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

1) The length of time that a celestial body or an evolutionary stage of it has existed, i.e. the age of a massive star, the age of a galaxy, a stellar cluster, and so on.
2) a: A period of time in the history of the Universe marked by a distinctive characteristic. → cosmic dark age. b: A division of geologic time in the history of the Earth, usually shorter than an epoch.

From O.Fr. aage, from Vulgar L. *ætaticum, from L. ætatem "period of life," from ævum "lifetime, eternity, age;" cf. Mid.Pers. awâm, âwâm "time, season," Av. âyav- "duration, period, time of life," Skt. âyuh- "life, health". All from PIE *aiw-, *ayu- "vital force, life, long life, eternity."

Senn from Ar. senn "age, lifetime". Asr from Ar.

Same as → Moon's age.

→ Moon's age.

The time elapsed since the → Big Bang.

→ age; → universe.

Alternative name for the star Hadar, the second brightest star in Centaurus and the tenth brightest star in the sky. → Hadar.

The etymology of Agena is not clear. Some sources have suggested L. a genu "by the knee," but it seems dubious.

1) Something such as a chemical substance, organism, or natural force that causes an effect.
2) Somebody who provides a particular service for another.

From L. agentem (nominative agens, genitive agentis), pr.p. of agere "to set in motion, drive, lead, conduct," → act.

Konešgar, from koneš verbal noun of kardan "to do, to make" (Mid.Pers. kardan, O.Pers./Av. kar- "to do, make, build," Av. kərənaoiti "makes," cf. Skt. kr- "to do, to make," krnoti "makes," karma "act, deed;" PIE base k^wer- "to do, to make") + -gar, → -or.

Meteo.: The wind component deviating from the → geostrophic wind in the absence of the → geostrophic balance. In other words, ageostrophic wind is the difference between the true wind and the geostrophic wind.

From negation prefix → a- + → geostrophic; → wind.

A comprehensive treatise, compiled by Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria, around A.D. 140, that summarized the astronomy, geography, and mathematics of antiquity, and included a star catalogue with data for 1,022 stars.

Almagest, from Ar. Al-majisti, from al "the" + Gk. megiste (suntaxis) "the greatest (composition)," from femenine of megistos, superlative of megas "great."

A language that is characterized largely by the fact that it depends on word order, rather than on inflections (grammatical endings), to convey sentence meanings. In an analytic language relations between nouns and adjectives are expressed using prepositions. English and (to a lesser extent) French, and Persian are considered analytic languages, while German and Russian are → synthetic languages.

→ analytic; → language.

An artificially created language system for international communication or for a specific intellectual or scientific purpose. Examples include Esperanto, computer programing languages, → symbolic logic, and → tensor analysis.

→ artificial; → language.

A number representing a group of quantities, obtained by adding each quantity of the group and dividing the total by the number of quantities. Same as → arithmetic mean.

From O.Fr. avarie "damage to ship," from It. avaria or maybe avere, O.Fr. aveir "property, goods," from L. habere "to have." Meaning shifted to "equal sharing of such loss by the interested parties."

Miyângin "the middle; middle-sized; the middle pearl in a string," from miyân, → middle, + -gin a suffix forming adjectives of possession.

Of a body traveling from A to B, the change of → velocity divided by the time interval: ā = (v₂ - v₁) / (t₂ - t₁).

→ average; → acceleration.

The ratio of the displacement (Δx) of a particle, as it moves from point A to point B, to the corresponding time interval: v = Δx/Δt.

→ average; → velocity.

A transitional class of object between the classic spiral galaxies and true irregular systems. The → Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest and best studied example of the class, is, contrary to popular opinion, not an irregular galaxy. The LMC and other members of the SBm class have definite structural signatures. They are generally dominated by a pronounced asymmetric bar -- one that is offset from the optical center of the galaxy -- with a nascent spiral arm emanating from one end. As is the case with irregular galaxies, the optical centers of SBm type systems are not particularly special places. Disk systems later than Sc characteristically lack a central stellar concentration in addition to having weak spiral structure; this is true of SBm-type galaxies. SBm galaxies are typically very active in their star formation activity, often containing a large star-forming complex situated at one end of the bar. Beyond these general trends there is a tremendous amount of dispersion in physical properties within the SBm class, particularly in the strength of the spiral structure. At one extreme are the "one-armed" spirals such as NGC 3664 and NGC 4027 which are dominated by single, looping spiral arm. On the other hand NGC 4861 shows little evidence of spiral structure and it is dominated by a large star-forming complex at one end of its bar. The class smoothly leads to the Barred Magellanic irregulars (IBm) which show no indication of spiral structure (Wilcots et al. 1996, AJ 111, 1575).

→ Magellanic; → spiral; → galaxy.

A voltage applied or developed between two electrodes as a bias.

→ bias; → voltage.

An image which is dim, indistinct, or vague in appearance, for instance when the optics is not well-focused or when the seeing is poor. The same as → unsharp image, contrary to → sharp image.

Blurred, p.p. of → blur; → image.

A period of time between the → Stone Age and the → Iron Age when bronze was used widely to make tools, weapons, and other implements. The Bronze Age starts at different areas of the world at different times. The earliest use of bronze for making farm tools and weapons are found in Near and Middle East and date back to about 3700 BC. The Bronze Age starts about 2300 BC in Europe.

→ bronze; → age.

1) An enclosure, usually made with bars or wire, for keeping birds or wild animals.
2) An enclosed structure resembling a cage. → observer's cage, → Faraday cage.

M.E. from O.Fr. cage, from L. cavea "hollow place, enclosure for animals," cognate with Pers. kâv "hollow," → concave.

Qafas "cage," of unknown origin.

Of a pulsar, a normalized period of rotation assumed to be a good approximation to pulsar's true age.

→ characteristic; → age.

An image made up of several individual images of relatively short exposure times which are added together in order to produce a final image of higher quality.

Co-added, from → co- "together" + added p.p. of → add; → image.

Tasvir, → image; hamafzudé from ham- "together", → com-, + afzudé p.p. of afzudan, → add.

A general heading which covers a wide variety of complex views on → quantum theory. As the first and the founding interpretation of the → quantum mechanics, it was developed in the late 1920's mainly by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, but also Werner Heisenberg, Max Born and other physicists who made important contributions to the overall understanding of this field. Bohr expressed himself on the subject at various meetings and later published several articles and comments, but he never wrote a systematic and complete version of his views. There is not a unique Copenhagen Interpretation but various more or less complete versions, the common denominator of which is mainly the work of Bohr. Among those opposed to the Copenhagen Interpretation have been Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Louis de Broglie, Max Planck, David Bohm, Alfred Landé, Karl Popper, and Bertrand Russell. The Copenhagen Interpretation recognizes that the deterministic picture of the universe that works so well at the macroscopic level does not work for the world at the quantum level. The universe at the quantum level is predictable only in a statistical sense. This implies that we can never really know the nature of quantum phenomena. The four cornerstones of the Copenhagen Interpretation are: → wave-particle duality, the probability → wave function, the → uncertainty principle, and the significance of the → observer. The observer is of the utmost importance because he causes the reality to unfold in the way it does. The key feature of the Copenhagen Interpretation is a concept known as the → collapse of the wave function, for which there is no known physical explanation; see also → Schrodinger's cat.

Copenhagen, from Dan. København "merchant's port," from køber "merchant" ("buyer") + havn "port," from the fact that the originator and chief interpreter of this school was Niels Bohr whose headquarters was in Copenhagen; → interpretation.