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

A blood vessel that conveys blood from the heart to any part of the body (Dictionary.com).

M.E. arterie, O.Fr. artaire, from L. arteria, from Gk. arteria "windpipe," also "an artery," as distinct from a vein; related to aeirein "to raise."

Sorxrag, literally "red vessel," from sorx, → red, + rag, → vessel.

1) A nonfictional prose composition usually forming an independent part of a publication in a magazine.
2) A written document devoted to a scientific research and appearing in specialized journal.

Article, from O.Fr. article, from L. articulus, diminutive of artus "a joint".

Vetâr, from Kurd. witâr "article, speech," from witten "to speak, say," from wit-; cf. Pers. vât "letter, word," vâžé "word;" Av. vac- "to speak, say;" Proto-Iranian *uac- "to say, speak;" → letter.

1) An object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or historical interest.
2) Something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative procedure (OxfordDictionary.com).

From It. artefatto, from L. arte "by skill" (ablative of ars "→ art") + factum "thing made," from facere "to make, do," → -fy.

Dasâc "hand made," from das variant of dast, → hand, + sâc, variant of sâz-, sâxtan, → agree.

Not occurring naturally; produced by man.

M.E., from O.Fr., from L. artificialis "belonging to art," from artificium "craftsmanship."

Sâxtegi "artificial," from sâxtan "to build, to make," → structure.

A shallow flat vessel filled with → mercury or some other viscous → liquid used in special → sextant for measuring altitudes of celestial bodies at sea in the absence of a → visible horizon.

→ artificial; → horizon.

An artificially created language system for international communication or for a specific intellectual or scientific purpose. Examples include Esperanto, computer programing languages, → symbolic logic, and → tensor analysis.

→ artificial; → language.

Any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies.

→ artificial; → light.

A man-made equipment that orbits around Earth or a solar system body.

→ artificial; → satellite.

In → adaptive optics, a point source created on the sky by means of a laser beam in order to correct for the → atmospheric turbulence. A laser tuned to the wavelength of 589 nm will excite sodium atoms at an altitude of ~ 100 km in the Earth's atmosphere, producing an artificial "star."

→ artificial; → star.

A family of fibrous mineral silicates that are incombustible, resistant to chemicals, and do not conduct electricity. In the past asbestos has been widely used for a range of fireproof materials and in the building industry. Asbestos causes very serious health problems if the fibers are inhaled (bronchial cancer, laryngeal cancer, and mesothelioma).

M.E. albeston, abestus, from O.Fr. abeste, abestos, from L. asbestos "quicklime," from Gk. asbestos, literally "inextinguishable," from → a- "not" + sbestos, verbal adjective from sbennynai "to quench."

Panbe-ye kuhi, literally "mountain cotton," from panbé, → cotton, + kuhi "pertaining to mountains," from kuh, → mountain.
Panbe-ye nasuz, literally "non-inflammable cotton," from panbé + nasuz "non-inflammable," from na- "not," → a- + suz-, suxtan, → burn.

1) To move, climb, or go upward; mount; rise.
2) To rise to a higher point, rank, or degree; proceed from an inferior to a superior degree or level (Dictionary.com).

M.E. ascenden, from L. ascendere "to climb up, mount," from → ad- "to" + scandere "to climb," → scan.

Farâzidan, from farâz "above, over, aloft."

1a) A position or condition of dominance, superiority or control.
1b) An ancestor; forebear.
2a) Ascending; rising.
2b) superior; predominant.

→ ascend.

The point in an orbit where the orbiting body crosses a reference plane, such as the ecliptic or the celestial equator, going from south to north. The celestial longitude of the ascending node is one of the elements of the orbit. → descending node.

→ ascend; → -ing; → node.

The act of ascending; ascent.

Verbal noun of → ascend; → -tion.

A standard code or protocol for displaying → characters as numbers. Each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-bit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined. For example, the ASCII code for uppercase C is 67 and for lowercase c is 99. Most computers use ASCII codes to represent text, which makes it possible to transfer data from one computer to another.

Short for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

The powdery residue that remains after something is burnt. → ashen light.

M.E. a(i)sshe; O.E. asce, æsce; cf. Frisian esk, Dutch asch, O.N., O.H.G. aska, Ger. Asche; akin to Gk. azein "to dry up, parch," L. arere "be dry," → arid, Skt. asa- "ashes," PIE root *as- "to burn, glow."

Xâkestar, ultimately from Proto-Iranian *aika-âtar- literally "fire dust," from *aika- (Pers. xâk "dust, earth," → soil) + *ātar- (Pers. âzar, âtaš, → fire); cf. Malâyeri xâkesar, Qasrâni xâksar.

The faint glow occasionally observed on the unlit area of Venus in its crescent phase. Its cause is not known with certainty, but it might result from bombardment of atmospheric atoms and molecules by energetic particles and radiation, as with terrestrial airglow.

→ ash; → light.

The largest of the world's continents (about 41,440,000 sq. km.), bounded by Europe and the Arctic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.

From L. Asia, from Gk. Asia, apparently first used by Herodotus (about 440 BC) in reference to Anatolia or to the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. Of uncertain origin.

The apparent position of a body in the Solar System relative to the Sun, as seen from Earth. The main aspects are conjunction, greatest elongation, opposition, and quadrature.

Aspect from L. aspectus "looking, view, appearance," p.p. of aspicere "to look at," from ad- "to" + specere "to look," cognate with Gk. skeptesthai "to examine, consider," Av. spas- "to watch, look," Skt. spaz "to see, behold, look at;" PIE *spek- "to observe, look".

Nemud from nemudan "to show, demonstrate, exhibit, appear"

A series of experiments carried out in the early 1980s by Alain Aspect and his colleagues that showed the violation of → Bell's inequality. Accordingly, quantum phenomena cannot be described by the → hidden variable theories, contrarily to the → EPR paradox interpretation.

Alain Aspect (1947-); → experiment. Aspect et al., 1982, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 49, No. 25 and references therein.