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

1) An act or instance of animating or enlivening; the state or condition of being animated.
2) The technique of imaging successive drawings or positions of cartoons to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence.

→ animate; → -tion.

A → negatively charged → ion or → radical. Anions in a liquid subjected to electric potential are attracted toward the → anode. See also → cation.

From Gk. anienai "to go up," from an-, from → ana- "up," + -i-, from ire, eo "to go, walk," cf. Pers. ây-, → assembly, + -on, as in → ion.

The process in which the entire → mass of → two colliding → particles, one of → matter and one of → antimatter, is → converted into → radiant energy in the form of → gamma rays. See also → annihilation operator.

L. annihilatus, p.p. of annihilare "to reduce to nothing," from ad- "to" + nihil "nothing," from ne- "not" + hilum "small thing, trifle"

Nâbudi, from nâ- "not" + bud "to be, exist," from budan "to be, exist" + -i noun forming suffix.

In → quantum field theory, the operator that lowers → eigenstates one → energy level, contrarily to the → creation operator.

→ annihilation; → operator.

The apparent, small displacement in position of a star during the year due to the → aberration of starlight. It depends on the → celestial latitude, and its maximum value is about 20''.50. See also → constant of aberration; → aberration orbit.

→ annual; → aberration.

→ annual motion.

→ annual; → apparent; → motion.

An irregularity in the Moon's orbit, which can amount to 11 degrees in a period of one year. It results from the Sun's disturbing effect on the motion of the Moon due to varying distance between them.

→ annual; → equation.

The annual apparent motion of the → Sun in the sky with respect to → fixed stars along the path called → ecliptic. The apparent annual motion is due to the → Earth's → revolution about the Sun. In the course of this motion, the Sun appears to shifts about 1° eastward per day.

→ annual; → motion.

Generally, the variation of a quantity over a year. In particular the yearly change in the right ascension or declination of a star, produced by the combined effects of the precession of the equinoxes and the proper motion of the star.

→ annual; → variation.

The time interval of 27.554 551 days (27d 13h 18m 33.2s), on average, between two successive passages of the Moon through the → perigee of its orbit.

Anomalistic from → anomaly.

Pirâzamini from pirâzamin, → perigee.

The phenomenon whereby the → refractive index of light in a medium changes rapidly with wavelength in the vicinity of an → absorption band. Hence the → dispersion curve of the substance shows marked deviations from → Cauchy's equation, in contrast with the behavior of → normal dispersion. On the shorter λ side of the absorption band the refractive index falls off more rapidly than required by Cauchy's equation representing values of n for visible light. On the long λ side of the absorption band the index is very high, decreasing at first rapidly and then more slowly as one goes beyond the absorption band.

→ anomalous; → dispersion.

Having an unknown or unacknowledged name. → anonymous object.

L. annymus, from Gk. annumos "nameless," from → an- "without" + onoma, onuma "name". Compare with L. nomen, Skt. nama, Av. nama, Mod. Pers. nâm, PIE *nomen "name".

Anâm, from Persian → a-, an- "without" + nâm "name," as above. Binâm, from bi- "without" + nâm.

An → astronomical object which has not been catalogued.

→ anonymous; → object.

The → antiparticle of a → baryon.

→ anti-; → baryon.

Meteorology: Small, faintly colored rings of light surrounding the → antisolar point, seen when looking down at a water cloud. Same as glory.

Anticorona, from → anti- + → corona.

Pâdafsar, from pâd-, → anti- + afsar "corona."
Šokuh "glory."

Statistics: The correlation coefficient of two random variables X and Y is in general defined as the ratio of the Cov(X,Y) to the two standard deviations of X and Y. It varies between 1 and -1 corresponding to complete correlation or anticorrelation.

Anticorrelation, from → anti- + → correlation.

Pâdhambâzâneš, from pâd-, → anti-, + hambâzâneš, → correlation.

Meteo.: A weather phenomenon associated with atmospheric high pressure. In the Northern Hemisphere an anticyclone rotates in the clockwise direction. The rotation is caused by the movement of colder higher pressure air that is moving away from the poles toward the equator being affected by the rotation of the Earth.

→ anti-; → cyclone.

Having a sense of rotation about the local vertical opposite to that of the Earth's rotation. In other words, → clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, → counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, and undefined at the equator. The opposite of → cyclonic (Meteorology Glossary, American Meteorological Society).

→ anticyclone; → -ic.

A silver white metallic element of a flaky nature, extremely brittle, occurring in nature free or combined, symbol Sb. → Atomic number 51; → atomic weight 121.75; → meting point 630.74°C; → boiling point 1,750°C; → specific gravity (metallic form) 6.69 at 20°C. Antimony is recognized in compounds from antiquity, and as a metal since the 17th century. The minerals stibnite (Sb₂S₃) and stibine (SbH₃) are two of a multitude of mineral species which were known in the ancient world. Antimony is a poor conductor of heat and electricity. It greatly increases the hardness of metals with which it makes → alloys. Its various unstable isotopes have a half-life of 16 min (Sb¹²⁰) to 2.7 years (Sb¹²⁵).

From M.E. antimonie, from M.L. antimonium, an alchemist's term, of obscure origin, maybe a Latinization of Gk. stimmi or stibi, probably ultimately from Egyptian stm "cosmetic powder" used to paint the eyelids. The chemical symbol, Sb, comes from the original name, stibium, which is derived from Gk. stibi for "mark," since it was used for blackening eyebrows and eyelashes. The name was changed from stibium to antimonium to antimony.

Ântimuân, loan from Fr. antimoine.

The → antiparticle of the → neutron. It has the same mass, → spin, and → electric charge (zero) as the neutron but has opposite → baryon number (+1 for neutron, -1 for the antineutron). This is because the antineutron is composed of → antiquarks, while neutrons are composed of → quarks. The antineutron consists of one up antiquark and two down antiquarks.

→ anti-; → neutron.