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

A concentration of stars and gas in the innermost region of a galaxy, sometimes extending over thousands of light-years from the center of the galaxy.

→ galactic; → nucleus.

→ galactic-scale outflow.

→ galactic; → outflow.

The plane in which the → disk of a → spiral galaxy, such as our → Milky Way, lies.

→ galactic; → plane.

The point on the sky, north or south, at which the galaxy's rotation axis would meet the celestial sphere.

→ galactic; → pole.

A diffuse radio signal that originates outside the solar system. It is strongest in the direction of the Galactic plane.

→ galactic; → radio; → noise.

The revolving of the gaseous and stellar content of a galaxy around its central nucleus. The rotation is not uniform, but differential. One revolution of the Sun within our own Galaxy takes about 220 million years, or one cosmic year.

→ galactic; → rotation.

The discrepancy between observed galaxy → rotation curves and the theoretical prediction, assuming a centrally dominated mass associated with the observed luminous material.

→ galactic; → rotation; → problem.

The global shape and the arrangement of the various parts or constituents of a galaxy.

→ galactic; → structure.

Same as → galactic coordinates.

→ galactic; → system.

An outflow of hot gas, analogous to the → solar wind, from a galaxy that has recently undergone a high → burst of star formation or has an → active galactic nucleus. Galactic winds are streams of high speed charged particles blowing out of galaxies with speeds of 300 to 3,000 km s^-1. In the case of starbursts, galactic winds are powered by → stellar winds driven by → massive stars and → supernova explosions. Galactic winds contain a mixture of extremely hot metal-enriched supernova ejecta and cooler entrained gas and dust. Outflowing material has been observed at great distances from galaxies (10 to 100 kpc). In some cases they escape the galaxy potential well and pollute the → intergalactic medium with → heavy elements. A prominent example is the → superwind of the starburst galaxy M82.

→ galactic; → wind.

The regions near the Galactic plane where there is low absorption of light by interstellar clouds so that some external galaxies may be seen through them.

→ galactic; → window.

The time taken for the Sun to revolve once around the center of the Milky Way, amounting to about 220 million years.

→ galactic; → year.

The enormous amounts of → mass and → energy released from active galaxies into the → intergalactic medium. → Supermassive black holes, believed to exist at the centres of active galaxies (→ active galaxy), → accrete matter and liberate huge quantities of energy. The energy output is often observed as → active galactic nuclei (AGN) outflows in a wide variety of forms, e.g. → collimated  → relativistic jets and/or huge overpressured cocoons in → radio, → blueshifted broad → absorption lines in the → ultraviolet and → optical, → warm absorbers and ultrafast outflows in → X-rays, and → molecular gas in → far infrared. Moreover, the processes of → star formation and → supernova explosions release mass/energy into the surroundings. This → stellar feedback heats up, ionizes and drives gas outward, often generating large-scale outflows/→ winds. Galactic outflows are observed at low redshifts reaching a velocity as large as 1000 km s^-1 and at high-z up to z ~ 5, sometimes extending over distances of 60-130 kpc. Galactic-scale outflows may be a primary driver of galaxy evolution through the removal of cool gas from star-forming regions to a galaxy's → halo or beyond.

→ galactic; → scale; → outflow.

Of or relative to the center of a galaxy.

From galacto-, combining form of → galaxy + centric, adj. of rarr; center.

The distance from the center of a galaxy.

→ galactocentric; → distance.

In the atomic theory of spectral line formation, a quantum mechanical correction factor applied to the absorption coefficient in the transition of an electron from a bound or free state to a free state.

Gaunt, after John Arthur Gaunt (1904-1944), English physicist born in China, who significantly contributed to the calculation of continuous absorption using quantum mechanics; → factor

The limiting case of → astronomical refraction when the light path is entirely within the Earth's atmosphere.

→ geodetic; → refraction.

The natural variations in the → geomagnetic field due to interactions of the Earth's field and → magnetosphere with energetic particles from the Sun.

