Bennu

Borrowing from Egyptian bnw. Doublet of phoenix.

Osiris-Rex’s arrival at Bennu was not like the landing of NASA’s InSight spacecraft in one piece on the surface of Mars last Monday. (Happily, it landed flawlessly.)

2018 December 3, Kenneth Chang, “NASA’s Osiris-Rex Arrives at Asteroid Bennu After a Two-Year Journey”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(astronomy) The near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu.

Bennu bird

the bird aspect of the deity; the indefinite corresponding real bird


superbolide

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superbolide.wav

Meteorite falls are always in the bolide or superbolide category. Nevertheless, it is not true that the brighter the bolide, the larger the meteorite.

2015, William F. Bottke, Francesca E. DeMeo, Patrick Michel, Asteroids IV, University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 258:

On February 15, 2013, many on Earth were watching for news of the approach of an asteroid labeled 2012 DA14. Suddenly, those watchers – and millions of others around the globe – were startled by news of a superbolide, or super bright meteor, above the region of Chelyabinsk in Russia.

2016 February 15, Deborah Byrd, “Chelyabinsk meteor mystery 3 years later”, in earthsky.org, archived from the original on 2020-10-01:

In February 15, 2013, a superbolide meteor (brighter than the Sun) entered Earth’s atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, and exploded at an altitude of 23.5 km. Eyewitnesses could feel the intense heat from the fireball, and the blast wave from the explosion blew out windows in buildings.

2018, Samuel J. Lin, Jeff Sanny, William Moebs, University Physics Volume 1 LR, University of Arizona Press, →ISBN, page 149:

(astronomy) A bolide with a high apparent magnitude.


ICOP

(astronomy, Islam) Initialism of Islamic Crescent Observation Project.


Hygieia

From Ancient Greek Ὑγίεια (Hugíeia) from ὑγίεια (hugíeia, “health”).

(astronomy) 10 Hygiea, a main belt asteroid that is the fourth-largest known.


coalsack

(astronomy) Any of the spaces in the Milky Way which are very black, owing to the nearly complete absence of stars.


unnova

From un- + nova. From being similar to a supernova-process collapse, without the bright novalike outburst.

(astronomy) The collapse of a star which cannot explode in a supernova.


Betelgeusian

(astronomy, science fiction) Relating to the star Betelgeuse or to inhabitants of the Betelgeuse system.


Hubble time

(astronomy, cosmology) A constant defined as 1/H_0, where H_0 is the Hubble constant. 1/H_0 is equal to 4.55×10¹⁷ seconds or 14.4 billion years.


radiation belt

Radiation belts have been found circling all the planets in the Solar System that have a strong magnetic field, namely Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Earth.

2003, Marshall Cavendish Corporation, How It Works: Science and Technology, 3rd edition, →ISBN, page 1899:

(astronomy, physics) A region of high-energy charged particles which partly surrounds a planet or star, trapped by its magnetic field and characterized by intense radiation.


Peace Vallis

Named on September 26, 2012 by the International Astronomical Union as a valley in the Aeolis quadrangle on the planet Mars Aeolis (“Aeolis quadrangle”).

(planetology) A valley within Gale Crater near the landing site (Bradbury Landing) of the Curiosity rover on the planet Mars.


exocomet

Constructed from Ancient Greek: exo- + comet

(astronomy, planetology) An extrasolar comet; A comet which exists outside Earth's solar system, including interstellar comets and comets that orbit stars other than the sun.


interstellar comet

en-noun

interstellar comet (plural interstellar comets)

(astronomy, planetology) A comet (or exocomet) located in interstellar space, and not gravitationally bound to a star.


interstellar planet

interstellar planet (plural interstellar planets)

Constructed from Latin: inter- + stellar + planet. The latter derives from Middle English planete, from Old English planēta (“planet, chasuble”), from Latin planeta, planetes, from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs) variant of πλάνης (plánēs, “wanderer, planet”), from πλανάω (planáō, “wander about, stray”), of unknown origin. Perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to wander, roam”), cognate with Latin pālor (“wander about, stray”), Old Norse flana (“to rush about”), Norwegian flanta (“to wander about”). More at flaunt.

der

(astronomy, planetology) a planetary-mass object which has either been ejected from its system or was never gravitationally bound to any star or other such object, and that therefore orbits the galaxy directly.


Phocaea

From Latin Phōcaea, from Ancient Greek Φώκαια (Phṓkaia).

(astronomy) 25 Phocaea, a main belt asteroid.


antiuniverse

(astrophysics, cosmology) A conjectured universe formed from antimatter.

antiuniverso

a conjectured universe formed from antimatter


teraparsec

(astronomy) An astronomical unit of distance equal to 10¹² parsecs.


minivoid

(astronomy) A small region of very low density within a galaxy.


archaeoastronomical

“There’s plenty of evidence for archaeoastronomical orientations and an interest in cosmology and the night sky, the day sky, the planets and the stars during the Bronze Age,” said Alison Sheridan, an archaeologist who has worked with National Museums Scotland and was formerly president of the Prehistoric Society, an international group that promotes prehistoric research.

