An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A plane curve of spiral form, → Cornu's spiral.

From Gk. kloth, from klothein "to spin" + epenthetic vowel -o- + eides "form," → -oid; because the curve is reminiscent of the thread that winds around a weaving loom. → Klotho.

1) A visible mass of water droplets and/or ice particles in the atmosphere above the Earth's surface.
2) → interstellar cloud.

Cloud, from O.E. clud "mass of rock," from P.Gmc. *kludas.

Abr, from Mid.Pers. awr, abr (Laki owr, Baluchi haur, Kordi Soriani hewr), Av. awra- "rain cloud, rain," cf. Skt. abhra-"thunder cloud," Gk. afros "scum, foam," L. imber "rain;" also Sk. ambha- "water," Gk. ombros "rain," PIE *mbhros "rain cloud, rain," from *mbh-.

An early type of → bubble chamber used for detecting particles of ionizing radiation. It was invented in 1900 by Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869-1959), a Scottish physicist, who along with Arthur Compton (1892-1962 ) received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1927.

→ cloud; → chamber.

The fraction of the sky covered by clouds. It is expressed in tenths, so that 0.0 indicates a clear sky and 1.0 (or 10/10) indicates a completely covered sky.

→ cloud; → cover.

Process by which a → collapsing → giant molecular cloud breaks into dense → clumps, eventually bringing about → pre-stellar cores.

→ cloud; → fragmentation.

A large, faintly colored arc formed usually by sunlight falling on a cloud. Also called white rainbow, fogbow, and mistbow. Cloudbow appears white because the water droplets in the cloud or fog are very small compared with those of ordinary rainbows.

→ cloud; → bow.

Any sudden and heavy fall of → rain, always of the → shower type.

→ cloud; → burst.

Ragbâr, from rag + bâr. The second component bâr, variant bârân "rain," from bâridan "to rain." The origin of the first component is not clear. Rag in Persian means "blood vein, vessel," but this sense seems irrelevant here. In Gilaki the bare râk (without bâr) means cloudburst. Râk/rag may be related (via an extinct Iranian parent) to the Skt. stem ri- "to flow, to drop, to become liquid."

Same as → cloud cover.

From cloudy, from cloudy, from → cloud + → -ness.

Light from nearby stars scattered by → dust grains in low-density outer regions of → molecular clouds. It is seen not only in the → near infrared bands JHK, but also continuously from the visible to 5 μm. Cloudshine could be considered as an intermediate between → scattering in the visible and the → coreshine effect (Foster & Goodman, 2006, ApJ 636, L105). See also

→ cloud; → shine.

Any of various plants of the genus Trifolium with three round, green leaves that are joined together. Clovers occasionally have leaves with four leaflets, instead of the usual three.

M.E. clovere; O.E. clafre; cf. M.L.G. klever, M.Du. claver, Du. klaver, O.S. kle, O.H.G. kleo, Ger. Klee "clover," of uncertain origin.

Šabdar, of unknown origin.

A bright → quasar whose image is split into four spots due to → gravitational lensing (Magain et al. 1988, Nature 334, 325). The four images of comparable brightness all lie within 0.7 arc seconds of the image center. The quasar has a → redshift of 2.56, corresponding to a distance of about 11 billion → light-years. Observations indicate that the lensing galaxy is located approximately at the geometrical center of the four images. A firm spectroscopic redshift of the lens has yet to be obtained; however, a → cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z = 1.7 has been suggested to account for the lensing of this system. H1413+117 was the first quasar to be detected in the → submillimeter wave → continuum and in → carbon monoxide emission.

So named because of the optical image; → clover; → leaf; → quasar.

1) A compact mass, in particular that contained in a less dense environment.
2) → molecular clump.
3) Inhomogeneities on small scales present in → stellar winds. See also → clumped wind.

Clump, from Du. klomp "lump, mass," or Low Ger. klump.

