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

1) The outer edge or border of the apparent disk of a celestial body. → limb brightening, → limb darkening.
2) The raised edge of the mater of a → planispheric astrolabe, bearing a scale divided into 360°. The limb is the reference against which the rete is rotated in the computation process so that the planispheric astrolabe will simulate the sky's appearance on a given day at a specific hour. Vice versa, the limb can be configured from the observation of the altitude of an celestial body on the horizon. In that case, the limb will indicate an angle that, thanks to the hour scale on the back, can be converted into the hour of day or night (online museo galileo, VirtualMuseum).

From L. limbus "border, hem, fringe, edge," cognate with Skt. lambate "hangs down."

Labé "limb, edge," from lab "lip;" Mid.Pers. lap; cognate with L. labium, E. lip; Ger. Lefze.

An observed increase in the intensity of radio, extreme ultraviolet, or X-radiation from the Sun from its center to its limb.

→ limb; → brightening.

An apparent decrease in brightness of the Sun near its edge as compared to its brightness toward the center. Limb darkening is readily apparent in photographs of the Sun. The reason is that when we look toward the disk's center we look into deeper and hence hotter layers along the line of sight. Toward the limb, we get radiation from higher and hence cooler and less bright layers of the → photosphere. Limb darkening has been detected in the case of several other stars. A similar phenomenon occurs in → eclipsing binaries where the effect of limb darkening on one or both components manifests itself in the shape of the system's → light curve.

→ limb; → darkening.

The edge of the → disk of the → Sun.

→ solar; → limb.