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

A pair of plane mirrors which are slightly inclined to one another. It is used for producing two coherent images in interference experiments.

→ Fresnel diffraction; → mirror.

A piece of special glass in the form of an oblique → parallelepiped so cut that a ray of light entering one of its faces at right angles shall emerge at right angles at the opposite face, after undergoing two internal reflections. It is a type of → quarter-wave retarder used to produce a → circularly polarized light from a → plane polarized light, or the reverse.

→ Fresnel diffraction; → rhombus.

An optical element consisting of two small angle → prisms, joined together at their bases, used to produce two → coherent sources. The thin double prism refracts the light from a source into two overlapping beams, which produce → interference fringes. With this experiment Fresnel was able to produce interference without relying upon → diffraction to bring the interfering beams together.

→ Fresnel diffraction; → bi-; → prism.

Two plane mirrors, fitted side by side at a small angle, used to create two mutually → coherent sources in a famous → interference experiment first suggested by A. Fresnel. A point source reflected at the mirrors appears as a pair of → virtual light sources, positioned close together, which interfere with each other due to their → coherence. This arrangement removes the problem that two separate light sources do not produce observable interference on account of their incoherence. Same as Fresnel's double mirror. See also → Fresnel's biprism, → Lloyd's mirror.

→ Fresnel diffraction; → mirror.

The resisting force offered by one body to the relative motion of another body in contact with the first.

From L. frictionem "a rubbing, rubbing down," from fricare "to rub."

Mâleš, verbal noun of mâlidan "to rub," from, variants parmâs "contact, touching," marz "frontier, border, boundary," Mid.Pers. mâlitan, muštan "to rub, sweep;" Av. marəz- "to rub, wipe," marəza- "border, district;" PIE base *merg- "boundary, border;" cf. L. margo "edge" (Fr. marge "margin"); P.Gmc. *marko; Ger. Mark; E. mark, margin.

One of the parameters that characterize atmospheric → seeing. It is the diameter of the largest aperture that can be used before → turbulence starts to degrade the image quality. As the turbulence gets stronger, the Fried parameter, denoted r₀, becomes smaller. The Fried parameter is wavelength dependent: r₀ ∝ λ^6/5. On best astronomical mountain tops it ranges between 20 and 30 cm for λ = 5000 A.

Named after David L. Fried, who defined the parameter 10 1966; → parameter.

An equation that expresses energy conservation in an → expanding Universe. It is formally derived from → Einstein's field equations of → general relativity by requiring the Universe to be everywhere → homogeneous and → isotropic. It is expressed by H²(t) = (8πG)/(3c²)ε(t) - (kc²)/R²(t), where H(t) is the → Hubble parameter, G is the → gravitational constant, c is the → speed of light, ε(t) is the → energy density, k is the → curvature of space-time, and R(t) is the → cosmic scale factor. See also → Big Bang, → accelerating Universe. See also → Friedmann-Lemaitre Universe.

Named after the Russian mathematician and physical scientist Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Friedmann (1888-1925), who was the first to formulate an → expanding Universe based on Einstein's theory of → general relativity ; → equation.

One of the first → cosmological models to incorporate Einstein's → general relativity, predicting that → galaxies should be → receding from each other due to → cosmic expansion.

→ Friedmann equation; Georges Edouard Lemaître (1894-1966), a Belgian cosmologist and priest who proposed a first sketch of the → Big Bang theory; → universe.

Very cold in temperature.

From Latin frigidus "cold, chill, cool," from stem of frigere "be cold;" related to noun frigus "cold, coldness, frost," from PIE root *srig- "cold;" cf. Gk. rhigos "cold, frost."

Sajan "very cold," variants šaja,, sajâm, šajad, Oss. I. syjyn/syd, D. sujun/sud "to freeze," Yaghnobi ši-, Yazghulami šed/šiy- "to freeze," Shughni šitô , Sariqoli š(i)tu "cold, ice." Proto-Ir. *saiH-/siH- "to freeze." Skt. syā- "to freeze, coagulate, become rigid."

1) One of the alternating bright or dark bands produced by → interference or → diffraction.
2) Wavy patterns due to the layered structure of → CCDs. These interference effects are prominent when emission lines such as the night-sky emissions are present.

From M.E. frenge, from O.Fr. frange, from V.L. *frimbia, metathesis of L. fimbriæ "fibers, threads, fringe," of uncertain origin.

Fariz, contraction of farâviz "fringe, lace, edging," from far-, par-, variant pirâ- "around, about" (Mid.Pers. pêrâ; O.Pers. pariy "around, about," Av. pairi "around, over;" Skt. pari; Indo-Iranian *pari- "around;" PIE base *per- "through, across, beyond;" cf. Gk. peri "around, about, beyond;" L. per "through") + âviz "anything suspended; a place where things are hung up; a border, margin," from âvixtan, âvizidan "to hang, suspend;" Mid.Pers. âwextan "to hang;" Av. vij- "to shake, swing," frauuaēγa- "swinging forward;" cf. Skt. vej- "to dart up or back, move up;" Proto-Iranian *uij- "to shake, swing."

