Precovery

Quick meaning: Precovery is a noun meaning (astronomy) The use of previously gathered data (especially photographic images) to recover a recently discovered object (typically a small solar system body).

Meaning

(astronomy) The use of previously gathered data (especially photographic images) to recover a recently discovered object (typically a small solar system body).

More Meanings

1. (slang) The act of resting before a long night, weekend or season of binge drinking.

Example Sentences

If you look for your new object after discovery, it's called "recovery". [...] if you find your new object in some old data that someone took before you discovered your object, it's called a "precovery".

Quaoar [...] is a Trans-Neptunian object orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt. It was discovered on June 4, 2002 by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the California Institute of Technology [...] The earliest precovery turned out to be a May 25, 1954 plate from Palomar Observatory.

Word Forms

• precoveries

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include prediscovery, preplanetesimal, precog, preoccurrence, praecognita, pre-vis.

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