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

Loss of radiant energy received from an astronomical object due to the presence of absorbing matter situated between the object and observer.

→ foreground; → absorption.

1) A large tract of land covered with trees and underbrush; woodland (Dictionary.com).
2) In → graph theory, a → graph which contains no → cycles. The connected components of a forest are → trees.

M.E., from O.Fr. forest, probably from L.L. forestis (silva) "the outside woods," from L. foris "outside."

Jangal "a wood, forest, a vast land with plenty of trees;" cf. Skt. jangala- "arid , sparingly grown with trees and plants."

Same as → eddy current.

→ Foucault; → current.

The first functioning → reflecting telescope with a silvered glass mirror. It was built by Léon Foucault in 1826 for the Marseille Observatory. The mirror of 80-cm in diameter (f/d = 5) had an excellent quality. The telescope was used for a century as a visual instrument. Edouard Stéphan (1837-1923) used it from 1871 to 1884 to find 800 high-brightness galaxies, among which the → Stephan's Quintet. From 1906 to 1962 the telescope was used by Robert Jonckheere (1888-1927) to discover 3,350 new binary stars. In 1873, following an idea of Hippolyte Fizeau (1819-1896), Stéphan attempted to use it as an → interferometer to measure the diameter of a number of stars. In 1914 Charles Fabry (1867-1945) and Henri Buisson (1873-1944) used the telescope to obtain the first astronomical Fabry-Pérot interferogram, on the → Orion Nebula.

After the French physicist and optician Léon Foucault (1819-1868); Marseille (Observatory), the second largest city of France, located on the south east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from L. Massalia, from Gk. Massalia; → reflector.

Any finite periodic motion may be analyzed into components, each of which is a simple harmonic motion of definite and determinable amplitudes and phase.

→ Fourier analysis; → theorem.

A → hierarchial structure that can be likened to fractals.

→ fractal; → structure

The number of times per second that the frame is scanned in television. Also known as picture frequency.

→ frame; → frequency.

A set of axes to which positions and motions in a system can be referred.

→ frame; → reference.

The first modern refracting telescope which had an outstanding quality. It was built in 1824 by Fraunhofer for the Russian Imperial Observatory in Dorpat, now Tartu in Estonia. It had a 23-cm → achromatic lens and a German-type → equatorial mounting driven by a clockwork. Wilhelm Struve (1793-1864) used the refractor to observe many → visual binaries, and attempted to measure the distances of stars through their visual → parallaxes. He also obtaibned accurate values for the diameters of the → Galilean satellites of → Jupiter.

Named after Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826), German optician and physicist; → refractor.

Not physically bound by something.
→ free atmosphere, → free body, → free charge, → free electron, → free expansion phase, → free fall, → free flow, → free occurrence, → free oscillation, → free radical, → free system, → free-bound emission, → free-fall time, → free-floating object, → free-free emission, → freedom, → bound-free transition, → force-free magnetic field, → Gibbs free energy, → Helmholtz free energy, → mean free path, → universality of free fall.

From M.E. fre, O.E. freo "free, exempt from," also "noble, joyful;" cf. Ger. frei, Du. vrij; ultimately from PIE *prijos "dear, beloved;" cf. Av. frāy- "to satisfy, propitiate," friθa- "beloved; dear," friθô.tara- "more beloved," Mod.Pers. fari "happy, fortunate, blessed; pleasing, good," Skt. priyá- "beloved, wished for;" Gk. praos "mild, gentle."

Âzâd "free," from Mid.Pers. âzât "free, noble;" Av. āzāta- "high-born, noble," from zan- "to bear, give birth to a child, be born," infinitive zazāite, zāta- "born," āsna- "innate, natural;" cf. Skt. janati "begets, bears;" Gk. gignesthai "to become, happen," genes "born;" L. gignere "to beget;" PIE base *gen- "to give birth, beget."

That part of the atmosphere where the effects of the ground on the → turbulence conditions are negligible.

→ free, → atmosphere.

A → rigid body not constrained with other bodies and which from any given position can be displaced in any direction in space. Opposite of → constrained body.

→ free; → body.

An electric charge which is not held by another charge, in contrast to a → bound charge.

→ free; → charge.

An electron that is not attached to an → atom, → molecule, or → ion and is free to move under the influence of a present electric or magnetic field.

→ free; → electron.

The first phase of → supernova remnant (SNR) evolution in which the surrounding → interstellar medium (ISM) has no influence on the expansion of the → shock wave, and the pressure of the interstellar gas is negligible. The shock wave created by the → supernova explosion moves outward into the interstellar gas at highly → supersonic speed. Assuming that most of the → supernova energy  E_SN is transformed into → kinetic energy of the ejected gas, the ejection velocity v_e can be estimated from E_SN by using E_SN = (1/2) M_ev_e², which leads to v_e = (2E_SN / M_e)^(1/2), where M_e is the ejected mass. The schematic structure of the SNR at this phase can be described as follows: behind the strong → shock front which moves outward into the ISM, compressed interstellar gas accumulates forming a → shell of interstellar gas. This shell of swept-up material in front of shock does not represent a significant increase in the mass of the system. After some time the accumulated mass equals the ejected mass of stellar material, and it will start to affect the expansion of the SNR. By definition, this is the end of the free expansion phase, and the corresponding radius of the SNR, called → sweep-up radius, R_SW, is defined by M_e = (4π/3) R_SW³ρ₀, that is R_SW = (3M_e / 4πρ₀)^(1/3), where ρ₀ is the initial density of the ISM. This radius is reached at the sweep-up time t_SW = R_SW/v_e. The free expansion phase lasts some 100-200 years until the mass of the material swept up by the shock wave exceeds the mass of the ejected material. Then the following → snowplow phase starts.

→ free; → expansion; → phase.

The motion of a body under the influence of → gravity alone. See also → free-fall time.

→ free; → fall.

A fluid flow which develops when density differences within the fluid are the only driving forces. See also → forced flow.

→ free; → flow.

An → occurrence of a → variable in a → wff, → iff it is not a → bound occurrence.

→ bound; → occurrence.

Oscillation of any system in stable equilibrium under the influence of internal forces only, or of a constant force originating outside the system, or of both.

→ free; → oscillation.

A chemical radical that can exist independently from atoms or group of atoms.

→ free; → radical.