Optics: If the intensity in an interference fringe pattern has the maximum and minimum values I_max and I_min, the visibility is defined by the relation ν = (I_max - I_min) / (I_max + I_min), where 0 ≤ ν ≤ 1. In terms of the intensities of the two interfering waves: ν = 2(I₁ . I₂)^1/2 / (I₁ + I₂).

→ fringe; → visibility

A tailless amphibian with a short squat body, moist smooth skin, a large head, and very long hind legs for leaping.

Qurbâqe "frog," prefixed bâq, variants Tabari, Aftari vak, Tabari vag, Lori, Laki qorvâ, korvâx, Kurd. baq, Zâzâ baqa; Mid.Pers. vazak, vak; Av. vazaγa- "frog."

1) The part or side of anything that faces forward. → ionization front.
2) Meteo.: A narrow zone of transition between air masses of contrasting density, that is, air masses of different temperature or different water vapor concentration or both.
3) The side of the → planispheric astrolabe that displays the → limb of the → mater, the → tympanum, the → rete, and, in some models, the → rule. By setting the front, i.e., by rotating the rete around the mater, one can depict the appearance of the heavens as determined by observation in order to obtain a time value from the instrument. Alternatively, by configuring the rete for a given day, one can perform several astronomical computations such as the rising, culmination, and setting of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars (online museo galileo, VirtualMuseum).

From O.Fr. front "forehead, brow," from L. frontem "forehead," perhaps lit. "that which projects," from PIE *bhront-, from base *bhren- "to project, stand out."

Pišân, from pišâni "front, forehead," from piš "before; in front," from Mid.Pers. pêš "before, earlier;" O.Pers. paišiya "before; in the presence of" + -ân suffix of place and time.
Ru "face," → surface.

A device containing a radio-frequency amplifier and associated cryogenic systems, routers, and converters (mixers), whose input is the voltage from a receptor and whose output is an intermediate-frequency signal. → back-end.

→ front + end, from O.E. ende, from P.Gmc. *andja, originally "the opposite side," from PIE *antjo "end, boundary," from base *anta-/*anti- "opposite, in front of, before."

Piš-tah, from piš, → front, + tah "end;" Mid.Pers. tah "bottom." The origin of this term is not clear. It may be related to Gk. tenagos "bottom, swamp," Latvian tigas "depth;" PIE *tenegos "water bottom."

A border between two countries.
A line of division between different or opposed things.
The farthermost limits of knowledge or achievement in a particular subject.

From O.Fr. fronter, from front "forehead, brow," → front.

Marz, from Mid.Pers. marz "boundary;" Av. marəza- "border, district," marəz- "to rub, wipe;" Mod.Pers. parmâs "contact, touching" (→ contact), mâl-, mâlidan "to rub;" PIE base *merg- "boundary, border;" cf. L. margo "edge" (Fr. marge "margin"); P.Gmc. *marko; Ger. Mark; E. mark, margin.

An observing project using the → Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the → Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain deep images for cosmological studies. The Frontier Fields combines the power of HST and Spitzer with the natural gravitational telescopes of massive high-magnification clusters of galaxies to produce the deepest observations of clusters and their lensed galaxies ever obtained. Six clusters (Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1-2403, MACSJ0717.5+3745, MACSJ1149.5+2223, Abell S1063, and Abell 370) were selected based on their lensing strength, sky darkness, Galactic extinction, parallel field suitability, accessibility to ground-based facilities, HST, Spitzer and JWST observability, and preexisting ancillary data. (Lotz et al., 2016, arxiv/1605.06567 and references therein).

→ frontier; → field.

Ice crystals that are formed by deposition of water vapor on a relatively cold surface.
The condition that exists when the temperature of the earth's surface and earthbound objects fall below freezing.

O.E. forst, frost "a freezing, becoming frozen, extreme cold," from P.Gmc. *frusta- (cf. O.H.G. frost, Du. vorst), related to freosan "to freeze."

Bašmé, from bašm "hoar-frost; dew," variants bažm, bašk, pašak "frost; dew," may be related to (štiyâni, Qomi dialects) bašand, vašand, vašan "rain" (vašan-sâl "rainy year"), (Lori, Laki) vašt "rain shower," (Gurâni) wašt, wišani "rain" (Tâti Karingâni) vurasten "to rain;" Av. -varšta- "rain," aiwi-varšta- "rained upon;" Skt. vars- "to rain," varsá- "rain;" M.Irish frass "rain shower, torrent;" Gk. eérse "dew," oureo "to urinate."

A → dimensionless number that gives the ratio of local acceleration to gravitational acceleration in the vertical.

Named after William Froude (1810-1879), English engineer.

1) Turned into or covered with ice. → frozen water.
2) Attached or → fixed so as to be immovable. → frozen magnetic field line.

Past participle of → freeze.

A → magnetic field line in a → fluid when the motion of the fluid carries the magnetic field along with it.

Frozen, p.p. of → freeze; → magnetic; → line.