Word of the day: חלל - space – Hebrew conjugation tables

As NASA announced a couple of days ago,

.התגלתה מערכת שמש עם 7 כוכבי לכת דמויי כדור הארץ

Hitgalta ma'arechet shemesh im shiv'a kochvei lechet dmuy'ei kadur ha-aretz.

A solar system was discovered with seven Earth-like planets.

The exact wording is from Yediot Achronot. The Hebrew for "star" is כּוֹכָב kochav. A planet is פְּלָנֶטָה planeta, or כּוֹכַב לֶכֶת kochav lechet, literally "walking star" (לֶכֶת is the bare infinitive of לָלֶכֶת lalechet "to go", here used as noun), or, when the context is clear, simply כּוֹכָב kochav.

The word כוכב occurs in Hebrew as early as in the Torah, for example in Bereshit 1:16 (the transliteration is given according to the Modern Hebrew rules):

וַיַּעַשׂ אֱלֹהִים, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַמְּאֹרֹת הַגְּדֹלִים: אֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַגָּדֹל, לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַיּוֹם, וְאֶת-הַמָּאוֹר הַקָּטֹן לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת הַלַּיְלָה, וְאֵת הַכּוֹכָבִים.

Va-ya'as Elo-him et shnei ha-me'orot ha-gdolim: et ha-ma'or ha-gadol le-memshelet ha-yom, ve-et ha-ma'or ha-katon le-memshelet ha-layla, ve-et ha-kochavim.

And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars.

Not commenting on the Biblical Hebrew grammar here, note also the word מָאוֹר ma'or "light, celestial body".

The planet Earth is כַּדּוּר הָאָרֶץ kadur ha-aretz, literally "the Earth-ball".

Space in general is חָלָל chalal or, when one wants to be more specific that one is talking about the outer space, הֶחָלָל הַחִיצוֹן ha-chalal ha-chitzon (he-chalal in pedantic speech). A spaceship is חֲלָלִית chalalit.

Below is the table with the names of some celestial bodies - some of them have Hebrew names that are different from Latin / international ones:

English	Hebrew (native word)	Hebrew ("international" word)
Sun	שֵׁמֶשׁ shemesh	-
Moon	יָרֵחַ yareach (also in general sense, e.g. in ירחי צדק yerechei tzedek "moons of Jupiter") לְבָנָה levana (poetic)	-
Mercury	כּוֹכַב חַמָּה kochav chama (lit. "star of heat")	מֶרְקוּרִי merkuri (and the Roman god is מֶרְקוּרְיוּס merkuryus)
Venus	נֹגַהּ ~ נוגה nogah (lit. "glow, brightness")	וֶנוּס venus (mostly refers to the goddess)
Mars	מַאֲדִים ma'adim (lit. "reddening")	מַרְס mars (the god)
Jupiter	צֶדֶק tzedek (lit. "justice")	יוּפִּיטֶר yupiter (mostly refers to the god)
Saturn	שַׁבְּתַאי shabtai (also a male name)	סָטוּרְן saturn (mostly refers to the god)
Uranus	אוֹרוֹן oron (lit. "little light") (rare)	אוּרָנוּס uranus
Neptune	רַהַב rahav (lit. "arrogance") (rare)	נֶפְּטוּן neptun
Pluto	-	פְּלוּטוֹ pluto

Word of the day: חלל - space

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