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

The action of making a statement or situation less confused and more comprehensible.

Verbal noun of → clarify.

The systematic grouping of astronomical objects into categories on the basis of physical, morphological, or evolutionary characteristics.

Classification, from O.Fr., from classifier, from → class + -fier, from L. -ficare, root of facere "to make, do;" PIE base *dhe- "to put, to do" (cf. Skt. dadhati "puts, places;" Av. dadaiti "he puts," O.Pers. ada "he made," Gk. tithenai "to put, set, place."

Radebandi, from radé, → class, + bandi, verbal noun of bastan "to bind, shut; to get, acquire, incur," from Mid.Pers. bastan/vastan "to bind, shut;" Av./O.Pers. band- "to bind, fetter," banda- "band, tie;" cf. Skt. bandh- "to bind, tie, fasten;" Ger. binden, E. bind, → band; PIE base *bhendh- "to bind."

A first-order improvement on the → ideal gas law that corrects for the finite volume of molecules.

After Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888), a German physicist and mathematician, → equation.

An approximation of the → Clapeyron equation for liquid-vapor equilibrium that incorporates the → ideal gas law and states that the logarithm of vapor pressure is inversely proportional to temperature.

→ Clausius equation; → Clapeyron equation.

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

→ cloud; → fragmentation.

The fraction of → star formation which happens in → bound clusters. It is defined as the ratio between the → cluster formation rate and → star formation rate (Bastian, 2008, MNRAS 390, 759, arxiv/0807.4687).

→ cluster; → formation; → efficiency.

A parameter used in star formation models representing the ratio of the total mass in → star clusters to the corresponding age range (Bastian, 2008, MNRAS 390, 759, arxiv/0807.4687).

→ cluster; → formation; → rate.

An empirical power-law relation representing the number of clusters as a function of their mass. It is defined as: N(M)dM ∝ M ^-αdM, where the exponent α has an estimated value of about 2 and dM is the mass interval. It is believed that this is a universal law applying to a variety of objects including globular clusters, massive young clusters, and H II regions.

→ cluster; → mass; → function.

The chemical reaction that gives rise to → carbon monoxide in the → interstellar medium. According to models, several processes may lead to CO formation. For example, HCO⁺ + e → CO + H. The molecule HCO⁺ is itself produced through several paths, for example: H₃⁺ + C → CH₂⁺ + H, CH₂⁺ + H₂ → CH₃⁺ + H, CH₃⁺ + O → HCO⁺ + H. Alternatively: C⁺ + H₂O → HCO⁺ + H. Another possibility: C⁺ + OH → CO⁺ + H, CO⁺ + H₂→ HCO⁺ + H.

→ carbon monoxide; → formation.

A theory according to which the Earth and Moon formed from the → protoplanetary disk at the same time. See also → giant impact hypothesis, → capture theory, → fission theory.

→ co-; → formation; → theory.

The motion of two or more bodies around the Sun on different orbits when it takes them the same amount of time to complete one revolution. There are three possible types of co-orbital motions of a small body associated with a planet: → tadpole orbits, → horseshoe orbits, and → quasi-satellite orbits.

→ co-orbital; → motion.

For any rotating planetary body, a thermal limit beyond which the → rotational velocity at the equator intersects the → Keplerian orbital velocity. Beyond this corotation limit, a hot planetary body forms a structure, called a → synestia, with a corotating inner region connected to a disk-like outer region. Beyond this limit a body cannot have a single → angular velocity. It can instead exhibit a range of morphologies with disk-like outer regions. The (CoRoL is a function that depends upon the composition, thermal state, → angular momentum and mass of a body (Simon J. Lock nd Sarah T. Stewart, 2017, arXiv:1705.07858v1).

→ co-; → rotational; → limit.

Verbal noun from → coagulate.
Physical chemistry: A separation or precipitation of particles from a dispersed state in a colloid solution.
Astrophysics: The mechanism by which dust grains grow into larger entities in the interstellar medium and protoplanetary disks. → dust coagulation.

Verbal noun from → coagulate.

An emission nebula located about 3,000 light-years away toward the → constellation  → Cygnus. It is thought to be a region of active → star formation.

Cocoon, from Provençal Fr. coucoun, from O.Fr. coque "egg shell, nut shell," L. coccum "berry," from Gk. kokkos "berry, seed;" → star; → nebula.

Miq, → nebula; pilé "the silkworm's cocoon; a purse", cf. Skt. patta- "woven silk."

A star hidden in a dense envelope of gas and dust which is a strong source of infrared emission.

→ Cocoon nebula; → star.

The complement of → declination; the angular distance along a great circle from the celestial pole, i.e., 90° - declination.

Codeclination, from → co- + → declination.

Hamvâkil, from ham-, → co-, + vâkil, → declination.

The act, practice, or power of using physical or moral force to compel a person to do something.

Verbal noun of → coerce.

1) The mental process of knowing, including → awareness, → perception, → reasoning, and judgment.
2) The product of such a process; something thus known, perceived, etc. (Dictionary.com).

M.E. cognicioun; L. cognitionem (nominative cognitio, from cognitus p.p. of cognoscere, from → co- + gnoscere, noscere "to learn;" cognate with Pers. šenâs, šenâxt, as below.

Šenâxtâr, verbal noun of šenâxtan "to know, recognize," dânestan "to know;" O.Pers./Av. xšnā- "to know, learn, come to know, recognize;" cf. Skt. jñā- "to recognize, know," jānāti "he knows;" Gk. gignoskein "to know, think, judge;" L. gnoscere, noscere "to come to know" (Fr. connaître; Sp. conocer); O.E. cnawan; E. know; Rus. znat "to know;" PIE base *gno- "to know."

Holding together.
Physics: The attraction between the molecules of a solid or liquid that holds the parts of the substance together.

From L. cohæsus, p.p. of cohærere "to stick together," → coherence.

Hamduseš, verbal noun from hamdusidan "to cohere," → coherence.

1) A type of → accretion flow by a → compact object such as a → black hole that consists of cool → optically thick gas and has a relatively high mass → accretion rate, in contrast to → hot accretion flows.
2) Gas accreting from the → intergalactic medium (IGM) onto → galactic haloes with sufficiently low velocities so that it will not be shocked to the → virial temperature of the halo, but will instead flow at a relatively low temperature (T ~ 10⁴ K). Galaxies grow by accreting gas from → cosmic filaments. Feedback from star formation and → active galactic nuclei returns a significant fraction of the → interstellar medium (ISM) to the halo and may even blow it out of the halo into the IGM. This "cold accretion" will happen if the cooling time of → virialized gas is too short to maintain a hot, → hydrostatic halo. The existence of such a cold accretion mode has been confirmed by simulations, which have furthermore demonstrated that cold mode accretion can also be important for halos sufficiently massive to contain hot, hydrostatic gas. Because gas accretes preferentially along the filaments of the cosmic web, the streams of infalling gas have relatively high gas densities and correspondingly low cooling times. This allows the cold streams to penetrate the hot, hydrostatic halos surrounding massive galaxies, particularly at → high redshifts (F. van de Voort et al., 2012, MNRAS 421, 2809).

→ cold; → accretion; → flow.