An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A coupling scheme of → electron configuration, used mainly for the lighter atoms with → atomic number less than 30. In an atom when changes in energy states are produced by the action of two or more electrons, the value of the total angular momentum of these electrons results from the coupling between the total → orbital angular momenta of the electrons and the total → spin angular momenta of the electrons. In this scheme the orbital angular momenta and spin angular momenta of electrons are added separately to give the total angular momentum L = Σ_i l_i and the total electron spin angular momentum S = Σ_i s_i. These are then added to give J = L + S. Also called → LS coupling. See also → jj coupling.

After Henry Norris Russell (1877-1957) and Frederick Albert Saunders (1875-1963), American astronomers (1925, ApJ 61, 38); → coupling.

In computer science, to increase the processing power of the same node/system by increasing its resources (CPU, RAM, etc.). This is a type of → vertical scaling opposite to → scale down. For example, instead of a machine with a CPU running at speed of X and having Y gigabytes of memory, use a machine with a CPU running at speed of 4X and a memory of 4Y gigabytes. See also → scale in, → scale out.

→ scale; → up.

The nearest group of galaxies to our → Local Group, lying near the south Galactic pole at about 10 million → light-years distance. The Sculptor Group is dominated by five galaxies, four spiral (NGC 247, 253, 300, and 7793) and one irregular (NGC 55). The brightest of the five is NGC 253. The nearest galaxy in this group is NGC 55 which at a distance of 5 million light-years lies on the border of the Local Group.

→ Sculptor; → group.

A → dredge-up process that occurs after core helium burning, in which the convective envelope penetrates much more deeply, pushing hydrogen burning shell into close proximity with the helium burning shell (→ first dredge-up). This arrangement is unstable and leads to burning pulses. The reason is that the hydrogen shell burns out until there is enough helium for the helium combustion to occur and all the helium is rapidly burnt. Afterward the hydrogen shell again burns outward and the process repeats.

→ second; → dredge-up.

To install and configure hardware and software on a computer.

Verb of → setup.

1) The process of connecting and preparing a software program, hardware device, or computer to function properly. Setup is a file commonly called "setup.exe" that is executed to begin installing a software program onto a computer. See also → set up.
2) Equipment designed for a particular purpose; an apparatus.
3) The fashion in which something is organized or arranged.

→ set; → up.

Barbešt, from prefix bar-, → on-.

A group or combination of six objects, such as the → Mizar and the → Castor star systems.

From sextuple, from L. sext(us) "sixth," → six, + et

The richest → supercluster of galaxies in the nearby → Universe at a → redshift going from z ~0.03 to z ~0.05 (680 million → light-years), and extending over several square degrees on the plane of the sky. It lies behind the → Centaurus supercluster. Also called the Shapley concentration, it is made up of 25 → galaxy clusters with a total mass of about 10¹⁶→ solar masses. At the core of the Shapley supercluster is a remarkable complex formed by several rich clusters of galaxies from the → Abell catalog; the central and most massive of them is A3558.

→ Shapley's wing; → supercluster

Set of operations (rotation about an axis, reflection across a plane, translation, or combination of these) which when carried out on a periodic arrangement of points in space brings the system of points to self-coincidence.

The word group comes from the mathematical notion of a group.

1) Astro.: A relationship between the orbital period of one body around another and its rotational period on its axis. The relationship results from tidal forces between the two bodies. For example, the rotation period of the Moon equals its revolution period around the Earth.
2) Quantum mechanics: The interaction between a particle's → spin angular momentum and its → orbital angular momentum.

→ spin; → orbit; → coupling.

Same as → perigee full Moon.

→ super-; → Moon.

A group of hundreds to thousands of very young stars packed into an unbelievably small volume of a few parsecs in size. These objects represent the youngest stage of → massive star cluster evolution yet observed. The most massive and dense SSCs, with ages less than 10⁶ years, may be proto globular clusters. SSCs are thought to dissolve within 10 million years and merge into the field star population.

→ super; → star; → cluster.

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.

A condition in which there is an excess of the actual temperature gradient over the → adiabatic temperature gradient corresponding to the same pressure gradient. A region with superadiabatic temperature gradient is convectively unstable. → Hayashi forbidden zone.

→ super-; → adiabatic; → temperature; → gradient.

A cavity hundreds of light-years across filled with a hot gas blown into the interstellar medium by multiple supernovae and stellar winds. Examples are the Local Bubble in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way and the N44 Superbubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

→ super-; → bubble