Starquake
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A violent tremor or quake that occurs on or near the surface of a star, especially a collapsed star.
"Astronomers call the sudden changes in the neutron star starquakes. The energy released in a starquake is enormous and flows out from the star into the space surrounding it. After the 1969 starquake on the Crab pulsar, a wave of energy was seen to flow outwards, rippling through the centre of the Crab Nebula."
Example
More examples"Astronomers call the sudden changes in the neutron star starquakes. The energy released in a starquake is enormous and flows out from the star into the space surrounding it. After the 1969 starquake on the Crab pulsar, a wave of energy was seen to flow outwards, rippling through the centre of the Crab Nebula."
Etymology
Blend of star + earthquake.
More for "starquake"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.