2021 January 19, Becky Ferreira, quoting Alison Sheridan, “A Bitter Archaeological Feud Over an Ancient Vision of the Cosmos”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(astronomy) Relating to archaeastronomy.


psychroplanet

(astronomy) A habitable planet that has a surface temperature of −50 to 0°C (colder than is optimal for most terrestrial life), such as Mars.


thermoplanet

(astronomy) A habitable planet with a surface temperature of 50–100°C, warmer than is optimal for most terrestrial life.


digit

From Middle English digit, from Latin digitus (“a fingerbreadth; a number”). Doublet of digitus and toe .

bit

position in a sequence of numerals, symbol in a positional number system

A six-digit eclipse covers half the lunar surface.

(units of measure, astronomy) ¹⁄₁₂ the apparent diameter of the sun or moon, (chiefly) as a measure of the totality of an eclipse.


Amalthean

/æməlˈθiːən/

(astronomy) Of or relating to the Jovian moon named for Amalthea.


Amalthea

From Ancient Greek Ἀμάλθεια (Amáltheia).

(astronomy) The third most distant moon of Jupiter.


Epimethean

en-adj

Epimethean (comparative more Epimethean, superlative most Epimethean)

more Epimethean (comparative)
most Epimethean (superlative)

(astronomy) Of or relating to the Saturnian moon named for Epimetheus.


Lucina

From Middle English Lucina and Lucyna, from Latin Lūcīna.

(astronomy) 146 Lucina, a Main Belt asteroid.


Caelus

(astronomy) A suggested alternate name for the seventh planet Uranus.


Aglaea

From Ancient Greek Ἀγλαΐα (Aglaḯa, literally “Splendour, Glory, Glow”).

der

(astronomy) The main-belt asteroid 47 Aglaja, named after the Aglaea of the Charites.


Hegemone

From Ancient Greek Ἡγεμόνη (Hēgemónē, literally “Mastery”).

(astronomy) One of the moons of Jupiter.


Phobetor

From the Ancient Greek Φοβητωρ (Phobētōr, “frightening”).

uder

Milky Way Galaxy
Milky Way Galaxy#English

(planets) A planet in Lich star system, Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo constellation; the third exoplanet ever discovered. A planet in orbit of the pulsar Lich (PSR B1257+12).


aurorean

en-adj

aurorean (comparative more aurorean, superlative most aurorean)

more aurorean (comparative)
most aurorean (superlative)

/ɔːˈɹɔəɹɪən/

Either the Latin aurōre(us) + the English -an or formed from the two English elements auror(a) + -ean.

(astronomy) Of or relating to the asteroid (94) Aurora.


Girl

(astronomy) A Chinese constellation located near Aquarius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the Black Turtle.


Emptiness

zh-l

虛宿／虚宿 (Xūxiù)

(astronomy) A Chinese constellation near Aquarius and Equuleus, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the Black Turtle.


Ox

(constellation): Semantic loan from Chinese 牛宿 (Niúxiù).
: (surname): From ox, the animal.
: (Oxford): Clipping

(astronomy) A Chinese constellation located near Capricorn, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the larger Black Turtle.


Roof

(astronomy) A Chinese constellation located near Aquarius and Pegasus, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the larger Black Turtle.


Encampment

A calque of Chinese 室宿 (Shìsù) (literally "room" or "chamber").

(astronomy) a Chinese constellation located near Pegasus, one of the 28 lunar mansions and part of the larger Black Turtle.


Black Turtle

From Mandarin 玄武 (Xuánwǔ, literally “Dark Warrior”) + the primary animal representing it.

bor

(astronomy) a Chinese constellation making up one of the Four Symbols of Chinese astronomy


Xuanwu

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin Chinese 玄武 (Xuánwǔ, literally “Dark Warrior”).

(astronomy, Chinese culture) Synonym of Black Turtle


Markarian

From Armenian Մարգարյան (Margaryan), reflecting its pronunciation.

Markarian galaxy
Markarian galaxy#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Markarian galaxy. (a class of galaxies that have nuclei with excessive amounts of ultraviolet emissions)


Markarian galaxy

en-noun

Markarian galaxy (plural Markarian galaxies)

From Markarian (“an Armenian surname”) + galaxy. Named after Benjamin Markarian, an Armenian astrophysicist who discovered this class of galaxies.

(astronomy) Any of a class of galaxies that have nuclei with excessive amounts of ultraviolet emissions.


MRK

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Markarian galaxy.


