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

A European Space Agency satellite which carried the most sensitive infrared telescope ever launched. It operated between November 1995 and April 1998 and made particularly important observations of the dusty regions of the Universe. ISO was equipped with four science instruments: an infrared camera (CAM), a long-wavelength spectrometer (LWS), a photo-polarimeter (PHT), and a short-wavelength spectrometer (SWS). The instruments jointly covered wavelengths from 2.5 to around 240 microns with spatial resolutions ranging from 1.5 arcseconds to 90 arcseconds. Its 60 cm diameter telescope was cooled by superfluid liquid helium to temperatures of 2-4 K. The mission was a great technical, operational and scientific success. During its routine operational phase, ISO successfully made some 30,000 individual imaging, photometric, spectroscopic, and polarimetric observations ranging from objects in our own solar system to the most distant extragalactic sources.

→ infrared; → space; → observatory.

Observing a large area of sky (or the whole sky) in infrared wavelengths.

→ infrared; → survey.

A telescope capable of observing → infrared radiation from astronomical objects.

→ infrared; → telescope.

A range of infrared wavelengths to which the Earth's atmosphere is relatively transparent, and at which observations can be made from the ground. Infrared windows are found near wavelengths of 1.25, 1.65, 2.2, 3.6, 5.0, 10, 20, and 30 microns, and beyond 300 microns.

→ infrared; → window.

The infrared radiation with wavelengths between about 1.5 and 20 microns. → near infrared; → far infrared.

→ intermediate; → infrared.

A galaxy that emits most of its energy in the infrared and whose infrared luminosity (in the 8-1000 µm range) is more than 10¹¹ solar luminosities. → ultraluminous infrared galaxy.

→ luminous; → infrared; → galaxy.

The portion of the → electromagnetic radiation lying between the → near-infrared and the → far-infrared. This covers the wavelength range approximately from 8 to 30 → microns. See also: → infrared radiation, → submillimeter radiation.

→ mid-; → infrared.

Same as → mid-infrared.

→ middle; → infrared.

That region of the → electromagnetic spectrum covering shorter infrared wavelengths. It contains the → infrared windows between about 0.8 and 8 → microns, but the longer wavelength limit is not well defined. See also: → infrared radiation, → mid-infrared, → far-infrared, → submillimeter radiation.

→ near; → infrared.

Not occurring very often; not found in large numbers.

M.E., from O.Fr. rere "sparse" from L. rarus "thinly sown; not thick; having intervals between."

Perz, in several Iranian languages and dialects "little, few, small, minute part of any thing" (Khonsâri: perz, Qatrâni: perzema, Birjandi: porzu, Farâmarzâni: pesk, Kurd petik, Tabari: perik "minute quantity, particle"); maybe ultimately from Proto-Ir. *paraka- "small part," → part.
Kamyâb "rare, difficult to find," from kam "little, few; deficient, wanting; scarce" (Mid.Pers. kam "little, small, few," O.Pers./Av. kamna- "small, few"); + yâb present stem of yâftan, yâbidan "to find, discover; to obtain, acquire" (Mid.Pers. ayâftan, ayâpênitan "to reach, attain;" Manichean Mid.Pers. 'y'b "to attain;" Parthian, Sogdian (+ *pati-) pty'b "to reach, obtain;" Av. ap- "to reach, overtake," apayeiti "achieved, reached;" Skt. âp- "to reach, gain," âpnoti "reaches, gains;" Gk. hapto, haptomai "to touch, cling to, adhere to;" L. apiscor "touch, reach;" PIE base *ap- "to take, reach").

Any of the group of metallic → chemical elements with → atomic numbers between 57 and 71 inclusive. The name is an inappropriate terminology, since they are neither rare nor earth; preferred name → lanthanide.

→ rare; → earth; → element.

Another name for → inert gas.

M.E., from O.Fr. rere "sparse," from L. rarus "loose, wide apart, thin, infrequent;" &rar; gas.

Kamyâb "rare, difficult to find," from kam "little, few; deficient, wanting; scarce" (Mid.Pers. kam "little, small, few," O.Pers./Av. kamna- "small, few"); + yâb present stem of yâftanyâftan, yâbidan "to find, discover; to obtain, acquire" (Mid.Pers. ayâftan, ayâpênitan "to reach, attain;" Manichean Mid.Pers. 'y'b "to attain;" Parthian, Sogdian (+ *pati-) pty'b "to reach, obtain;" Av. ap- "to reach, overtake," apayeiti "achieved, reached;" Skt. âp- "to reach, gain," âpnoti "reaches, gains;" Gk. hapto, haptomai "to touch, cling to, adhere to;" L. apiscor "touch, reach;" PIE base *ap- "to take, reach").

The state of being rarefied, less dense.
An instantaneous reduction in density of a gas resulting from passage a sound wave; opposite of → compression.

M.E. rarefien, from M.Fr. rarefier, from L. rarefacere "make rare," from rarus "loose, wide apart, thin, infrequent."

Verbal noun from âlar present stem of âlaridan→ rarefy + -š, a suffix.

A pressure wave in a fluid generated by rarefaction. It travels in the opposite direction to that of a shock wave in the medium.

→ rarefaction; → wave.

A gas whose pressure is much less than a reference pressure.

Past participle of → rarefy; → gas.

1) To make less dense.
2) To become less dense; become thinned.
Related concepts: → attenuate, → dilute, → decompress.

M.E. rarefien, from M.Fr. rarefier, from rare, combining form of rarus "loose, wide apart, thin, infrequent."

Alaridan, infinitive of âlar, from intensive/nuance prefix â- + lar "thin, meagre" (Dehxodâ), Lori, Laki larr, larrek "thin cow or sheep," Kurd. lerr "thin, lean," variants of laqar (Torbat-Heydariyé), lâqar "lean, meagre, slender; weak."

A partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, consisting of an extensively modified Boeing 747SP aircraft carrying a reflecting telescope with an effective diameter of 2.5 m. NASA Ames Research Center manages SOFIA's science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association and the German SOFIA Institute. SOFIA is the largest airborne observatory in the world, with a planned 20-year lifetime.

→ stratospheric; → observatory; → infrared; → astronomy.

A galaxy that emits more than 90% of its energy in the infrared (8-1000 µm) and whose infrared luminosity exceeds 10¹² solar luminosities. → luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG). Quasars can also have such high or even higher bolometric luminosities. However LIRGs and ULIRGs emit the bulk of their energy in the infrared. Most of ULIRGs are found in merging and interacting galaxy systems. It is thought that their luminosity results from galactic collisions, which increase the rate of star formation.

→ ultraluminous; → infrared; → galaxy.

Describing a system or situation for which the → Lorentz factor, γ, is much larger than 1. See also → subrelativistic.

→ ultra- + → relativistic

A gas composed of ultrarelativistic particles.

→ ultrarelativistic; → gas.