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

A prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, with the basic meaning "above, beyond."

L. adverb and preposition super "above, over, on the top (of), beyond, besides, in addition to," from PIE base *uper "over," cognate with Pers. abar-, as below.

Mid.Pers. abar (Mod.Pers. bar- "on, upon, up"); O.Pers. upariy "above; over, upon, according to;" Av. upairi "above, over," upairi.zəma- "located above the earth;" cf. Gk. hyper- "over, above;" L. super-, as above; O.H.G. ubir "over."

A star whose mass exceeds the → canonical upper limit of the stellar → initial mass function (Kroupa et al. 2012, arXiv:1112.3340).

→ super-; → canonical; → star.

A superluminous → Type Ia supernova which is characterized by a bright → light curve peak, a slow light curve evolution during the photospheric phase, and moderately low ejecta velocities. Modeling suggests ejecta masses far in excess of the → Chandrasekhar limit of mass for non-rotating → white dwarfs and the production of about 1.5 Msun of ⁵⁶Ni. This precludes the interpretation of these events as thermonuclear explosions of Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs.

→ super-; → Chandrasekhar limit.

An → extrasolar planet more massive than the Earth but less massive than 10 → Earth masses. The first discovered super-Earth orbits an M4 V star named GJ 876. Its estimated mass is 7.5±0.7 Earth masses and it has an orbital period of 1.94 days. It is close to the host star, and the surface temperature is calculated to lie between 430 and 650 K (Rivera et al. 2005, ApJ 634, 625).

→ super-; → Earth.

A → stellar wind accelerated by radiation pressure in the continuum from a star with a luminosity above the → Eddington limit.

→ super-; → Eddington limit; → wind.

A very → metal-rich star whose iron → metallicity, [Fe/H], exceeds 0.20 → dex. Examples include HD 32147, HD 121370, and HD 145675 (Feltzing & Gonzalez, 2001, A&A 367, 253).

→ super-; → metal; → rich; → star.