Ananke

From Ancient Greek Ἀνάγκη (Anánkē, “Fate”).


magmasphere

(geology, astronomy) A sphere of magma at the centre of a rocky planet or moon of sufficiently large size


Eirene

From Ancient Greek Εἰρήνη (Eirḗnē, literally “Peace”).

uder

(astronomy) 14 Irene, a main belt asteroid.


Cassiopeia's Chair

(astronomy) A group of six stars in Cassiopeia, somewhat resembling a chair.


Aquariid

(astronomy) A meteor in any of several meteor showers whose radiant appears to lie in the constellation Aquarius.

Aquárida

a meteor in any of several meteor showers whose radiant appears to lie in the constellation Aquarius


Quadrans Muralis

(astronomy, obsolete) A former constellation between Boötes and Draco, near the tail of Ursa Major.


lunar mansion

(astronomy, astrology) a segment of the ecliptic (often called a station or house) through which the moon moves in its orbit around the earth, often used by ancient cultures as part of their calendar system.

اختر

a segment of the eliptic through which the moon moves


Hesperia

From Latin Hesperia, from Ancient Greek Ἑσπερία (Hespería).

(astronomy) 69 Hesperia, a main belt asteroid.


exeligmos

(astronomy) A period of 54 years and 33 days that can be used to predict successive eclipses with similar properties and location.


minimoon

Coordinate term: quasi-satellite

This photo of Earth's newest minimoon was taken by the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Hawaii's Maunakea.

2020 March 4, Theresa Machemer, “Earth's New Mini-Moon Is Leaving Soon”, in Smithsonian Magazine, archived from the original on 2022-08-20:

Earth has only had two minimoons on record – one in February 2020 and the other in 2006.

2020 September 22, Stacy Liberatore, “Earth is set to capture a minimoon in October that may stay until May 2021 – but some experts say the object could be man-made space junk”, in The Daily Mail, archived from the original on 2021-07-26:

These included a rare 'minimoon' named 2020 CD3, a tiny asteroid less than 3 metres in diameter that had been temporarily captured by Earth's gravity. The minimoon broke away from Earth's pull last April.

2021 March 11, Alexandra Witze, “Record number of asteroids seen whizzing past Earth in 2020”, in Nature, archived from the original on 2022-09-09:

(astronomy) A small asteroid captured by the Earth's gravity and temporarily acting as a second moon of Earth.

The trouble is, the difference in size between Supermoon and Minimoon, though apparent when placed side-by-side, is only 14 percent, too small to be seen with the naked eye.

2014 January 15, Geoff Gaherty, “Smallest full moon of 2014 rises tonight”, in NBC News, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:

At its closest point, perigee, the moon will obviously appear largest. Such a "maximoon" has an apparent diameter about 13% larger than a "minimoon" at its most distant point, apogee.

2018 January 29, Tim O'Brien, “'Super blue blood moon' to grace the sky – here's what we could learn from it”, in The Conversation, archived from the original on 2022-08-13:

For those interested in a longer-term project, Professor Horner said taking a photo of the supermoon and comparing it to the 'minimoon' in December can be an interesting experiment to compare the size.

2022 August 9, Rosie Bensley, “A supermoon will rise on Thursday: Here's a photographer's tips to get the best snap”, in The Canberra Times:

(astronomy, uncommon) Synonym of micromoon (“a full moon which appears unusually small due to coinciding with the Moon's apogee”)


Chloris

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Χλωρίς (Khlōrís, literally “Greenfinch”), from χλωρός (khlōrós, “greenish-yellow, pale green”).

bor

(astronomy) 410 Chloris, a main-belt asteroid.


kronoseismology

(astronomy) The study of the propagation of pressure waves in Saturn


cosmic microwave background

en-noun

cosmic microwave background (uncountable)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cosmic microwave background.wav

It was originally called the primeval fireball.

(astronomy) Faint thermal radiation that pervades all space and is thought to be the remnants of the big bang, produced during the epoch of recombination.


Titanean

for Titan the shallow-atmosphere approximation is a much poorer one (8% of the titanean radius).

2003, Luz et al. "Latitudinal transport by barotropic waves in Titan's stratosphere", Icarus 166, 343–358

(astronomy) Of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.


Sauron

From the Quenya name of the dark lord Sauron in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, whose name Tolkien created in his constructed language Quenya, from saura (“foul, putrid”).


cosmoparticle

(physics, astronomy) Any subatomic particle of cosmological origin


subchondritic

According to the model, a magma ocean that differentiated chiefly at low pressure and contained 6-8 wt% A1203 and a subchondritic Ca/Al ratio probably formed the lunar crust.

1979, International Aerospace Abstracts, page 3096:

The subcontinental lithospheric mantle as a mantle reservoir may be modeled by the time-integrated growth of radiogenic ¹⁸⁷Os along retarded (subchondritic) Re/Os trajectories, which results in subchondritic Os isotope compositions.

