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

A → binary system consisting of two → black holes in close orbit around each other. Same as → black hole binary.

→ binary; → black; → hole.

A → dual supermassive black hole whose components are separated by a few parsecs.

→ binary; → supermassive; → black; → hole.

Very dark in color; absorbing light without reflecting any of its various rays.

Black, from O.E. blæc "black," from P.Gmc. *blak-, from PIE *bhelg- "to shine, flash, burn" (cf. Gk. phlegein "to burn, scorch," L. flagrare "to blaze, glow, burn," fulgur "lightning").

Siyâh or siyah, from Mid.Pers. siyâ, siyâk, siyâvah "black," Av. sâma-, sayâva- "black, dark," cf. Skt. syama-, syava- "black, brown," Gk. skia "shadow."

The appearance of a band linking the solar limb to the disk of a transiting planet (Venus or Mercury) near the point of internal tangency. This effect increases the uncertainty in measuring the period from when the planet fully enters the solar disk to when it begins to depart. Historically, the black drop phenomenon limited the accuracy of the determination of the Astronomical Unit and the scale of the Solar System in the 18th and 19th centuries. While there have been many proposed theories over the years, the true cause of the effect was revealed during a transit of Mercury in 1999, which was observed by the NASA's TRACE satellite. Two effects could fully explain the black drop: the inherent blurriness of the image caused by the finite size of the telescope (→ point spread function), and an extreme dimming of the Sun's surface just inside the apparent outer edge (→ limb darkening). See Schneider et al. 2004, Icarus 168, 249.

→ black; → drop.

A fantastically → compact object, predicted by the theory of → general relativity, whose → gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape from it. A black hole forms when matter → collapses to → infinite  → density, producing a → singularity of infinite → curvature in the fabric of → space-time. Each black hole is surrounded by an → event horizon, at which the → escape velocity is the → speed of light. The → Schwarzschild radius for the Sun is about 3 km and for the Earth about 1 cm. There is observational evidence for black holes on a remarkable range of scales in the Universe: → stellar black hole, → intermediate-mass black hole, → primordial black hole, → mini black hole, → supermassive black hole, → Schwarzschild black hole, → Kerr black hole.

Historically, the Newtonian concept of such a celestial body appeared at the end of the 18th century when light was shown to have particle characteristics. In fact the English geologist John Mitchell (1724-1793) and French mathematician and astronomer Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827), independently, suggested that regions of space, where gravitational attraction was so strong that not even light could escape, may exist in the Universe. However, the term black hole was coined in 1967 by the Princeton physicist John A. Wheeler (1911-2008); → black; → hole.

A → binary system in which each component is a → black hole. The binary's evolution can be divided into three stages: → inspiral, → merger, and → ringdown.

→ black; → hole; → binary.

An object that seems likely to be a → black hole, but waits for more observational confirmations.

→ black; → hole; → candidate.

A spherical volume of hot plasma over a broader → accretion disk around a → black hole. The observation of energetic X-ray emission from black holes, which is inconsistent with → thermal emission from an accretion disk, is attributed to the presence of a putative hot corona. It has been widely postulated that the → hard X-rays are the product of → inverse Compton scattering of seed photons from accretion disks by hot ccoronae (See, e.g., F.L. Vieyro et al., 2010, arXiv:1005.5398 and R. C. Reis & J. M. Miller, 2013, arXiv:1304.4947).

→ black; → hole; → corona.

The collision of two → black holes in a → binary black hole system once they come so close that they cannot escape each other's gravity. They will merge in an extremely violent event to become one more massive black hole. The merger would produce tremendous energy and send massive ripples, called → gravitational waves, through the → space-time fabric of the Universe. Such an event (called GW150914) was first detected by the → Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on September 14, 2015. The initial black hole masses were 36 and 29 Msun which gave a final black hole mass of 62 Msun, with 3 Msun radiated in gravitational waves. The event happened at a distance of 1.3 billion → light-years from Earth (Abbott et al., 2016, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102). Black hole merger is preceded by → inspiral and followed by → ringdown.

→ black; → hole; → merger.

The acceleration of gravity at the → event horizon of a → black hole. For a → Schwarzschild back hole it is given by κ = GM/R_Sch² = c⁴/(4GM).

→ black; → hole; → surface; → gravity.

A gravitationally lensed image of a → black hole as seen by a distant observer if the black hole is in front of a bright background. According to → general relativity, photons circling the black hole slightly inside the boundary of the → photon sphere will fall down into the → event horizon, while photons circling just outside will escape to infinity. The shadow appears therefore as a rather sharp boundary between bright and dark regions and arises from a deficit of those photons that are captured by the event horizon. Because of this, the diameter of the shadow does not depend on the photons energy, but uniquely on the → angular momentum of the black hole. In a pioneering study, Bardeen (1973) calculated the shape of a dark area of a → Kerr black hole, that is, its "shadow" over a bright background appearing, for instance, in the image of a bright star behind the black hole.

