌlɪθ/
- Specialized
- On the surface of the Moon, you had to walk on the powdery regolith, sort of like walking on beach sand.
- lunar regolith
- Martian regolith
- powdery regolith
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Watch on YouTubeSimilarly, we're working on extracting oxygen from lunar regolith.
- Similarly, we're working on extracting oxygen from lunar regolith.
- You can come right up to it and see the the gloves and you can totally see the all that like regolith dust just, you know, sitting embedded in the suit.
Examples
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Your bootprints show the true color of the regolith underneath.
Fiction book (2001) -
One unusual chemical analysis of the regolith might give us away.
Fiction book (2001) -
Worse, it's not even clear the energy return from processing that regolith would be positive!
Blog text (5) -
The Martian regolith can also be used as a shielding material for habitats.
Academic text (2006) -
Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover.
Blog text (14) -
The treads of the transfer vehicle crunched satisfyingly over the regolith and onto the pad.
Fiction book (2001) -
The scooter shot off the ribbed concrete and landed softly in the powdery regolith surrounding the station.
Fiction book (1996) -
A layer of loose material, called regolith, covers Deimos to a depth of 100 to 200 meters.
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The treads of the transfer vehicle crunched satisfyingly over the regolith and onto the pad.
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Franden was well acquainted with regolith after four years on Zephyr.
Surface Forms
Morphology
regolith = rego + lith
Formed from Greek combining elements (rego- 'covering' + -lith 'stone') that are not productive or recognizable to average learners, so the meaning cannot be derived from the visible parts.
Etymology
The word regolith comes from Greek parts regos meaning 'blanket' and lithos meaning 'stone', like the lith in monolith. So regolith is a 'stone blanket' — the loose rock, dust, and soil that covers the hard rock on a planet or moon.