1999, David Dillon Lambert, Application of radiogenic isotopes to ore deposit research and exploration, page 35:

If all the Ag were delivered prior to the main phase, the core segregation by about 30 Ma when the Earth was 90% accreted, then a subchondritic ¹⁰⁷Ag/¹⁰⁹Ag would be expected because of strong depletion of siderophile element Pd in the silicate Earth.

2016, Hidenori Terasaki, Deep Earth: Physics and Chemistry of the Lower Mantle and Core:

(planetology, of an elemental ratio) Less than that found in a typical chondrite.


Orion Arm

(astronomy) A minor spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, containing the Solar System.


sednoid

Scientists are beginning to discover more sednoids thanks to better search efforts.

trans-Neptunian object
trans-Neptunian object

(astronomy) A trans-Neptunian object of the inner Oort cloud, that is, one with a perihelion greater than 75 AU.


Cybele

From Latin Cybelē, from Ancient Greek Κυβέλη (Kubélē).

(astronomy) 65 Cybele, a main belt asteroid.


antispiral

(astronomy) Of or relating to a theorem stating that no stable spiral modes of oscillation exist, in general, in a gaseous galaxy.


emission nebula

emission nebula (plural emission nebulae or emission nebulas)

emission nebulae (plural)
emission nebulas (plural)

The Orion nebula is an emission nebula—it glows with its own light.

2000 October 12, Prof. Daniel Styer, “Nebulae”, in Oberlin College Physics Department, retrieved 2014-04-07:

Kitt Peak National Observatory, in Arizona, 56 miles southwest of Tucson, offers a rare opportunity to spend an entire night looking through powerful telescopes at galaxies, planetary emission nebulae and star clusters.

2005 June 5, Suzanne MacNeille, “On a Dig or Through a Telescope, You Just Might Learn Something”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-04-07:

(astronomy) A nebula composed of ionized gases which produce visible light (as distinct from a reflection nebula, which reflects the light produced by neighboring stars).


almucantar staff

(astronomy) An ancient instrument, having an arc of fifteen degrees, formerly used at sea to take observations of the sun's amplitude at the time of its rising or setting, to find the variation of the compass.


Sothic

From Sothis (“Sirius”) + -ic (forming adjectives), a variant of earlier Sothiac, from French sothiaque, ultimately from Ancient Greek σωθιακός (sōthiakós, “Sothic”), from Σῶθις (Sôthis, “Sirius”) and -κός (-kós, “-ic”, forming adjectives).

der

(historical astronomy) Of or relating to the star Sirius, particularly in Egyptian or ancient Greek contexts.


Sothiac

From French sothiaque, ultimately from Ancient Greek σωθιακός (sōthiakós, “Sothic”), from Σῶθις (Sôthis, “Sirius”) and -κός (-kós, “-ic, forming adjectives”).

(historical astronomy, uncommon) Alternative form of Sothic: Of or related to the star Sirius.


blood moon

Just after two o'clock in the morning, the moon went into eclipse, fading to a deep red and casting a pall over the mountainside. Viewing the blood moon as an ominous sign, the Confederates used it to cloak their flight.

2006, Georgiana Kotarski, Ghosts of the Southern Tennessee Valley, →ISBN, pages 98–99:

“Because the Earth has an atmosphere, it doesn’t completely block the light on the moon. Some of the red light actually bends through the Earth’s atmosphere and lights up the moon during a total eclipse, and that’s the rusty red, blood moon,” said SubbaRao.

2014, Gaynor Hall, “Blood Moon Rising: Chicago star gazers in for treat if weather holds out”, in WGNtv.com, retrieved 2014-04-15:

(figurative, astronomy) The moon as it appears during a total lunar eclipse.


Praxiteles

Borrowed from Latin Prāxitelēs, from Ancient Greek Πρᾱξῐτέλης (Prāxĭtélēs).

(astronomy) A crater on the planet Mercury measuring 182 km in diameter.

(astronomy) A main-belt asteroid discovered in 1973.


white night

(astronomy) A night with only civil twilight, where the sun does not go further than 6° below the horizon.

白夜

(astronomy) a night with only civil twilight, where the sun does not go further than 6° below the horizon


HVGC

globular cluster
globular cluster#English

(astronomy) Initialism of hypervelocity globular cluster. (a globular cluster with a velocity greater than the escape velocity of its host galaxy)


SMBH

supermassive black hole
supermassive black hole#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of supermassive black hole.


galaxy filament

en-noun

galaxy filament (plural galaxy filaments)

(cosmology) A massive, thread-like formation of gravitationally bound galaxies forming the boundaries between large voids in the universe.


Toutatis

From Gaulish. Cognate with Proto-Germanic *þeudō (“people, nation”).

cog

(astronomy) 4179 Toutatis, a main belt asteroid.


crown of aberration

en-noun

crown of aberration (plural not attested)

(astronomy) A spurious circle around the true circle of the Sun.


universal instrument

universal instrument (plural universal instruments)

(astronomy) A kind of altitude and azimuth instrument. The object end of the telescope is placed at right angles to the eye end, with a prism of total reflection at the angle, and the eye end constitutes a portion of the horizontal axis of the instrument, having the eyepiece at the pivot and in the center of the altitude circle, so that the eye has convenient access to both at the same time.


