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

A prefix occurring originally in loanwords from L., with the basic meaning "on the far side of, beyond, extremely."

From L. ultra- from ultra (adverb and preposition) "beyond, on the further side," from *ulter, from uls "beyond;" + *-ter suffix of comparative adj.; PIE base *al- "besides, other, beyond."

Ultar-, from Mid.Pers. ul "up, upward," ulêh "upward, above" (Av. ərəδuua- "upright, risen; cf. Skt. ūrdhvá- "high, above, elevated; Gr. orthos "set upright, straight;" L. arduus "high, steep;" → ortho-) + -tar suffix forming comparative adjectives (Mid.Pers. -tar; Av. -tara- (masculine); PIE base *-tero).

A galaxy of low stellar density, defined to have low central → surface brightness (> 24 mag arcsec^-2) and an → effective radius (R_e) of over 1.5 kpc. The question of whether UDGs represent a separate class of galaxies is still under debate. Currently, known UDGs that have been discovered in clusters, in groups, and in the field can have R_e as large as 5 kpc which is comparable to that of giant Milky Way like galaxies. This fact has been used to suggest that UDGs are "failed" giants. As R_e captures (at most) the central parts of giant galaxies, whether this radius can be used to fairly compare the sizes of UDGs to the more massive galaxies is questionable (see, e.g., Chamba et al., 2020, A&A 633, L3).

Term proposed by van Dokkum et al. (2015), arXiv: 1410.8141v2; → ultra-; → diffuse; → galaxy.

A particle belonging to the most energetic population of → cosmic rays with an energy above ~ 10²⁰ → electron-volts. The UHECRs constitute a real challenge for theoretical models, because their acceleration requires extreme conditions hardly fulfilled by known astrophysical objects. See also → UHECR puzzle, → Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff.

→ ultra- + → high-energy cosmic ray.

A neutrino particle accelerated to energies above 10¹⁸ → electron-volts. They are produced by the interaction of → ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR)s with the → cosmic microwave background radiation. Also called → cosmogenic neutrinos. See also → Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit.

→ ultra-; → high; → energy; → neutrino.