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

Having considerable or great extent from side to side; broad. → wide binary, → wide field.

From M.E., from O.E. wid; akin to Du. wijd, Ger. weit, Old Norse vithr.

Bozorg, → large.
Gošâd, gošâdé "opened; ample, broad," from gošudan "to open up, to loose," → resolve.

An international collaboration, more accurately named SuperWASP, led by the United Kingdom, that aims at detecting → extrasolar planets by means of the → transit method. SuperWASP consists of two robotic observatories that operate continuously all year around, providing coverage of the sky in both hemispheres. The first, SuperWASP-North, is located on the island of La Palma. The second, SuperWASP-South, is located at the site of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). The observatories each consist of eight wide-angle cameras that simultaneously monitor the sky for → planetary transit events. Using the array of cameras makes it possible to monitor millions of stars simultaneously at an → apparent visual magnitude from about 7 to 13.

→ wide; → angle; → search; → planet.

A binary system with semi-major axis as large as 10,000 → astronomical units.

→ wide; → binary.

A telescope → field of view which covers a relatively large → angular area on the sky.

→ wide; → field.

A → NASA infrared astronomical → space telescope launched in December 2009 to carry out an → all-sky survey from 3 to 22 → microns. With its 40-cm → telescope telescope and → infrared cameras, WISE aimed at a wide variety of studies ranging from the evolution of → protoplanetary disks to the history of → star formation in normal galaxies. In early October 2010, after completing its prime science mission, the spacecraft ran out of → coolant that keeps its instrumentation cold. However, two of its four infrared cameras remained operational. Hence, NASA extended the NEOWISE portion of the WISE mission by four months, with the primary purpose of hunting for more → asteroids and → comets, and to finish one complete scan of the main → asteroid belt. In August 2013, the WISE telescope's mission was extended for more three years to search for asteroids that could collide with Earth.

→ wide field; → infrared; → survey; → explorer.