Desdemona

Coined based on Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-) + δαίμων (daímōn), hence "ill-fated, unfortunate".

(astronomy) An inner moon of the planet Uranus.

(astronomy) 666 Desdemona, a main-belt asteroid discovered in 1908.


epistellar

(astronomy) Of a gas giant: having a close orbit to its parent star


epistellar Jovian

epistellar Jovian (plural epistellar Jovians)


SSCC

(astronomy) Initialism of SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre (ESA's centre for space weather at the Space Pole in Belgium)


Bebhionn

From Irish Bébinn, seemingly from bean (“woman”) + binn (“melodious”). More at Bébinn.


Adrastea

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἀδράστεια (Adrásteia, literally “inescapable”).

bor

(astronomy) Smallest of the four inner moons of Jupiter.


Thebe

(astronomy) One of the moons of Jupiter.


Euanthe

From Ancient Greek Εὐάνθη (Euánthē, from εὐ- (eu-, “good-, well-”) + άνθη (ánthē, “blossoms”)). Cognate with Evanthia.


Aitne

From Ancient Greek Αἴτνη (Aítnē). Doublet of Etna.


Taygete

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ταϋγέτη (Taügétē).


Aoede

From Ancient Greek ἀοιδή (aoidḗ). Doublet of ode.


Eukelade

(astronomy) One of the moons of Jupiter, also known as Jupiter XLVII.


Sinope

From Latin Sinope, from Ancient Greek Σινώπη (Sinṓpē), from Hittite 𒅆𒉡𒉿 (Šinuwa).


Daphnis

From Latin Daphnis, from Ancient Greek Δάφνις (Dáphnis).


Paaliaq

Named in August 2003 after a fictional shaman in the book The Curse of the Shaman, written by Michael Kusugak.


Albiorix

From Latin Albiorix, from Gaulish *Albiorīx, from *albios (“world”), from Proto-Celtic *albiyos, *albiyū, + *rīx (“king”).


Skoll

Named after the Norse god Sköll, from Old Norse Skǫll.


Jarnsaxa

Named after the jotun Járnsaxa in Norse mythology.


Tarvos

Named after a Gaulish diety, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *tarwos. Doublet of steer, tur, and Taurus.


Bergelmir

From the Old Norse name; the second element means "yeller," from the verb *gallmr, from Proto-Germanic *galmaz (“echo”). The first element has been variously interpreted as berg (“mountain”), berr (“bare”), and a variant of bjǫrn (“bear”).


Hati

(astronomy) A natural satellite in the Norse group of Saturn’s moons, discovered in December 2004.


Thrymr

Named after Þrymr, a character in Norse mythology.


Surtur

From Old Norse Surtr (“the swarthy one”).


Fornjot

Named after Fornjót, an ancient giant and king in Norse mythology.


Cressida

en-proper noun

Cressida (countable and uncountable, plural Cressidas)

Used by Geoffrey Chaucer, also by Shakespeare in Troilus and Cressida (1602), from Italian Criseida (which Boccaccio mistakenly substituted for Briseida (“Briseis”)), from Ancient Greek Χρυσηΐς (Khrusēḯs), from Ancient Greek χρυσός (khrusós, “gold”).

(astronomy) A moon of Uranus, Solar System


Perdita

Named after the daughter of Leontes and Hermione in William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale; from Italian perdita (“loss”).


Caliban

After Caliban, a character in Shakespeare's play The Tempest.


Trinculo

Named after a character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.


Setebos

The deity was named by William Shakespeare after a Patagonian deity mentioned in accounts of Magellan's voyages.
The moon was named after the fictional deity.


Galatea

74 Galatea
Acis and Galatea (mythology)
Galatea
Galatea, New Zealand
Leucippus (daughter of Galatea)

/ˌɡæləˈtiːə/

(astronomy) 74 Galatea, a main belt asteroid.


Sao

From Ancient Greek Σαώ (Saṓ, literally “the rescuer”), from the verb σῴζω (sṓizō, “to save”).

bor

(astronomy) A moon of Neptune, named after the nymph.


Big Chill

heat death of the universe
heat death of the universe#English

(cosmology) Synonym of heat death of the universe


motus peculiaris

(astronomy) A star's own motion, independent of the motion due to the displacement of the observer.


UGC

Uppsala General Catalogue
w:Uppsala General Catalogue

(astronomy) Initialism of Uppsala General Catalogue.


