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

One of the → orbital elements, the time when the → secondary body reaches → periapsis.

→ time; → periapsis; → passage.

Same → temporal resolution.

→ time; → resolution.

A transformation operating on time in the equations of motion of a dynamical system in which t is replaced by -t.

→ time; → reversal.

A measure of duration of a specific process, such as → crossing time, → dynamical time scale, → evolutionary time scale, → Kelvin-Helmholtz time scale, → nuclear time scale, → photon escape time, → relaxation time, → star formation time scale.

→ time; → scale.

A → sequence of values of a → variable in successive time order, usually at fixed intervals of time.

→ time; → series.

Any of the 24 zones on the Earth surface delimited by → meridians at approximately 15° intervals. In each time zone a common standard time is used, and the time is one hour earlier than the zone immediately to the east.

→ time; → zone.

The sequence of all natural processes in which the → entropy increases. In other words, the fact that these processes all move in one direction in time and are → irreversible. The past is distinctly different from the future; things always grow older, never younger.

→ time; arrow, M.E. arewe, arwe, from O.E. arwan, earh "arrow," from P.Gmc. *arkhwo (cf. Goth. arhwanza), from PIE base *arku- "bow and/or arrow," source of Latin arcus, → arc.

Peykân "arrow," → Sagitta; zamân, → time.

Of, pertaining to, or describing an → event belonging to the interior of the → light cone.

→ time; → like.

The → space-time interval between two → events if it is real, i.e. ds² > 0.

→ timelike; → interval.

Any mechanical, electric, or electronic device, such as a clock or watch, designed to measure and display the passage of time.

→ time; → piece.

Zamân-šomâr, literally "time counter," from zamân, → time, + šomâr "counter," from šomârdan "to count," from Mid.Pers. ôšmârtan, ôšmurtan "to reckon, calculate, enumerate, account for," from Av. base (š)mar- "to have in mind, remember, recall," pati-šmar- "to recall; to long for," hišmar-, cf. Skt. smar- "to remember, become aware," smarati "he remembers," L. memor, memoria, Gk. mermera "care," merimna "anxious thought, sorrow," martyr "witness."

A metallic chemical element; symbol Sn (L. stannum for → alloys containing → lead). → Atomic number 50; → atomic weight 118.69; → melting point 231.9681°C; → boiling point 2,270°C; → specific gravity 5.75 (gray), 7.3 (white). The element was known in prehistoric times.

M.E., O.E. tin; cf. M.Du., Du. tin, O.H.G. zin, Ger. Zinn, O.N. tin; related to Fr. étain?

Arziz "tin," from Mid.Pers. arziz "tin, lead," arus "white, bright;" Av. ərəzata- "silver," auruša- "white;" cf. Skt. arjuna- "white, shining," rajata- "silver;" Gk. argos "white," arguron "silver," L. argentum "silver," arguere "to make clear," argmentum "argument;" PIE *arg- "to shine, be white, bright, clear."
Qal'y of unknown origin.

Any of the several → absorption bands due to the molecule → titanium oxide that are prominent in the spectra of cool → K and → M stars.

→ titanium oxide; → band.

1) The top, summit, or apex.
2) To tilt or cause to tilt; overturn, upset, or overthrow.

1) M.E. tip, from M.L.G. or M.Du. tip "utmost point, extremity" (cf. Ger. zipfel, a diminutive formation).
2) From, tip noun from tip (v.) "to overturn, upset," from M.E. typen "to upset, overturn."

1) Nok "tip," variant tok.

A technique for deriving extragalactic distances which uses the → luminosity of the brightest → red giant branch stars in old → stellar populations as a → standard candle. For old (> 2-3 Gyr), → metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -0.7) stellar populations, this luminosity is relatively well determined, and the → absolute magnitude of these stars in the I band is roughly constant (M_I = -4.1 ± 0.1).

→ tip; → red giant; → branch; → method.

