natural object - an object occurring naturally; not made by man

extragalactic nebula, galaxy - (astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust; "`extragalactic nebula' is a former name for `galaxy'"

celestial body, heavenly body - natural objects visible in the sky

closed universe - (cosmology) a universe in which there is sufficient matter to halt the expansion that began with the big bang and to cause the universe to collapse again; the visible matter is only 10 percent of the matter required for closure but there may be large amounts of dark matter

estraterrestrial body, extraterrestrial object - a natural object existing outside the earth and outside the earth's atmosphere

natural order - the physical universe considered as an orderly system subject to natural (not human or supernatural) laws

nature - the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.; "they tried to preserve nature as they found it"

statistics - a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters

subpopulation - a population that is part of a larger population

aggregation, collection, accumulation, assemblage - several things grouped together or considered as a whole

cognitive content, mental object, content - the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned