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

A bright → quasar whose image is split into four spots due to → gravitational lensing (Magain et al. 1988, Nature 334, 325). The four images of comparable brightness all lie within 0.7 arc seconds of the image center. The quasar has a → redshift of 2.56, corresponding to a distance of about 11 billion → light-years. Observations indicate that the lensing galaxy is located approximately at the geometrical center of the four images. A firm spectroscopic redshift of the lens has yet to be obtained; however, a → cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z = 1.7 has been suggested to account for the lensing of this system. H1413+117 was the first quasar to be detected in the → submillimeter wave → continuum and in → carbon monoxide emission.

So named because of the optical image; → clover; → leaf; → quasar.

One of the organs, usually green and flat, growing from the side of a stem or branch or direct from the root of a tree or plant. A leaf constitutes a unit of the foliage, and functions primarily in food manufacture by → photosynthesis.

M.E. leef, lef; O.E. leaf; cf. O.S. lof, O.N. lauf, O.Fris. laf, Du. loof, O.H.G. loub, Ger. Laub.

Barg "leaf" (Tabari, Gilaki valg, balg; Kurd. belg, balk, Semnâni valg); Mid.Pers. warg "leaf;" Av. varəka- "leaf;" cf. Skt. valká- "bark, bast, rind;" Russ. volokno "fibre, fine combed flax."