Gudé "ball, bowl, tumour" in Gilaki, cf. Skt. guda- "ball, mouthful, lump, tumour," Gk. gloutos "rump," L. glomus "ball," globus "globe," Ger. Kugel, E. clot, PIE *gel- "to make into a ball."

A → radiation-driven wind of → Wolf-Rayet and → O stars, which is not homogeneous, and contains compressions and rarefactions in the form of density clumps. Observationally, wind clumping appears as moving, small-scale structures in spectral line profiles. Indirect indicators of wind clumping include: electron scattering wings of emission lines, too-weak observed UV line profiles, and shapes of X-ray lines. The most likely physical explanation for the presence of these clumps is an instability in radiatively-driven winds. The inclusion of a clumping factor in the models of W-R winds reduces the → mass loss rates by a factor ~ 2-4 relative to homogeneous models. See also → clumping factor.

→ clumpy; → wind.

Of a → molecular cloud, the property of being made up of → clumps.
The extent with which a molecular cloud is → clumpy.

Clumpiness, from → clumpy + → -ness.

Gudegi from gudé, → clump, + -gi suffix forming noun from adjectives ending in -é.

The massing together of material to form clumps. → wind clumping.

→ clump; → -ing.

The ratio f_cl = <ρ²> / <ρ >², where ρ represents the → stellar wind density and the brackets mean values. Unclumped wind has f_cl = 1 and → clumping becomes significant for f_cl≅ 4.

→ clumping; → factor.

Of a → molecular cloud, being composed of → clumps.

Clumpy, from → clump + -y suffix meaning "full of or characterized by," from O.E. -ig, from P.Gmc. *-iga, akin to Gk. -ikos, L. -icus, → -ics.

Gudedâr, from gudé, → clump, + dâr "having, possessor," from dâštan "to have, to possess," O.Pers./Av. root dar- "to hold, keep back, maitain, keep in mind," Skt. dhr-, dharma- "law," Gk. thronos "elevated seat, throne," L. firmus "firm, stable," Lith. daryti "to make," PIE *dher- "to hold, support."

An irregularly shaped, clumpy → star-forming galaxy that does not fall anywhere on the → Hubble sequence and appears frequently at → redshifts z ~ 1-4. Galaxies at z ≤ 1 with similar morphologies and enhanced → star formation have been identified, but become less common with decreasing redshift. Clumpy galaxies are prominent in the → early Universe.

→ clumpy; → galaxy.

1) A group of the same astronomical objects gathered or occurring closely together, such as → cluster of galaxies, → globular cluster, → open cluster, and so on.
2) To gather or grow into clusters. → Arches cluster, → Beehive Cluster, → bound cluster, → Brocchi's Cluster, → Bullet cluster, → Central cluster, → cluster core, → cluster mass function, → cluster of galaxies, → clustering, → clustering law, → Coma cluste, → Galactic center cluster, → galactic cluster, → galaxy cluster, → globular cluster, → Hercules cluster, → hierarchical clustering, → intercluster medium, → Local Supercluster, → moving cluster, → open cluster, → Perseus Cluster, → pre-cluster core, → protocluster, → rich cluster, → S cluster, → Sgr A* cluster, → star cluster, → super star cluster, → supercluster, → superclustering, → tight star cluster, → Trapezium cluster, → unbound cluster, → Ursa Major cluster.

O.E. clyster "cluster," probably akin to O.E. clott "clot".

Xušé "cluster, a bunch of grapes, an ear of corn," (Laki huša), from Mid.Pers. hošag or xušak; cf. Skt. guccha- "bundle, bunch of flowers, cluster of blossom, clump;" xušé bastan, with bastan "to bind, shut; to clot; to form seed buds", from Mid.Pers. bastan/vastan "to bind, shut," Av./O.Pers. band- "to bind, fetter," banda- "band, tie," Skt. bandh- "to bind, tie, fasten," PIE *bhendh- "to bind," cf. Ger. binden, E. bind.

The central part of a cluster (globular, galaxies, etc.) where the spatial density of the objects making up the cluster is much higher than the average value.

→ cluster; → core.