An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The act or process of becoming dark or darker. → limb darkening.

Verbal noun of of → darken.

The darkening, or brightening, of a region on a star due to localized decrease, or increase, in the → effective gravity. Gravity darkening is explained by the → von Zeipel theorem, whereby on stellar surface the → radiative flux is proportional to the effective gravity. This means that in → rotating stars regions close to the pole are brighter (and have higher temperature) than regions close to the equator. Gravity darkening occurs also in corotating → binary systems, where the → tidal force leads to both gravity darkening and gravity brightening. The effects are often seen in binary star → light curves. See also → gravity darkening exponent. Recent theoretical work (Espinosa Lara & Rieutord, 2011, A&A 533, A43) has shown that gravity darkening is not well represented by the von Zeipel theorem. This is supported by new interferometric observations of some rapidly rotating stars indicating that the von Zeipel theorem seems to overestimate the temperature difference between the poles and equator.

→ gravity; → darkening

According to the → von Zeipel theorem, the emergent flux, F, of total radiation at any point over the surface of a rotationally or tidally distorted star in → hydrostatic equilibrium varies proportionally to the local gravity acceleration: F ∝ g_eff^α, where g_eff is the → effective gravity and α is the gravity darkening coefficient. See also the → gravity darkening exponent.

→ gravity; → darkening; → coefficient.

The exponent appearing in the power law that describes the → effective temperature of a → rotating star as a function of the → effective gravity, as deduced from the → von Zeipel theorem or law. Generalizing this law, the effective temperature is usually expressed as T_eff∝ g_eff^β, where β is the gravity darkening exponent with a value of 0.25. It has, however, been shown that the relation between the effective temperature and gravity is not exactly a power law. Moreover, the value of β = 0.25 is appropriate only in the limit of slow rotators and is smaller for fast rotating stars (Espinosa Lara & Rieutord, 2011, A&A 533, A43).

→ gravity; → darkening; → exponent.

One of a series of dark spots on → Neptune similar in appearance to Jupiter's → Great Red Spot. It was discovered in 1989 by NASA's Voyager 2 space probe. Also known as GDS-89. The dark, oval spot had initial dimensions of 13,000 × 6,600 km, about the same size as Earth. Although it appears similar to Jupiter's spot, which is an → anticyclonic storm, it is believed that the Great Dark Spot is an atmospheric hole similar to the hole in Earth's → ozone layer ozone layer. Moreover, unlike Jupiter's spot, which has lasted for hundreds of years, the lifetimes of Great Dark Spots appear to be much shorter, forming and disappearing once every few years or so. Based on pictures taken by Voyager and since then with the → Hubble Space Telescope, Neptune appears to spend somewhat more than half its time with a Great Dark Spot. Around the Great Dark Spot, winds were measured blowing up to 2,400 km an hour, the fastest in the solar system.

→ great; → dark; → spot.

Any form of → dark matter which had a significant velocity dispersion (comparable to the velocity of light), when the Universe first became → matter-dominated.

→ hot; → dark; → matter.

A → dark cloud characterized by a → visual extinction A_v≥ 10² mag. IRDCs are opaque even at 8 μm, and can be seen in silhouette against the bright diffuse → mid-infrared emission in the → interstellar medium.

→ infrared; → dark; → cloud.

The → standard model of → Big Bang that incorporates both → dark matter and → dark energy. See also → cold dark matter (CDM).

→ lambda, → cosmological constant; → cold; → dark; → matter; → model.

An apparent decrease in brightness of the Sun near its edge as compared to its brightness toward the center. Limb darkening is readily apparent in photographs of the Sun. The reason is that when we look toward the disk's center we look into deeper and hence hotter layers along the line of sight. Toward the limb, we get radiation from higher and hence cooler and less bright layers of the → photosphere. Limb darkening has been detected in the case of several other stars. A similar phenomenon occurs in → eclipsing binaries where the effect of limb darkening on one or both components manifests itself in the shape of the system's → light curve.

→ limb; → darkening.

Any of the several → dark clouds lying in the direction of the constellation → Lupus between → Galactic longitudes 334° < l < 352° and → Galactic latitudes +5° < b < +25°. In terms of angular extent the whole group is one of the largest low-mass star forming complexes on the sky, and it also contains one of the richest associations of → T Tauri stars. An average distance of about 150 pc places it among the nearest star forming regions, together with those in Corona Australis, Ophiuchus, Taurus-Auriga, and Chamaeleon (Comeron, 2008, in Handbook of Star Forming Regions Vol. II, PASP, Reipurth, ed.).

→ Lupus; → dark; → cloud.

→ Dark matter composed of → non-baryonic particles.

→ non-; → baryonic; → dark; → matter.