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

1) General: A device or a set of wires that receives or sends out radio signals.
2) In radio astronomy, the major dish-like component or wired structure used to collect radio signals.

L. antenna "sail yard," the long yard that sticks up on some sails, of unknown origin, perhaps from PIE base *temp- "to stretch, extend." In this sense, it is a translation of Gk. keraiai "horns" (of insects).

Âten, from Fr. antenne, from L. as above.

A measure of the directivity of a radio telescope. It is the ratio of the amount of power received in the direction the dish is pointing to the smaller amount of power from other directions in the sidelobes.

→ antenna; → gain.

A three-dimensional section of the → radiation pattern ofa directional antenna, bounded by one or more cones of nulls or by regions of diminished irradiance.

→ antenna; → lobe.

The response of an antenna to incident radiation as a function of the direction of incidence of the radiation. A generic antenna pattern consists of a → main lobe and a number of smaller → side lobes. Also called → radiation pattern.

→ antenna; → pattern.

In radio astronomy, a measure of the power absorbed by the antenna. In an ideal, loss-free radio telescope, the antenna temperature is equal to the brightness temperature if the intensity of the received radiation is constant within the main lobe. → antenna; → temperature.

antenna; → temperature.

The pair of colliding galaxies NGC4038 and NGC4039 and the long arcing insect-like "antennae" of luminous matter revealed by optical telescopes. The "antennae" are believed to have been produced by the collision between the galaxies that began about 100 million years ago and is still occurring. The Antennae Galaxies, about 60 million → light-years from Earth, lie in the constellation → Corvus.

Antennae, plural of → antenna; → galaxy.

Kahkešânhâ, plural of kahkešân→ galaxy; šâxak "insect antenna," from šâx "horn" (Mid.Pers šâk, cf. Skt. sakha- "a branch, a limb," Arm. cax, Lit. šaka, O.S. soxa, PIE *kakhâ "branch") + -ak suffix denoting relation, affinity, similarity (as in dastak, pos(tak, pas(mak, xarak, nâxonak, mus(ak, eynak);

One of the simplest kinds of antenna which is connected at the center to a radio-frequency feed line for transmitting or receiving radio frequency energy. It differs from the dish antenna in that it consists of many separate antennas that collect energy by feeding all their weak individual signals into one common receiving set.

→ dipole; → antenna.

A space project, initially → LISA, consisting of a configuration of three satellites, aimed to detect low frequency → gravitational waves that cannot be measured by ground-based detectors. The detection range will be from about 0.1 milliHz to 1 Hz. One "mother" and two "daughter" spacecrafts will be brought into an orbit around the Sun, which is similar to the Earth's orbit. The satellites will fly in a near-equilateral triangle formation, with a constant distance of one million km between, following the Earth along its orbit at a distance of around 50 million km. The mother spacecrafts carries two and each of the daughter spacecraft carry one free-flying → test masses that will be kept as far as possible free of external disturbances. The mutual distances of the test masses from satellite to satellite will be measured by means of high-precision, → Michelson-like laser → interferometry. In this way, the extremely small distance variations between the test masses of two satellites can be detected which are caused by the passages of a gravitational waves. The required measurement accuracy of the distances amounts to typically 1/100 of the diameter of a hydrogen atom (10^-12 m) at a distance of two million km.

→ evolve; → laser; → interferometer; → space; → antenna.

A collaborative project between → NASA and → ESA to develop and operate a space-based gravitational wave detector sensitive at frequencies between 0.03 mHz and 0.1 Hz. LISA detects gravitational-wave induced strains in → space-time by measuring changes of the separation between fiducial masses in three spacecraft 5 million km apart. Ultimately, NASA and ESA decided in 2011 not to proceed with the mission. LISA was not the highest ranked mission in the 2010 Decadal Survey and funding constraints prevented NASA from proceeding with multiple large missions (http://lisa.nasa.gov). → LISA pathfinder.

→ laser; → interferometer; → space; → antenna.

An antenna comprising a parabolic reflector with a receiving and/or transmitting element positioned at or near its focal point.

→ parabolic; → antenna.

A very familiar antenna array, which is the commonest kind of terrestrial TV aerial to be found on the rooftops of houses. It consists of a single "feed" or "driven element," usually a dipole antenna. The rest of the elements help transmit the energy in a particular direction. These antennas typically operate in the HF to UHF bands (about 3 MHz to 3 GHz), although their bandwidth is typically small. In astronomy Yagi antennas are used as elements in some → radio interferometers. Same as Yagi-Uda antenna.

Named after the Japanese electrical engineer Hidetsuga Yagi (1886-1976); → antenna.