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

1) Situated, placed, or lying face to face with something else or each other, or in corresponding positions with relation to an intervening line, space, or thing: opposite ends of a room (Dictionary.com).
2) Contrary or radically different in some respect common to both, as in nature, qualities, direction, result, or significance; opposed (Dictionary.com).
3) An → antonym.

M.E., from M.Fr., from L. oppositus, p.p. of opponere, → opposition.

1) Ru-be-ru "face to face," → surface.
2) Pârun, short for pâdrun, from pâd-, → counter, + -run "side, direction" (as in birun, darun, vârun), → out.
3) Pâdcem, → antonym.

1) The action of opposing, resisting, or combating.
2) A person or group of people opposing, criticizing, or protesting something, someone, or another group (Dictionary.com).
3) The position of a solar system body having its orbit outside that of the Earth when the Earth is in a line between the Sun and the body. At opposition the body has a solar → elongation of 180°, and is closest to the Earth. It will, in principle, be visible throughout the night. It will rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west and it will set as the Sun rises. This is because, at opposition, the body and the Sun are 12 hours apart. The inner planets can never be in opposition. The opposite of opposition is → conjunction.
4) Two periodic quantities of the same frequency are said to be in opposition when the → phase difference between them is one half of a → period.

Verbal noun of → oppose.

Pâdist "standing against," from pâd- "agaist, contrary to," → anti-, + ist present stem of istâdan "to stand" (Mid.Pers. êstâtan, O.Pers./Av. sta- "to stand; to set;" Av. hištaiti; cf. Skt. sthâ- "to stand;" Gk. histemi "put, place, weigh," stasis "a standing still;" L. stare "to stand;" Lith. statau "place;" Goth. standan; PIE base *sta- "to set, stand").
Pâdistân, from pâdist + -ân suffix of place and time.

The transmittance of a point on a photographic negative equal to the log to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the transmittance through the negative at that point.

→ optical; → density.

A class of → iron meteorite containing → olivine crystals.

Named after the German naturalist Peter Pallas (1741-1811), who first studied such a type of meteorites.

The → bolometric luminosity of a → supernova corresponding to the highest brightness in its → light curve. The peak luminosity occurs after the → supernova explosion; it is directly linked to the amount of radioactive ⁵⁶Ni produced in the explosion and can be used to test various explosion models. Following → Arnett's rule, one can derive the ⁵⁶Ni mass from the peak luminosity of a → Type Ia supernova.

→ peak; → luminosity.

A → correlation between the periods and luminosities of → Cepheid variable stars: Cepheids with longer periods are intrinsically more luminous than those with shorter periods. The relation was discovered by Henrietta Leavitt in 1912 when studying Cepheids in the → Small Magellanic Cloud. Once the period of a Cepheid variable is determined from observations, the period-luminosity relation can be used to derive its luminosity. Since luminosity is a function of → distance, the distance can then be calculated with the luminosity. The period-luminosity relation is an invaluable tool for the measurements of distances out to the nearest galaxies and thus for studying the structure of our own Galaxy and of the Universe.

→ period; → luminosity; → relation.

A relation that gives a rough estimate of the oscillation period of a → pulsating star as a function of its mean density. This relation is obtained by considering how long it would take a sound wave to travel across the diameter of a model star: Π ≅ (3π/2γGρ)^1/2, where ρ is the mean density, γ the ratio of → specific heats (C_p/C_v), and G the → gravitational constant. This relation shows that the pulsation period of a star is inversely proportional to the square root of its mean density. And this is the reason why the pulsation periods decrease along the → instability strip from the luminous, very tenuous → supergiants to the faint, very dense → white dwarfs.

→ period; → mean; → density; → relation.

A transition between two quantum mechanical states that does not violate the quantum mechanical selection rules.

→ permitted; → transition.

The changing of a substance from one phase to another, by → freezing, → melting, → boiling, → condensation, or → sublimation. Also known as phase transformation. A well known phase transition is the transition from → water to → ice. Phase transitions are often associated with → symmetry breaking. In water there is a complete symmetry under rotations with no preferred direction. Ice has a crystal structure, in which certain orientations in space are preferred. Therefore, in transition from water to ice the continuous rotational symmetry is lost.