→ black; → hole; → shadow.

The extension of the → black hole concept in a → space-time with → dimensions higher than 4. Theoretically, it is possible to extend the 4D black hole with S² horizon into the fifth dimension producing a hypercylindrical black hole S²× R. Black strings are unstable; it is not yet well understood whether they end up as black holes or different objects.

→ black; → string.

A class of binary millisecond pulsars in which the pulsar is eclipsed by its stellar companion, and the companion is being gradually ablated by the relativistic wind of the pulsar. The first system discovered in 1988 was PSR 1957+20, a 1.6074 millisecond in a near circular 9 hr orbit around a low-mass companion star.

Black widow, a venomous spider (Latrodectus mactans), shiny, coal black in color, that lives in North and South America. The female averages 8-10 mm in length and has long slender legs and a round abdomen. → black; widow, from O..E. widewe, widuwe, from P.Gmc. *widewo (cf. Du. weduwe, weeuw, Ger. Witwe), from PIE *widhewo (cf. Av. viδavâ-, Mid.Pers. wêwag, Mod.Pers. bivé, Skt. vidhava-, L. vidua, Rus. vdova,); → pulsar.

Tapâr , → pulsar; siyâh-bivé "black widow," from siyâh, → black + bivé, akin to E. widow, as explained above.

A theoretical object that is simultaneously a perfect → absorber (it does not reflect any radiation) and a perfect → emitter of → radiation in all → wavelengths and whose radiation is governed solely by its → temperature. Blackbody radiation cannot be explained by → classical physics. The study of its characteristics has, therefore, played an important role in the development of → quantum mechanics. A blackbody can be realized in the form of a cavity with highly absorbing internal walls and a small aperture. Any ray entering through the aperture can leave the cavity only after repeated reflection from the walls. When the aperture is sufficiently small, therefore, the cavity will absorb practically all the radiation incident on the aperture, and so the surface of the aperture will be a black body. The light within the cavity will always interact and exchange energy with the material particles of the walls and any other material particles present. This interaction will eventually → thermalize the radiation within the cavity, producing a → blackbody spectrum, represented by a → blackbody curve.
See also → blackbody photosphere; → blackbody radiation; → Planck's blackbody formula; → Planck's radiation law; → Rayleigh-Jeans law; → Stefan-Boltzmann law; → thermalization; → Wien's displacement law.

→ black; → body.

The characteristic way in which the → intensity of → radiation emitted by a → blackbody varies with its → frequency (or → wavelength), as described by → Planck's radiation law. Also referred to as the → Planck curve. The exact form of the curve depends only on the object's → temperature. The wavelength at which the emitted intensity is highest is an indication of the temperature of the radiating object. As the temperature of the blackbody increases, the peak wavelength decreases (→ Wien's displacement law) and the total energy being radiated (the area under the curve) increases rapidly (→ Stefan-Boltzmann law).

→ blackbody; → curve.

The → blackbody surface of the → Universe defined at a → redshift of about z ≥ 2 × 10⁶. This is distinct from the → last scattering surface, in other words the → cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), which refers to z = 1100. Prior to the epoch of the blackbody photosphere the distortions from the → Big Bang are exponentially suppressed.

→ blackbody; → atmosphere.

The radiation emitted by a blackbody at a given → temperature. The → distribution of radiation with → wavelength is given by → Planck's blackbody formula or → Planck's radiation law.

→ blackbody; → radiation.

A curve displaying → blackbody radiation intensity versus the wavelength for a given temperature, according to → Planck's blackbody formula. It is an asymmetrical curve with a sharp rise on the short wavelength side and a much more gradually sloping long-wavelength tale. Same as → Planck spectrum.

→ blackbody; → spectrum.

The temperature at which a blackbody would emit the same radiation per unit area as that emitted by a given body at a given temperature.

→ blackbody; → temperature.

1) A period of darkness caused by a complete loss of electrical power in a particular area.
2) The extinguishing of all artificial light enforced as a precaution against air raids.

→ black; → out.

Xâmušzâr, târikzâr from xâmuš "extinguished," → extinction, târik, → dark, + -zâr suffix denoting profusion and abundance, sometimes with negative nuance, such as in šurezâr "unfertile, salty ground; nitrous earth," xoškzâr "arid land far from water," lajanzâr "field of black mud, marsh," kârzâr "a field of battle; conflict; engagement."