Aerospace. erosion of the protective outer surface (ablator) of a spacecraft or missile due to the aerodynamic heating caused by travel at hypersonic speed during reentry through the atmosphere.
Origin
1570-80; < Late Latinablātiōn- (stem of ablātiō). See ablate, -ion
Drug treatment to block ovarian production of estrogen is called chemical ovarian ablation.
Laser ablation propulsion is not limited to chemical exhaust velocities.
Cardiac ablation procedures are done in a hospital laboratory by specially trained staff.
Some ventricular tachycardias may be treated with an ablation procedure.
Sometimes a procedure called radiofrequency ablation is used to cure tachycardia.
Temperature controlled radiofrequency ablation tongue reduction.
The recurrent cancer can then grow independently of androgen and is thus no longer responsive to ablation therapy.
Although surgery may be used to treat it, a nonsurgical technique called catheter ablation is becoming increasingly popular.
Endometrial ablation does not treat the fibroids themselves, but the symptom of heavy bleeding.
One treatment commonly administered with a catheter is cardiac ablation therapy.
British Dictionary definitions for ablation
ablation
/æbˈleɪʃən/
noun
1.
the surgical removal of an organ, structure, or part
2.
the melting or wearing away of an expendable part, such as the heat shield of a space re-entry vehicle on passing through the earth's atmosphere
3.
the wearing away of a rock or glacier
Word Origin
C15: from Late Latin ablatiōn-, from Latin auferre to carry away, remove
Word Origin and History for ablation
n.
early 15c., from Latin ablationem (nominative ablatio), "a taking away," noun of action from past participle stem of auferre "to carry away," from ab- "off" (see ab-) + ferre (past participle latum; see oblate) "to bear."
ablation in Medicine
ablation ab·la·tion (ā-blā'shən) n. Removal of a body part or the destruction of its function, as by a surgery, disease, or noxious substance.
ablation in Science
ablation
(ā-blā'shən)
The wearing away or destruction of the outer or forward surface of an object, such as a meteorite or a spacecraft, as it moves very rapidly through the atmosphere. The friction of the air striking the object heats and often melts or burns its outer layers. Spacecraft and missiles are often equipped with heat shields designed to wear away by ablation in order to prevent heat from building up in structurally important parts.
The process by which snow and ice are removed from a glacier or other mass of ice. Ablation typically occurs through melting, sublimation, wind erosion, or calving. ◇ The ablation zone is the area of a glacier that has the lowest elevation, where annual water loss is greater than the annual accumulation of snow.