An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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One of the three obscured → Galactic center clusters, which contains the supermassive black hole → Sgr A*. The first stars observed in the Central cluster were evolved → massive stars showing strong He I emission lines (2.058 microns) in the near infrared K band. Subsequently more than 80 massive stars were detected including various types of → Wolf-Rayet stars, as well as → O-type and → B-type → supergiants and → dwarfs (see, e.g. Martins et al. 2007, A&A 468, 233).

→ central; → cluster.

An eclipse during which the axis of the lunar shadow cone intersects the Earth's surface (in the case of solar eclipses) or the axis of the terrestrial shadow cone intersects the Moon's surface (in the case of lunar eclipses). The total and annular solar eclipses are usually central. They can also be not central; then, they are visible only from places situated at high latitudes (M.S.: SDE).

A → force that is always directed toward a fixed point and whose → magnitude depends only on the distance from that point. Mathematically, F is a central force if and only if: F = f(r)r₁ = f(r)r/r, where r₁ = r/r is a unit → vector in the direction of r. If f(r) < 0 the force is said to be → attractive toward the source. If f(r) > 0 the force is said to be → repulsive from the source. In other words, a central force is one whose → potential, V(r), depends only on the → distance from the source. → Gravitational force and → electrostatic force are central, with V(r)∝ 1/r.

→ central; → force.

A statement about the characteristics of the sampling distribution of means of → random samples from a given → statistical population. For any set of independent, identically distributed random variables, X₁, X₂,..., X_n, with a → mean μ and → variance σ², the distribution of the means is equal to the mean of the population from which the samples were drawn. Moreover, if the original population has a → normal distribution, the sampling distribution of means will also be normal. If the original population is not normally distributed, the sampling distribution of means will increasingly approximate a normal distribution as sample size increases.

→ central; → limit; → theorem.

A vast, turbulent region encircling the → Milky Way's nucleus that contains a large fraction of the → Galaxy's dense → molecular clouds and → star formation regions. Spanning -1 to +1.5 degrees of → Sgr A*, the CMZ is about 400 pc × 100 pc in size and contains at least 10⁷→ solar masses of → giant molecular clouds, approximately 10% of the Galaxy's molecular gas. The gas in the CMZ is at higher temperature than typical giant molecular clouds and has high velocity dispersion reflecting the → turbulent nature of the gas in the area. Despite these extensive molecular reserves, the → star formation rate within the CMZ is actually lower than expected based on the analysis of nearby → star-forming regions in the quiescent → Galactic disk. A common assumption is that this is a result of the extreme conditions within the CMZ, where the density, pressure, temperature, → velocity dispersion and → radiation field are all significantly greater than elsewhere in the Milky Way (Clark et al. 2018, The Messenger 173, 22 and references therein).

→ central; → molecular; → zone.

The uplift of the central parts of the → crater floor due to the impacting force of a large → meteorite. The shock wave entering the Earth will first move in as a compressional wave (P-wave), but after passage of the compressional wave an expansion wave (rarefaction wave) will move back toward the surface. This will cause the floor of the crater to be uplifted and may also cause the rock around the rim of the crater to bent upward.

→ central; → peak.

The primary component of a → computer that processes instructions. It runs the → operating system and → applications, constantly receiving input from the user or active → software programs. The CPU has two typical components: 1) Control Unit, which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them. 2) Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), which handles arithmetic and logical operations.

→ central; → processing; → unit.

Same as → central peak.

→ central; → up; → lift.

→ central; → uplift.

1) In an interference filter, the wavelength of peak transmission.
2) In a spectrograph, the wavelength corresponding to the middle of the range covered by the grating or grism.

Central, adj. from → center; → wavelength.

An → X-ray source detected close to the center of young → supernova remnant (SNR)s that has no apparent emission in other wave-bands and no binary companions. Although these sources have been known and studied for several decades without much understanding of their nature, exciting results over the past few years have brought them into the forefront of → neutron star studies. They have soft, exclusively thermal spectra in the few hundred eV range and X-ray luminosities around 10³³ - 10³⁴ erg s^-1. About ten CCOs are presently known, including the central sources of CasA, Puppis A and Kes 79 supernova remnants. Several, J1852+0040 in Kes79, J0822.0-4300 in Puppis A and 1E 1207.4-5209 in PKS 1209-51/52, have detected pulsations in the hundreds of milliseconds range. J1852+0040 has a detected → period derivative, indicating that it is spinning down like a → rotation-powered pulsar (RPP). The measured period and either measurements or constraints on period derivative indicate that these sources have very low → magnetic fields in the range 10¹⁰ - 10¹¹ G assuming magnetic dipole braking. Since their SNRs are all young, ~ 10³ - 10⁴ yr, they were probably born with unusually low magnetic fields, which makes them "anti-magnetars" (A. K. Harding, 2013, Front. Phys. 8, 679 and references therein).

→ compact; → central; → object.

A member of a class of cntral stars of planetary nebula, → CSPN, which have weaker and narrower emission lines than → Wolf-Rayet-like CSPNe (Tylenda et al. 1993, A&AS 102, 595).

→ weak; → emission; → line.