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

Meteo.: The point on the → celestial sphere that lies directly opposite the Sun from the → observer, observer, that is, on the line from the Sun through the observer. The antisolar point is the center of the rainbow, and can be easily found on a sunny day: it it located at the shadow of one's head; it is 180° away from the Sun. If the Sun is in the sky, the antisolar point is below the horizon. If the Sun has set, the antisolar point is above the horizon.

→ anti-; → solar; → point.

A small tail-like structure on a comet that, unlike most comet tails, seems to point toward the Sun. This rare event is an optical illusion due to larger dust particles left along the comet's orbit. And typically occurs when the Earth crosses the plane of the comet's orbit. It seen when the observer is in the plane of the cometary orbit.

Antitail, from → anti- "opposite, opposing, against" + → tail.

Pâddom, from pâd-, → anti-, + dom "tail."

Logical or verbal opposition.
Philo. The second of two opposed propositions in Hegelian dialectic, the first of which is the → thesis; → synthesis.

→ anti-; → thesis.

1) Of the nature of or involving → antithesis.
2) Directly opposed or contrasted; opposite (Dictionary.com).

→ antithesis; → -ic.

The Air Pump. A faint → constellation in the → southern hemisphere, at → right ascensionα ~ 10h, → declinationδ ~ -35 deg. Abbreviation: Ant; genitive form: Antliae. Antlia is one of the smaller constellations in the sky, occupying an area of 239 square degrees. It is located in the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere and can be seen at latitudes between +45° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are → Centaurus, → Hydra, → Pyxis, and → Vela. Antlia does not have any stars brighter than magnitude 3.00. It contains two stars located within 10 → parsecs of Earth. The brightest star in Antlia is Alpha Antliae. The nearest star in Antlia, DEN 1048-3956, is a → brown dwarf brown dwarf only ~ 4 parsecs, 13.15 → light-years distant from Earth. Notable deep sky objects in Antlia include the → Antlia dwarf Galaxy, → Antlia 2, the Antlia Cluster of Galaxies, and the unbarred → spiral galaxy NGC 2997.

L. antlia "pump," from Gk. antlia "ship's hold, bilge water," from antlos.

Tolombé "pump," from Turkish tulumba "pump," from It. tromba.

A Milky-Way satellite in the constellation → Antlia. Antlia. It was originally detected in Gaia DR2 data using a combination of → RR Lyrae, → proper motions, → parallaxes and shallow → broad-band photometry. Antlia 2 is located behind the → Galactic disk at a latitude of b ~ 11° and spans 1.26 degrees, which corresponds to ~ 2.9 kpc at its distance of 130 kpc. While similar in extent to the → Large Magellanic Cloud, Antlia 2 is orders of magnitude fainter with M_V = -8.5 mag, making it by far the lowest surface brightness system known (at 32.3 mag/arcsec²), ~ 100 times more diffuse than the so-called ultra diffuse galaxies. The dwarf's systemic velocity is 290.9 ± 0.5 km s^-1, its velocity dispersion, 5.7 ± 1.1 km s^-1, and mean → metallicity, [Fe/H]= -1.4 (Torrealba et al., 2018, arXiv:1811.04082).

→ Antlia.

A → dwarf spheroidal galaxy located about 4.3 million → light-years from. Earth. It is a very faint object, with an apparent magnitude of 16.2. The galaxy was not discovered until 1997. (PGC 29194) The Antlia Dwarf lies on the outer rim of the Local Group of galaxies, possibly even beyond it, and there is evidence suggesting that it is tidally interacting with another small galaxy, NGC 3109, in the → Hydra constellation.

→ Antlia; → dwarf.

A mathematical expression, derived from the → Clausius-Clapeyron equation, of the relation between the vapor pressure and the temperature of pure substances. It shows that the logarithm of vapor pressure is linearly dependent on the reciprocal of → absolute temperature.

Named after Louis Charles Antoine (1825-?), a French marine engineer, who derived the equation; → equation.

Grammar: A word opposite in meaning to another.

From → anti- + (syn)onym, → synonym.

Pâdcem, from opâd-, → anti-, + cem, → meaning.

That part of the Moon's shadow that extends beyond the → umbra. It is similar to the → penumbra in that the Sun is only partially blocked by the Moon. From within the antumbra, the Sun appears larger than the Moon which is seen in complete silhouette. An → annular eclipse is seen when an observer passes through the antumbra (F. Espenak, NASA).

→ anti- + → umbra.

Same as → Ap/Bp star.

→ Ap/Bp star.

A star of spectral type A in which lines of ionized metals and → rare-earth elements are abnormally enhanced. Such stars have unusually strong magnetic fields, thousands of times stronger than the Sun's typical surface field. Ap stars are generally slow rotators because of magnetic braking.

A for the spectral type, p for → peculiar; → star.

A class of → intermediate-mass stars which possess anomalously strong → magnetic fields (about 100-10000 G). Ap/Bp stars typically show → overabundances of → iron peak elements, → rare earths, and → silicon, ranging up to ~2 dex above solar. These magnetic → chemically peculiar stars make up about 5% of the → main sequence A and B population (→ A star, → B star). Ap/Bp stars have predominantly → dipolar magnetic fields. The presence of strong, ordered magnetic fields in some main sequence A and B stars has been known for nearly one-half of a century (Babcock 1947). However the cause of the magnetic field is still a matter of debate. There are two competing theories: the contemporaneous → dynamo effect, and the → fossil magnetic field theory. Contemporaneous dynamo effect suggests that there is a dynamo effect currently working in the → convective core of the star. The fossil field theory assumes that the magnetic field is a remnant, produced by a dynamo effect operating at an earlier evolutionary phase, or swept up from the → interstellar medium during → star formation (Power et al., 2006, astro-ph/0612557).

A and B represent spectral types and p stands for → peculiar.

The point at which a binary star is furthest from its companion.

Apastron, from Gk. ap-, → apo- + astron "star."

Apâstâr, apâsetâré, from apâ-, → apo-, + stâr, setâré, → star.

A system in which the → damping is great enough to prevent oscillation.

Aperiodic, from → a- + periodic; + → damping.

The diameter of the → primary mirror in a → reflecting telescope, the → objective lens in a → refracting telescope, the → dish of a → radio telescope, or the → entrance pupil of an instrument such as → spectrograph or → photometer.

From L. apertura, from apertus, p.p. of aperire "to open, uncover," from PIE *ap-wer-yo- from *ap- "off, away" + base *wer- "to cover".

Ddahâné "an opening," from dahân, → mouth.

The ratio of the → effective aperture of a radio telescope to the true aperture.

→ aperture; → efficiency.

Photometry using a diaphragm to isolate a small sky area, either directly with a focal-plane diaphragm, or with an image processing system.

→ aperture; → photometry.

The ratio of the effective diameter of a lens or mirror to its focal length.

→ aperture; → ratio.

The diaphragm that limits the diameter of the axial light bundle allowed to pass through a lens.

→ aperture; → stop.