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

The science of the motion and behavior of → projectiles. The study of the functioning of firearms.

From L. ballista "ancient military machine for hurling stones," from Gk. ballistes, from ballein "to throw," from PIE *g^welH₁- "to throw;" cf. Pers. garzin "arrow;" Av. niγr- "to throw down;" Khotanese (+ *abi-, *ui-) bīr- "to throw, sow;" Proto-Iranian *garH- "to throw."

Partâbik, from partâb "a throw, an arrow that flies far," partâbidan "to throw," + -ik, → -ics; partâbšenâsi, from partâb + -šenâsi, → -logy.

A branch of modern astronomy in which balloons are used to carry telescopes and instruments to high altitudes (up to 50 km) for observation.

Balloon, from Fr. ballon, from It. dialectal ballone, augmentative of balla, ball, from P.Gmc. *ball-, from PIE *bhel- "to blow, swell". → astronomy.

Axtaršenâsi, → astronomy; bâlon, from Fr. ballon.

A remotely guided or automatic telescope carried to high altitudes by a balloon.

→ balloon astronomy; borne "a past participle of bear," from O.E. beran "bear, bring, wear," from P.Gmc. *beranan (O.H.G. beran, Goth. bairan "to carry"), from PIE root *bher-; "to carry;" compare with Av./O.Pers. bar- "to bear, carry," bareθre "to bear (infinitive)," bareθri "a female that bears (children), a mother," Mod.Pers. bordan "to carry," Skt. bharati "he carries," Gk. pherein, L. fero "to carry." → telescope.

→ balloon astronomy. Bord in bâlon-bord "borne, carried," from Mod.Pers. bordan "to bear, carry," as explained above. Durbin, → telescope.

1a) To cry out in a loud voice; shout.
1b) To command or request to come; summon.
1c) To speak loudly, as to attract attention; shout; cry.
2) To name or address (someone) as.
3a) A cry or shout.
3b) The cry or vocal sound of a bird or other animal (Dictionary.com)

M.E. callen, from O.Norse kalla "to call out," cognate with M.Du. kallen "to talk," O.H.G. kallon "to shout," akin to O.E. -calla "herald," Irish gall "swan," O.C.S. glasu "voice".

Žâridan, from žâr, from Oroshori (or Roshorvi) žâr-/žart- "to sound, ring," cognate with Parachi jâr "to say," Ossetic gær, qær "noise, shout," other cognates in Per. âžir "cry, call", qâl, qil "noise, brouhaha," jâr "cry, call", žaqâr, zaqâr "cry, call", payqâre "blame, reproval," gerâmi "dear, beloved," ultimately from Proto-Ir. *uz-garH-, from *garH- "to call, greet," which has also given rise to Av. âγar- "to greet," akin to Skt. garⁱ "to praise, welcome;" L. gratis "welcome;" PIE root g^werH- "to praise, to say."

A period of 76 years after which the new and full moons would return to the same day of the solar year. This was intended as an improvement of the → Metonic cycle because the 6940 days of the Metonic cycle exceeded 19 years by about a quarter of a day, and exceeded 235 → lunations by a larger amount of time.

Named after Calippus of Cyzicus (about 370-300 BC), a Greek astronomer and mathematician.

The eighth of → Jupiter's known moons and the second brightest and the outermost of the four → Galilean satellites. With a diameter of 4800 km (0.38 Earths), Castillo is roughly the same size as Mercury. It orbits Jupiter in 16.689 days at a distance of 1,883,000 km from the planet, beyond Jupiter's main → radiation belts. It is the third largest moon in the entire solar system. Its mass is 10.76 × 10²² kg (about 1.5 Earth Moons) and its mean → surface temperature is -155 °C. The most prominent feature of Callisto is its craters, as it has the most craters of any object in the solar system. Due to its orbit being further away from Jupiter, it is not under the same → tidal heating influences as → Io, → Europa, or → Ganymede. Callisto's thin → atmosphere is composed of → carbon dioxide and likely some → molecular oxygen. Callisto is thought to have formed as a result of slow → accretion from the → protoplanetary disk of gas and dust that surrounded Jupiter after its formation.

Callisto, an attendant of Artemis in Greek mythology. Because of her love affair with Zeus, she was transformed into a bear by Artemis. According to another legend she was changed into a bear by the jealous Hera. Zeus transferred her to the heavens as the → constellation  → Ursa Major (great bear).

A generalized coordinate and its → conjugate momentum.

Canonically, adverb from → canonical; → conjugate; → variable.

A → main sequence star of → spectral type A or B (→ A-type star, → B-type star) identified by the presence of anomalously strong or weak → absorption lines of certain elements in their spectra. CP stars have been divided into four main classes on the basis of their spectra: 1) non-magnetic metallic-lined (CP1, → Am star), magnetic (CP2, → Ap star), non-magnetic mercury-manganese (CP3, → HgMn star), and helium-weak (CP4, → He-weak star).
See also → Ap/Bp stars.

→ chemical; → -ly; → peculiar; → star.

The → metallicity of a → star-forming  → molecular cloud when → cooling → rates by → metals dominate the → gravitational  → heating during → protostellar collapse. The minimum → Jeans mass achieved by gravitational → fragmentation depends on the presence/absence of → coolants in the cloud. Since cooling rate in metal lines is more efficient than in primordial molecular lines (H₂ and HD), metals favor fragmentation in gas and formation of → low-mass stars.

→ critical; → metallicity.

1) Of or like crystal; clear; transparent.
2) Formed by → crystallization.
3) Composed of crystals.
4) Pertaining to crystals or their formation (Dictionary.com).

Adjective from → crystal.

A → doubly convex, → transparent body in the → eye, situated behind the → iris, that focuses incident light on the → retina (Dictionary.com).

→ crystalline; → lens; → eye.

An arrangement and interrelationship of parts that is of → crystalline nature.

→ crystalline; → structure.

1) A state of molecular structure in some resins attributed to the existence of solid crystals with a definite geometric form.
2) The percentage of a polymer sample that has formed crystals (J. W. Gooch, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Polymers).

→ crystalline; → -ity.

A process by which a homogeneous solution becomes crystal.

Noun from crystallize, → crystal.

Noun from bolur, from verb boluridan "to crystallize" + verbal noun suffix -eš.

The science of forms, properties, and structure of crystals.

→ crystal; → -graphy; → -logy.

A system characterized by → differential rotation. In such a system the → angular velocity decreases as the distance from the rotation center increases.

→ differential; → rotating; → system.

A model for a → cometary nucleus proposed by Fred Whipple (1950-51), according to which the nucleus is a solid body (a few kilometers across) made up of various → ices (→ frozen water, → methane, → ammonia, → carbon dioxide, and → hydrogen cyanide) in which → dust is embedded. Dust particles are liberated when the ices vaporize as the → comet approaches the → Sun, and they get blown away by → solar radiation pressure, often forming impressive, gently curved → dust tails.

→ dirty; → ice; → ball; → model.

Computers: To cancel the assignment of a particular resource to a user.

→ dis- + → allocate.

The act of disallocating or the state of being disallocated.

→ dis- + → allocate.

The apparent difference between the position of a celestial object measured from the Earth's surface and the position that would be recorded by a hypothetical observer at the center of the Earth. Same as → geocentric parallax.

→ diurnal; → parallax.