Phaedra

Euripides
Hippolytus (play)
Jean Racine
Phaedra (Seneca)
Phaedra (mythology)
Phèdre
Seneca the Younger

From Latin Phaedra, from Ancient Greek Φαίδρᾱ (Phaídrā).
The myth has been retold several times, in plays (in classical times in Euripides's Hippolytus and Seneca the Younger's Phaedra, later in Racine's Phèdre), and more recently in other media.


The Fish

(astronomy, astrology) Synonym of Pisces


IAWN

(astronomy) Initialism of International Asteroid Warning Network.


Sophrosyne

From the Ancient Greek Σωφροσῠ́νη (Sōphrosŭ́nē), from Ancient Greek σωφροσῠ́νη (sōphrosŭ́nē, “prudence”, “temperance”).

uder

(astronomy) 134 Sophrosyne, a main belt asteroid.


Ianthe

From Ancient Greek Ἰάνθη (Iánthē, literally “purple/violet flower”).

der

(astronomy) 98 Ianthe, a main belt asteroid.


Arethusa

/ˌæɹɪˈθjuːzə/

From Ancient Greek Ἀρέθουσα (Aréthousa, literally “The Waterer”).

uder

(astronomy) 95 Arethusa, a main belt asteroid.


Undina

(astronomy) 92 Undina, a main belt asteroid; named for the eponymous heroine of Undine, a popular novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.


Antiope

90 Antiope
Antiope (Amazon)
Antiope (mother of Amphion)

(astronomy) 90 Antiope, a main belt asteroid.


Thisbe

(astronomy) 88 Thisbe, a main belt asteroid; named for Thisbe, heroine of said Roman tale.


Freia

(astronomy) 76 Freia, a main belt asteroid.


Klytia

(astronomy) 73 Klytia, a main belt asteroid.


Panopaea

(astronomy) 70 Panopaea, a main belt asteroid.


Danae

(astronomy) 61 Danaë, a main belt asteroid.


Elpis

From Ancient Greek Ἐλπίς (Elpís, literally “Hope”).

(astronomy) 59 Elpis, a main belt asteroid.


Melete

Translingual: Melete

From Latin Melete, from Ancient Greek Μελέτη (Melétē).

(astronomy) 56 Melete, a main belt asteroid.


Nysa

(astronomy) 44 Nysa, a main belt asteroid.


Pales

(astronomy) 49 Pales, a main belt asteroid.


Aristaeus

/æɹɪˈsteɪəs/

/æɹɪˈstiːəs/

/əˈɹiːstɪəs/

From Ancient Greek Ἀρισταῖος (Aristaîos, literally “Most Excellent, Most Useful”).

bor

(astronomy) 2135 Aristaeus, a main belt asteroid.


Tyche

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Τύχη (Túkhē), from τύχη (túkhē, “fortune”). Compare Latin Tychō.

(astronomy) The main belt asteroid 258 Tyche.


Sylvian

(astronomy) Of or relating to the asteroid (511) Davida.


Neptunicentric

The elements are calculated for direct motion; accordingly it will be noticed that the actual Neptunicentric motion of the satellite is retrograde — a circumstance which, except in the case of the Uranian satellites, is without parallel in the solar system as regards either planets or satellites; though there are many retrograe comets.

1889, George Frederick Chambers, A Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy:

(astronomy, rare) Appearing as if seen from the centre of the planet Neptune; relating or referring to Neptune as a centre.


tidal lock

[…] [T]he moon's familiar patchwork of dark and light splotches. It's the only side of the moon we ever see from home base, a result of Earth's having yanked its satellite into a so-called tidal lock: The time it takes the moon to rotate once on its axis is the same as the four weeks it takes to orbit Earth, which means the same side is always turned toward us.

2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:

(astronomy) Alternative form of tidal locking


gamma-ray astronomy

(astronomy) An observational branch of astronomy, which deals with the study of gamma-ray emission from celestial objects.


ultraviolet astronomy

(astronomy) An observational branch of astronomy, which deals with the study of ultraviolet emission from celestial objects.


radio star

From being discrete astronomical radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation sources found in the sky, which would twinkle when the Earth's ionosphere varies.

(obsolete, astronomy) A discrete astronomical radio source


NLR

(astronomy) Initialism of narrow-line region.


spiral DRAGN

(astronomy) a spiral galaxy which contains a DRAGN


Baily's beads

In honour of Francis Baily, who first fully explained the phenomenon in 1836.

(astronomy) A feature of total solar eclipses. As the moon "grazes" by the sun during a solar eclipse, the rugged lunar limb topography allows beads of sunlight to shine through in some places and not in others.


HLIRG

hyperluminous infrared galaxy
hyperluminous infrared galaxy#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of hyperluminous infrared galaxy.