→ geomagnetic; → activity.

A model for → Moon formation (initially put forward by Hartmann and Davis, 1975, Icarus 24, 504), according to which the → proto-Earth suffered a collision with another → protoplanet near the end of the → accretion process that ejected material into a → circumterrestrial disk, out of which the Moon formed. Also called → canonical model. The giant impact hypothesis is the leading theory for lunar formation. There are, however, some key observations that cannot be explained using this model. First, the Moon is a large fraction of the mass of Earth (~ 1%) and it is difficult to get enough mass into orbit to form such a massive Moon. Second, the Moon has a similar bulk composition to the Earth, but it is missing large amounts of more → volatile elements. The model does not properly explain Moon's distinctive composition. Finally, Earth and the Moon share virtually the same → isotopic ratios. It is therefore expected that the body that hit the Earth, often called → Theia, would have had a different isotopic ratio than the proto-Earth. In the canonical model, most of the mass of the Moon comes from Theia and so the Moon should have a different isotopic fingerprint than Earth, but it does not. The type of impact that formed the Moon in the canonical model is dictated by a very strong constraint, the → angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system. It is assumed that the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system immediately after the Moon formed was the same as it is today. This assumption limits the velocity of the impact, the mass of the impacting bodies, and the angle at which the two bodies collided. It was found that only a grazing impact with a Mars-mass impactor at near the escape velocity can put enough mass into orbit to potentially form a lunar-mass Moon. This is why the canonical model is such a specific type of impact. However, the angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system could have been reduced over time by competition between the gravitational pull of Earth, the Moon and the Sun. Therefore, the Moon-forming collision could have been much more energetic than the canonical impact.
Simon Lock and Sarah Stewart (2017, J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 122, 950-982) have shown that such high-energy, high-angular momentum impacts can produce a different type of planetary object, → synestias. High-energy impacts vaporize a substantial fraction (~ 10%) of the rock of the impacting bodies and the resulting synestias can be huge, with equatorial radii of more than ten times that of the present-day Earth. Because the impact-produced synestia was so big, the Moon formed inside the vapor of the synestia surrounded by gas at pressures of tens of bars and temperatures of 3000-4000 K. Fragments of molten rock from the impact collided together and formed a lunar seed orbiting within the vapor of the synestia. The surface of the synestia was hot (2300 K) and the body cooled rapidly. The loss of energy led to the condensation of rock droplets at the surface of the synestia, and a torrential rock rain fell towards the center of the synestia. Some of this rain was revaporized in the hot vapor of the synestia, but some encountered the lunar seed, and the Moon grew. As the synestia cooled, more of the vapor condensed and the body contracted rapidly. After ten years or so, the synestia shrank inside the orbit of the Moon and the nearly fully-formed Moon emerged from the vapor of the synestia. The synestia continued to cool and became a planet within a thousand years or so of the Moon emerging from the structure. Without the tight constraint of the angular momentum, impacts that form synestias can put a lot more mass into the outer regions of the synestia than can be put into the disk in the canonical impact. This makes forming a large, lunar-mass Moon much easier. Moreover, because the Moon formed within the synestia, surrounded by hot vapor, it inherited its composition from Earth but only retained the elements that are more difficult to vaporize. The more volatile elements remained in the vapor of the synestia. When the synestia cooled and contracted inside the Moon's orbit, it took all the more volatile elements with it. This model can also help explain the isotopic similarity between Earth and the Moon. The Moon inherited its isotopic fingerprint from the vapor that surrounded it in the outer regions of the synestia. Energetic impacts that form synestias tend to efficiently mix material from the two colliding bodies, and the outer portions of the synestia in which the Moon formed would have had an isotopic composition that was similar to the rest of the synestia. Earth and the Moon therefore share a similar isotopic fingerprint which is made by a mixture of the isotopic compositions of both the bodies that collided.

→ giant; → impact; → hypothesis.

The force that pulls material bodies toward one another because of → gravitation.

→ gravitational; → attraction.