A rapidly moving → mirror used in → adaptive optics to correct overall movements of the incoming → wavefront of light caused by → atmospheric turbulence. The simplest form of adaptive optics is tip-tilt correction, which corresponds to correction of the tilts of the wavefront in two dimensions. This is done by tipping and tilting the mirror rapidly in response to overall changes in position of a reference star. See also → deformable mirror.

From, tip noun from tip (v.) "to overturn, upset," from M.E. typen "to upset, overturn" + tilt noun from tilt (v.) "to cause to lean, incline, slope, or slant," → tilt; → mirror.

Âyené, → mirror; kaj "turned aside; crooked, bent" (cf. Skt. kubja- "hump-backed, crooked," Pali kujja- "bent," L. gibbus "hump, hunch," Lith. kupra "hump") + -o- "and" + râst→ right + -gar agent noun suffix → -or.

Exhausted of strength and energy.

Past participle of tire "to weary; become weary," M.E. tyren, O.E. teorian, of unknown origin.

Xasté "tired; hurt, wounded;" Mid.Pers. xastan, xad- "to injure, wound;" Av. vīxaδ- "to crush;" Proto-Iranian *xad- "to wound, hurt."

The hypothesis that photons from distant objects lose energy during their intergalactic journey to us, thereby increasing in wavelength and becoming redshifted. This would provide an alternative to the → Big Bang model in accounting for the → redshifts of distant galaxies. However, there is no evidence for any such tired-light effect. First discussed by F. Zwicky (1929, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15, 773).

→ tired; → light.

In celestial mechanics, a combination of orbital elements commonly used to distinguish between comets and asteroids. Objects whose Tisserand's parameter value is smaller than 3 are considered to be dynamically cometary, and those with a value larger than 3 asteroidal. Also called Tisserand's invariant.

Named after François Félix Tisserand (1845-1896), French astronomer, Director of the Paris Observatory (1892).

The largest and the sixth moon of → Saturn discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655. Called also Saturn VI. Titan has a diameter of 5,150 km, about half the size of Earth and almost as large as Mars. It orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 1,221,830 km every 15.945 days. It is the only moon known to have an → atmosphere. Its surface temperature is -179 °C, which makes water as hard as rocks and allows → methane to be found in its liquid form. Its surface pressure is slightly higher than Earth's pressure (1.6 bars against 1 bar at sea level). The Huygens probe released from → Cassini-Huygens landed on Titan on December 25, 2004. From the data obtained by Cassini-Huygens, we know that Titan is a world with lakes and seas composed of liquid methane and → ethane near its poles, with vast, arid regions not made of silicates as on Earth, but of solid water ice coated with → hydrocarbons that fall from the atmosphere. Titan's icy dunes are gigantic, reaching, on average, 1 to 2 km wide, hundreds kilometers long and around 100 m high. Titan is the only other place in the solar system known to have an Earth-like cycle of liquids flowing across its surface as the planet cycles through its seasons. Each Titan season lasts about 7.5 Earth years. The Huygens probe made the first direct measurements of Titan's lower atmosphere. Huygens also directly sampled → aerosols in the atmosphere and confirmed that → carbon and → nitrogen are their major constituents. Cassini followed up Huygens' measurements from orbit, detecting other chemicals that include → propylene and poisonous → hydrogen cyanide, in Titan's atmosphere. Cassini's gravity measurements of Titan revealed that this moon is hiding an internal, liquid water and → ammonia ocean beneath its surface. Huygens also measured radio signals during its descent that strongly suggested the presence of an ocean 55 to 80 km below the moon's surface.

In Gk. mythology the Titans were a family of giants, the children of Uranus and Gaia, who sought to rule the heavens but were overthrown and supplanted by the family of Zeus.

The fourteenth and largest of → Uranus's known satellites. It has a diameter of 1578 km and orbits its planet at a mean distance of 436,270 km. Titania was discovered by Herschel in 1787. Also called Uranus IV.

Titania is the Queen of the Fairies and wife of Oberon in Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream.