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

A flow in which the velocity of the constituting particles never exceeds that of sound in the same fluid. Also called subcritical flow.

→ subsonic; → flow.

The → Couette flow between two concentric cylinders with fluid filling the annular region. The flow is generated by the relative rotation of the two cylinders. Under some physical conditions the flow may undergo the → Taylor-Couette instability.

→ Taylor number; → flow.

A flow whose parameters (velocity, pressure, and so on) vary in all three coordinate directions. Considerable simplification in analysis may often be achieved, however, by selecting the coordinate directions so that appreciable variation of the parameters occurs in only two directions, or even only one (B. Massey, Mechanics of Fluids, Taylor & Francis, 2006).

→ three; → dimensional; → flow.

In fluid mechanics, a flow composed of → laminar and → turbulent flows, for which the → Reynolds number is between 2300 and 4000.

→ transition; → flow.

Flow of a fluid over a body with a speed in the range just above and below the → Mach number 1.

→ transonic; → flow.

Same as → flow tube.

→ tube; → tube.

A → flow characterized by → turbulence. In other words, a flow in which the motion at any point varies unpredictably in direction and magnitude. See also → laminar flow; → transitional flow.

→ turbulent; → flow.

A flow whose parameters are functions of time and two space coordinates (x and y) only. There is no variation in the z direction and therefore the same → streamline pattern could at any instant be found in all planes in the fluid perpendicular to the z direction (B. Massey, Mechanics of Fluids, Taylor & Francis, 2006).

→ two; → dimensional; → flow.

A star with a typical mass of one-hundredth of the mass of the Sun (→ solar mass) and a luminosity of about one-millionth that of the Sun (→ solar luminosity). Same as → brown dwarf.

→ very; → low; → mass; → star.

The primary color between green and orange in the visible spectrum; an effect of light with a wavelength between 5700 and 5900 Å. → yellow giant; → yellow supergiant.

M.E. yelou; O.E. geolo, geolu; P.Gmc. *gelwaz (cf. O.S., O.H.G. gelo, M.Du. ghele, Du. geel, Ger. gelb, Swed. gul "yellow"); cognate with Pers. zar "yellow," as below.

Zard "yellow," related to zarr "gold;" Mid.Pers. zard "yellow," zarr "gold;" O.Pers. daraniya- "gold;" Av. zaray-, zairi- "yellow, green," zaranya-, zarənu- "gold;" cf. Skt. hari- "yellow, green," hiranya- "gold;" Gk. chloros "light green," chloe "green shoot;" L. helvus "yellowish, bay;" Rus. zeltyj "yellow;" P.Gmc. *gelwaz, as above.

A star that appears in the upper-middle part of the → H-R diagram, to the left of the → red giants. Yellow giants are low-mass evolved stars that are burning their helium, on their path to the → planetary nebula stage. Most yellow giants behave as variable stars, usually because their outer layers pulsate. Periods of these pulsations are usually days or weeks. The Sun after leaving the red giant stage will become a pulsating yellow giant for some 100 million years.

→ yellow; → giant.

An evolved, → very massive star of spectral type F or G with a very high luminosity (~10⁵ times solar) lying near the empirical upper luminosity boundary in the → H-R diagram (→ Humphreys-Davidson limit). Yellow hypergiants have high → mass loss rates (10^-5-10^-3 solar masses per year) and are in a short, transitional evolutionary stage. Their evolutionary state is thought to correspond to post-red supergiants rapidly evolving in blueward loops in the H-R diagram. In their post-RSG blueward evolution these stars enter a temperature range (6000-9000 K), called → yellow void, with increased dynamical instability. Their link to other advanced evolutionary phases of massive stars such as → Luminous Blue Variables and → Wolf-Rayet stars is still an open issue in stellar evolution theory. The most famous yellow hypergiant is → Rho Cassiopeiae.

→ yellow; → hypergiant.

A supergiant star of type F and G whose effective temperature is between 4800 and 7500 K. Yellow supergiants are extremely rare, because they represent a very short-lived phase, typically a few tens of thousands of year, in the evolution of → massive stars.

→ yellow; → supergiant.

A temperature range (6000-9000 K) in the → H-R diagram occupied by → yellow hypergiants in their post-RSG blueward evolution, where high → mass loss episodes occur.

→ yellow; → void.

The final product obtained from the processing of uranium ores. It is a coarse powder, a mixture of uranium oxides, with about 80% U₃O₈. It has a pungent odor and melts at approximately 2878 °C. The yellowcake produced by most modern mills is actually brown or black, not yellow; the name comes from the color of the concentrates produced by early mining operations due to impurities from ammonium diuranate. Yellowcake must be converted into → uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) before it can be enriched, the process that makes the sort of uranium used by nuclear power plants or bomb-makers (→ uranium enrichment). The uranium hexafluoride is heated to become a gas and loaded into cylinders. When it cools, it condenses into a solid.

→ yellow; cake, M.E., from O.Norse kaka "cake," from which also derive M.Du. koke, Du. koek, Ger. Kuchen.