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

A light color area on the → Moon, as contrasted with → lunar maria. Also called terra.

→ lunar; → highland.

A very bright crescent of light glowing on the lunar horizon at → sunset or just before → sunrise. It has been suggested that → lunar dust is transported electrically high into sky, allowing sunlight to scatter and create glows. On the day side of the → Moon, solar → ultraviolet radiation is strong enough to kick → electrons from → dust grains in the lunar soil. Removal of electrons, which have a negative electric charge, leaves the dust with a positive electric charge. Since like charges repel, the positively charged dust particles get pushed away from each other, and the only direction not blocked by more dust is up. In the 1960s, Surveyor probes filmed a glowing cloud floating just above the lunar surface during sunrise. Later, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, while orbiting the Moon, recorded a similar phenomenon at the sharp line where lunar day meets night, called the → terminator.

→ lunar; → horizon; → glow.

One of the 28 divisions of the sky, identified by the prominent stars in them, that the Moon passes through during its monthly cycle, as used in ancient Chinese, Hindu, and Arab astronomy/astrology.

From O.Fr. mansion, from L. mansionem (nom. mansio) "a staying, a remaining, night quarters, station," from manere "to stay, abide" (Fr. maison, ménage; E. manor, mansion, permanent); cf. Pers. mân "house, home," mândan "to remain, stay, relinquish, leave;" Mid.Pers. mândan "to remain, stay;" O.Pers. mān- "to remain, dwell;" Av. man- "to remain, dwell; to wait;" Gk. menein "to remain;" PIE base *men- "to remain, wait for."

Manzel, from Ar. "dwelling, habitation, mansion."

An area on the surface of the → Moon that appears darker and smoother than its surroundings. Once thought to be seas, lunar maria are now known to be basaltic basins created by volcanic → lava floods; plural maria.

→ lunar; L. mare "sea," plural form maria, because Galileo thought the dark featureless areas on the Moon were → seas.

Plural of → lunar mare.

→ lunar mare.

The mass of the → Moon, which is 7.35 x 10²² kg, about 1/81 of the Earth's mass.

→ lunar; → mass.

The average time between successive new or full moons. Also called → synodic month, → lunation.

→ lunar; → month.

One of the two points of intersection of the orbit of the Moon with the plane of → ecliptic. Indeed, the lunar orbit is tilted by about 5 degrees relative to the ecliptic. The revolution period of a lunar node in ecliptic is 18.61 years. Due to perturbation by the Sun, the lunar nodes slowly regress westward by 19.3° per year. See also → ascending node; → descending node.

→ lunar; → node.

Gereh, → node; gowzahri, related to gowzahr, → draconic month.

Same as → lunar node.

→ lunar; → orbit; → node.

The apparent shift in the → Moon's position relative to the background stars when observed from different places on Earth. The first parallax determination was for the Moon, by Hipparchus (150 B.C.). He determined that one-fifth of the Sun's angular diameter corresponded to the lunar parallax between Hellespont and Alexandria.

→ lunar; → parallax.

One of the various changes in the apparent shape of the Moon, because as the Moon orbits the Earth different amounts of its illuminated part are facing us. The phases of the Moon include: the → new moon, → waxing crescent, → first quarter, → waxing gibbous, → full moon, → waning gibbous, → last quarter, → waning crescent, and → new moon again.

→ lunar; → phase.

A probe for exploring and reporting on conditions on or about the Moon.

→ lunar; → probe.

The process whereby the → Moon gradually moves out into a slightly larger orbit. The → gravitational attraction of the Moon on the → Earth creates two ocean → tidal bulges on the opposite sides of our planet. The Earth rotates faster than the Moon revolves about the Earth. Therefore, the tidal bulge facing the Moon advances the Moon with respect to the line joining the centers of the Earth and the Moon. The Moon's gravity pulls on the bulge and slows down the → Earth's rotation. As a result, the Earth loses → angular momentum and the days on Earth are gradually increasing by 2.3 milliseconds per century. Since the angular momentum in the → Earth-Moon system is conserved, the Earth must impart the loss in its own angular momentum to the Moon's orbit. Hence, the Moon is being forced into a slightly larger orbit which means it is receding from the Earth. However, eventually this process will come to an end. This is because the Earth's own rotation rate will match the Moon's orbital rate, and it will therefore no longer impart any angular momentum to it. In this case, the planet and the Moon are said to be tidally locked (→ tidal locking). This is a stable situation because it minimises the energy loss due to friction of the system. Long ago, the Moon's own rotation became equal to its orbital period about the Earth and so we only see one side of the Moon. This is known as → synchronous rotation and it is quite common in the solar system. The Moon's average distance from Earth in increasing by 3.8 cm per year. Such a precise value is possible due to the Apollo laser reflectors which the astronauts left behind during the lunar landing missions (Apollo 11, 14, and 15). Eventually, the Moon's distance will increase so much that it will be to far away to produce total eclipses of the Sun.

→ lunar; → recession.

The loose, fragmentary material on the Moon's surface. The lunar regolith has resulted from → meteorite collisions all along the Moon's history. It is the → debris thrown out of the → impact craters. The composition of the lunar regolith varies from place to place depending on the rock types impacted. Generally, the older the surface, the thicker the regolith. Regolith on young → maria may be only 2 meters thick; whereas, it is perhaps 20 meters thick in the older → highlands.

→ lunar; → regolith.

The Moon's motion around its axis, which takes place in 27.321 661 days (→ sidereal month). Since the Moon and the Earth are → tidally locked our satellite has a → synchronous rotation. This means that it rotates once on its axis in the same length of time it takes to revolve around Earth. That is why the Moon always shows the same face to us. However, over time we can see up to 59 percent of the lunar surface because the Moon does not orbit at a constant speed (→ libration in longitude) and its axis is not perpendicular to its orbit (→ libration in latitude). The Moon also creates tides in Earth oceans. As the Earth rotates, the rising and falling sea waters bring about friction within the liquid itself and between the water and solid Earth. This removes energy from Earth's rotation and causes it to spin more slowly. As a result, days are getting longer, at about 2 milliseconds per century. On the other hand, since the → angular momentum of the → Earth-Moon system must be conserved, the Moon gradually moves away from the Earth. This, in turn, requires its orbital period to increase and, because the Moon is tidally locked to Earth, to spin more slowly.

→ lunar; → rotation.

Same as → sidereal month.

→ lunar; → sidereal; → orbital; → period.

→ lunar highland.

→ lunar; terra "earth," → terrestrial.

A year based solely on the Moon's motion, containing 12 synodic months, each of 29.5306 days, that is a year of 354.3672 days. Used by Hebrews, Babylonians, Greeks, and Arabs.

→ lunar; → year.

The rocks that make up the bright portions of the lunar surface.

From → lunar + ite a suffix used to form the names of minerals, such as hematite and malachite.

The interval of a complete lunar cycle, between one new Moon and the next, that is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds. or 29.5306 days. → synodic month.

M.E. lunacyon, from M.L. lunation-.

Mahâyand, literally "coming, arrival of the Moon," from mâh→ moon + âyand "coming, arrival," present stem of âmadan "to come"; O.Pers. aitiy "goes;" Av. ay- "to go, to come," aēiti "goes;" Skt. e- "to come near," eti "arrival;" Gk ion " going," neut. pr.p. of ienai "to go;" L. ire "to go;" Goth. iddja "went," Lith. eiti "to go;" Rus. idti "to go;" from PIE base *ei- "to go, to walk."