An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Between atoms; relating to the interaction of different atoms.

→ inter-; → atomic.

A weighted average of the time kept by about 200 caesium atomic clocks in over 50 national laboratories worldwide. It has been available since 1955, and became the international standard on which UTC is based on January 1972.

→ international; → atomic; → time.

The ratio of the mass of an atom of the → chemical element to one-twelfth the mass of an atom of carbon-12. Because an element in nature is usually a mixture of isotopes, the relative atomic mass is also the weighted mean of the atomic masses of all the atoms in a particular sample of the element, weighted by isotopic abundance. In this sense, relative atomic mass was once known as → atomic weight.

→ relative; → atomic; → mass.

Of, relating to, or being smaller than the atom; of or relating to the inside of the atom.

→ sub-; → atomic.

Any particle that is small compared to the size of the atom, e.g. an electron, proton, neutron, neutrino, quark, meson, all of which are either bosons or fermions.

→ subatomic; → particle.

The hydrogen molecule composed of three atoms in which one of the atoms is ionized. The molecular ion H₃⁺ plays a key role in the chemistry of gaseous → interstellar medium. It reacts efficiently with almost any neutral atom or molecule to initiate a network of ion-neutral reactions. It is responsible for producing molecules such as OH, CO, and H₂O. The first detection of H₃⁺ in the interstellar medium, via two closely spaced absorption lines (doublet) near 3.668 μm, were reported in two dense → molecular cloud cores along the lines of sight to the embedded → young stellar objects W33A and GL2136 (Geballe & Oka 1996). Since then H₃⁺ has been detected in several molecular clouds. It is believed that H₃⁺ forms via → cosmic ray → ionization of H₂ producing H₂⁺, which quickly reacts to another H₂ molecule to form H₃⁺ ( H₂ + CR → H₂⁺ and H₂⁺ + H₂→ H₃⁺ + H + 1.7 eV).

Tri-, → three; → atomic; → hydrogen; → molecular; → ion.