→ phase; → transition.

The density corresponding to a → Planck mass in a cubic region of edge length given by the → Planck length: ρ_P = c⁵/(ħG²) ≅ 5.16 x 10⁹³ g cm^-3, where c is the → speed of light, ħ is the → reduced Planck's constant, and G is the → gravitational constant.

→ Planck; → density.

The passage of an → inferior planet against the disk of the Sun, as viewed from Earth. Mercury and Venus pass in front of the Sun only when they are close to one of their → orbital nodes, at → inferior conjunction. For Mercury this occurs at the beginning of November (the → ascending node) or at the beginning of May (the → descending node), while for Venus it takes place at the beginning of December (the ascending node) or at the beginning of June (the descending node). See also → transit of Mercury, → transit of Venus.

→ planetary; → transit.

A space observatory under development by the → European Space Agency for launch around 2024. Its objective is to detect and characterize → exoplanets by means of their → transit signature in front of a very large sample of → bright stars, and measure the seismic oscillations (→ asteroseismology) of the parent stars orbited by these planets in order to understand the properties of the exoplanetary systems.

→ planetary; → transit; → oscillation; → star.

1) General: A → dimensionless number characterizing a porous medium, expressed by the ratio of the volume occupied by the pores to the total volume of the medium.
2) Geology: The percentage volume of hollow spaces in a rock, sediment, or soil.
3) Dust grains: The quantity usually defined as: P = (V_v/V_t) = (1 - V_s/V_t), where V_v and V_s are the volumes of vacuum and of the solid matter making up the particle, and V_t is the total volume of the particle within some defined surface.

→ porous; → -ity.

1a) Condition with reference to place; location; situation.
1b) A place occupied or to be occupied. → mean position.
2a) To put in a particular or appropriate position; place.
2b) To determine the position of; locate.

M.E. posicioun, from O.Fr. posicion, from L. positionem "act or fact of placing, position, affirmation," from positus, p.p. stem of ponere "to put, place."

Neheš, verbal noun from nehâdan "to place, put; to set;" Mid.Pers. nihâtan, from ne-, ni- "down; into," → ni- (PIE), + dâ- "to put; to establish; to give," dadâiti "he gives;" cf. Skt. dadâti "he gives;" Gk. didomi "I give;" L. do "I give;" PIE base *do- "to give"). Neheš-dâdan, from neheš "position," + dâdan "to give, yield, put," → datum.

The convention for measuring angles on the sky in astronomy (Abbreviated as PA). It is the direction of an imaginary arrow in the sky, measured from north through east: 0° = north, 90° = east, 180° = south, and so on to 359° and back to 0°. Applied to a binary system it is the direction of a secondary body or feature from a primary, measured in the system. .

→ position; → angle.

In single dish astronomy, an observing mode in which the telescope is moved between the object position and a user defined reference position. The aim is to eliminate unwanted signals in the baseline. → beam switching; → frequency switching.

→ position; → switching.

Relating to or determined by position.

→ position; → -al.

The branch of astronomy that is used to determine the location of objects on the celestial sphere, as seen at a particular date, time, and location on the Earth. Same as → spherical astronomy.

→ positional; → astronomy.

A system of representing → numbers in which the → position of a → digit in a string of digits affects its value. The decimal system is a positional notation for expressing numbers. Same as → place-value notation and → positional number system.

→ positional; → notation.

A → number system in which the value of each digit is determined by which place it appears in the full number. The lowest place value is the rightmost position, and each successive position to the left has a higher place value. In the → number system conversion, the rightmost position represents the "ones" column, the next position represents the "tens" column, the next position represents "hundreds", etc. The values of each position correspond to powers of the → base of the number system. For example, in the usual decimal number system, which uses base 10, the place values correspond to powers of 10. Same as → place-value notation and → positional notation. See also → number system conversion.

→ positional; → number; → system.