Besselian

(mathematics, astronomy) Relating to Friedrich Bessel


quasi-stellar object

en-noun

quasi-stellar object (plural quasi-stellar objects)

From quasi- + stellar + object, from its appearance as a point-like object similar to a star, but with a spectrum unlike that found in a star.


quasi-stellar radio-source

quasi-stellar radio-source (plural quasi-stellar radio-sources)

From quasi- + stellar + radio + source, from its appearance as a point-like object similar to a star, which is also a source of radio-energy, but with a spectrum unlike that found in a star.


exomoonology

We ourselves prefer the "forest moon of Endor" pop-culture nod when discussing exomoonology.

2009 December 21, Lewis Page, “Aliens more likely to live on moons than planets, say boffins”, in The Register:

My research interests include the theory of transiting exoplanets, the development of novel detection techniques, signal detection theory and exomoonology.

2012, Dr. David Kipping, The Space Show (broadcast):

The bases of exomoonology are the initial success of the CoRoT mission that was the first space mission designed to search for exo-planets similar to the Earth itself.

2012, Julián Chela-Flores, Fluid mechanics and systems biology for understanding cosmic distribution of life: A review, page 10:

With the advent of exomoonology (Kipping et al. 2012), the new batch of data to arrive will be particularly relevant for adding yet another factor in defining habitability and life, as suggested in a systems astrobiological approach.

2014, Leonardo Di G. Sigalotti, Jaime Klapp, Eloy Sira, Computational and Experimental Fluid Mechanics with Applications to Physics, →ISBN, page 115:

(astronomy) The search for, and study of, exomoons.


exomoonologist

One of Blighty's top exomoonologists has said that NASA's new "Kepler" space telescope - in addition to its hotly-anticipated ability to discover habitable planets orbiting other stars - will also be able to detect habitable moons orbiting the gas giants of far-flung solar systems.

2009 September 4, Lewis Page, “'Exomoonologist': NASA can detect forest moon of Endor”, in The Register:

“We don’t know for sure whether any of the planets in our sample are truly habitable,” explains David Kipping, astroboffin (and sometime exomoonologist). “All we can say is that they’re promising candidates.”

2015 January 24, Lewis Page, “ALIEN EARTH: Red sun's habitable world spotted 470 light years away”, in Give Back Our Freedom:

Imagine sitting in bed watching the Science Channel with your daughter and you hear a great quote from the astronomy expert — exomoonologist, to be exact- being interviewed.

2016 April 6, Amy Burvall, “The Scientist Storyteller: Interview with Dr. David Kipping, exomoonologist”, in Medium:

(astronomy) A person who searches for, and studies, exomoons.


fast radio burst

fast radio burst (plural fast radio bursts)

This would confirm a cosmological origin of the fast radio burst, although this was disputed because the afterglow could also be caused by conventional AGN activity.

2016, Günter Sigl, Astroparticle Physics, Springer, →ISBN, page 571:

(astronomy) A tight band of radio-frequency waves that lasts only a millisecond, which packs the energy of millions of years of Solar output.


blitzar

Heino Falcke
Luciano Rezzolla
en:blitzar

Blend of blitz + star. Proposed in 2013 by Heino Falcke and Luciano Rezzolla. Analyzable as blitz + -ar.

fast radio burst
fast radio burst#English

(astronomy, neologism) A phenomenon that emits a fast radio burst.

(astronomy, neologism) The object type that generates the phenomenon which emits the burst.


cis-Jovian

From cis- (“on this side of”) + Jove (“Jupiter”) + -ian (“adjectival suffix”).

confix

(astronomy) Closer to the Sun than Jupiter is.


microparsec

(astronomy) A unit of distance equal to one millionth of a parsec


sungrazer

At least one sungrazer has been observed by a spacecraft to actually be destroyed as it rammed the photosphere.

1991, Gregory L. Matloff, The urban astronomer, page 187:

But Comet Howard-Koomen-Michels (Solwind-1) is apparently the only sungrazer that produced a detectable effect on the appearance of the Sun's corona (Michels et.al., 1982; Sheeley et.al., 1982).

1992, C. Mattok, Coronal streamers, coronal loops, and coronal and solar wind composition, page 127:

And there is no telling when another great sungrazer might come. But speculation about the splitting of sungrazers brings us to consider the origins of the Kreutz group.

1997, Fred Schaaf, Comet of the Century: From Halley to Hale-Bopp, page 73:


Kuiper cliff

(astronomy) The 1:2 resonance, beyond which few objects are known; it may be the outer edge of the classical Kuiper belt or just the beginning of a broad gap.


vacuum catastrophe

quantum field theory
quantum field theory

(cosmology) The disagreement of over 100 orders of magnitude between measured values of the vacuum energy density and the theoretical zero-point energy suggested by a naïve application of quantum field theory.


dark sector

From dark + sector. From being named after dark matter and dark energy, and being portion (sector) of a whole (universe).

(astrophysics, cosmology, astronomy, physics) The unknown portion of the Universe outside standard physics, including dark matter and dark energy.

The fraction of the universe that is dark matter and dark energy.


