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

The star which → accretes matter, particularly in its protostellar phase or in a close binary system.

→ accreting; → star.

Any bright → planet, often → Venus, seen low in the western sky after → sunset. → Hesperus.

→ evening; → dusk; → star.

A star associated with an interstellar ionized nebula (→ H II region or → planetary nebula) whose energetic → ultraviolet, → photons → ionize the nebula.

Exciting, verbal adj. of → excite; → star.

A member of a class of stars to which the Sun belongs. The G-type stars on the → main sequence have → surface temperatures of 5,300-6,000 K and therefore appear yellow in color. G type → giant stars (such as → Capella) are almost 100-500 K colder than the corresponding main sequence stars. G type → supergiants have temperatures of 4,500-5,500 K. The spectrum of early type G stars, such as the Sun (G2), is dominated by ionized lines of calcium (→ H and K lines, mainly) and neutral metals. In later type G stars the molecular bands of → CH molecules and → CN molecules become visible. The main sequence and giant stars have masses of ~ 1 solar mass, while the supergiants are of ~ 10 solar masses. The luminosities of G-type giants are almost 30-60 times greater than that of the Sun, whereas the supergiants are 10,000-30,000 times more luminous.

G, from the → Harvard classification; → star.

An early → B-type star showing helium lines with abnormally large equivalent widths. The surface → chemical abundances of He-strong stars are influenced by the presence of a strong → magnetic field, resulting in a He overabundance that typically varies in strength over the stellar surface. Examples include HR 735, HD 184927, and CPD-62°2124.

→ helium; → strong; → line.

Not actually a star, but the planet Venus shining brightly in the east just before or at sunrise. Opposed to → evening star.

→ morning; → star.

Rujâ "morning star" in Tabari, "star" in Gilaki. This word is a variant of official Pers. ruz "day," since in Tabari and Gilaki the phoneme z is sometimes changed into j, as in rujin = rowzan "window" and jir or jer = zir "under." Therefore it is related to rowšan "bright, clear," rowzan "window, aperture;" foruq "light," afruxtan "to light, kindle;" Mid.Pers. rôšn "light; bright, luminous," rôc "day;" O.Pers. raucah-rocânak "window;" O.Pers. raocah- "light, luminous; daylight;" Av. raocana- "bright, shining, radiant;" akin to Skt. rocaná- "bright, shining," roka- "brightness, light;" Gk. leukos "white, clear;" L. lumen (gen. luminis) "light," from lucere "to shine," related to lux "light," lucidus "clear," luna, "moon;" Fr. lumière "light;" O.E. leoht, leht, from W.Gmc. *leukhtam (cf. O.Fris. liacht, M.Du. lucht, Ger. Licht), from PIE *leuk- "light, brightness;" → morning; → star.

A star that is never seen above the horizon from a given position. These stars are located between the celestial pole and a diurnal circle with an angular distance larger than the altitude of the pole.

Nonrising, from → non- + rising adj. of → rise; → star.

Setâré, → star; hamiše penhân, literally "always hidden," coined by Biruni (A.D. 973-1050) in his at-Tafhim, from hamišé "always" (Mid.Pers. hamêšag "always") + penhân "hidden."

A star that is always seen above the horizon from a given position. These stars are located between the celestial pole and a diurnal circle with an angular distance smaller than the altitude of the pole. Same as → circumpolar star.

Nonsetting, from → non- + setting adj. of → set; → star.

Setâré, → star; hamiše peydâ literally "always visible," coined by Biruni (A.D. 973-1050) in his at-Tafhim, from hamišé "always," → perpetual, + peydâ, → visible.

Same as → 61 Cygni and → Bessel's star.

Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826) was the first to notice the large → proper motion of the star, in 1804. His observations over a period of 10 years revealed the largest proper motion ever detected for any star at the time, leading him to baptize it the "Flying Star;" → fly; → star.

A type of → variable star that changes its brightness by changing its volume through expansion and contraction. Classical pulsating stars, including → Cepheids, → RR Lyrae, and → Delta Scuti variables, are located in a quite narrow almost vertical region in the → H-R diagram, known as → instability strip. See also → kappa mechanism.

Pulsating, verbal adj. of → pulsate; → star.

A star that has a non-zero → angular velocity. In a rotating star, the → centrifugal forces reduce the → effective gravity according to the latitude and also introduce deviations from sphericity. In a rotating star, the equations of stellar structure need to be modified. The usual spherical coordinates must be replaced by new coordinates characterizing the → equipotentials. See also → von Zeipel theorem.

→ rotating; → star.

Colloquial name for → meteor.

Shooting, from shoot (v.); M.E. shoten; O.E. sceotan "to shoot" (cf. O.N. skjota, Du. schieten, Ger. schießen), from PIE base *skeud- "to shoot, to chase, to throw;" → star.

Šahâb, → meteor.

A mechanism that could be responsible for global → spiral structure in galaxies either by itself or in conjunction with spiral → density waves. In this mechanism, star formation is caused by → supernova-induced → shocks which compress the → interstellar medium. The → massive stars thus formed may, when they explode, induce further → star formation. If conditions are right, the process becomes self-propagating, resulting in agglomerations of young stars and hot gas which are stretched into spiral shaped features by → differential rotation. Merging of small agglomerations into larger ones may then produce large-scale spiral structure over the entire galaxy. The SSPSF model, first suggested by Mueller & Arnett (1976) was developed by Gerola & Seiden (1978). While the → density wave theory postulates that spiral structure is due to a global property of the galaxy, the SSPSF model examines the alternative viewpoint, namely that spiral structure may be induced by more local processes. The two mechanisms are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they involve very different approaches to the modeling of galaxy evolution. The SSPSF gives a better fit than the density wave theory to the patchy spiral arms found in many spiral galaxies. However, it cannot explain → galactic bars.

→ stochastic; → self; → propagate; → star; → formation.