Einstein ring

Named after Albert Einstein, whose theory of general relativity predicted gravitational lensing.

Thus, clusters of galaxies with masses M ∼ 10¹⁵M_⊙ at cosmological distances can result in Einstein rings with angular radii tens of arcseconds.

2008, Malcolm Longair, Galaxy Formation, 2nd edition, Springer, page 130:

The many constraints that the images of Einstein rings provide, allow us to determine the slope of the mass distribution in the lensing galaxy.
In 1988, the first example of an "Einstein ring" was discovered by Jackie Hewitt [Hew].

2012, Arlie O. Petters, Harold Levine, Joachim Wambsganss, Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lensing, Springer, page 155:

This is quite a bit larger than the cores in most clusters, so clusters are unlikely to produce dramatic signatures such as Einstein rings.

2017, Scott Dodelson, Gravitational Lensing, Cambridge University Press, page 48:

gravitational mirage
gravitational mirage

(astronomy) A ring-shaped gravitational mirage; an image of a distant light source, such as a galaxy, which has been distorted into a ring by a gravitational lens.

anneau d’Einstein

image distorted into a ring by a gravitational lens


exoring

From exo- (“extrasolar”) + ring (“planetary rings”).

prefix

extrasolar planet
extrasolar planet#English

(astronomy) a ring or ring system around an exoplanet (extrasolar planet)


Endymion

Endymion
Endymion (poem)
John Keats
Sebastiano Ricci


Taurid

(astronomy) Any of a group of annual meteors associated with the comet Encke, and whose radiant point is in the constellation Taurus.


photochronograph

(astronomy) An instrument for the photographic recording of star transits.


mass function

(astronomy, mathematics) A relationship that describes the mass distribution.


galactic habitable zone

en-noun

galactic habitable zone (plural galactic habitable zones)

(astrobiology, astronomy) the zone in a disk galaxy lying within the disk which is neither too far from the core so as to be lacking in heavier elements, nor too close to the core as to experience excessive exposures to supernovae, where intelligent life may develop


fourtino

(informal, astronomy) Any astronomical object, on the edge of the Kuiper Belt, whose orbit has a 1:4 resonance with the planet Neptune.


Andromedid

(astronomy) Any of a group of meteors appearing to radiate from a point in the constellation of Andromeda, associated with Biela's Comet (which had broken up by 1846).


Asterope

(astronomy) One of the stars in the Pleiades cluster.


EGM

extragalactic medium
extragalactic medium#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of extragalactic medium.


EBL

extragalactic background light
extragalactic background light#English

(uncountable, astronomy) Abbreviation of extragalactic background light.


Local Fluff

From local + fluff from the relative "fluffiness" of the local interstellar medium resulting in a low density cloud of matter in relation to the surrounding space.

(astronomy) A relatively dense region of interstellar space (containing our Solar System) that formed where the Local Bubble met another bubble, the Loop I Bubble


Local Volume

From local + volume from being the volume of space in which we exist (that which is local to us).

(astronomy, cosmology) the volume of space around the Milky Way Galaxy out to a distance of approximately 10 megaparsecs or 35 million lightyears away or out to a cosmological redshift recessional radial velocity of 550km/s or z<0.002


HCG

Hickson compact group
Hickson compact group#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Hickson compact group.


blue hook star

From their location on the blue horizontal branch portion of the extreme horizontal branch part of the horizontal branch of stellar evolution, hooking upwards when plotted on an H-R diagram.

(astronomy) a type of helium-burning blue giant star that is hotter than the average star in this stage of their life, due to having a more massive helium core


Earth-grazing

/ˈɜːθɡɹeɪzɪŋ/

A computer program especially suited to the simulation of Earth-grazing meteors has been listed and described in the Astronomical Computing department of Sky & Telescope. The program allows for the curvature of the Earth; it is therefore possible to follow an Earth-grazing meteor as it descends, reaches perigee, and then ascends back into space.

1991 August, D. W. Olson, R. L. Doescher, K. M. Watson, “Computer Simulation of Earth-grazing Fireballs”, in WGN, volume 19, number 4, Mechelen, Belgium: International Meteor Organization, →OCLC, pages 130–131:

Data on an Earth-grazing fireball photographed in 1990 October were published by Borovička and Ceplecha (1992). The U.S. daylight Earth-grazing fireball from 1972 is continuously referred to with much greater mass than the observations indicate (Z. Ceplecha 1993, submitted to Astron. Astrophys.).

2012, Z. Ceplecha, “Commission 22: Meteors & Interplanetary Dust/Météores & Poussière Interplanétaire: Photographic Meteors, Fireballs and Spectroscopy”, in Jacqueline Bergeron, editor, Reports on Astronomy (Transactions of the International Astronomical Union; XXIIA), Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 212:

(astronomy) Of a meteoroid, entering the Earth's atmosphere and leaving into space again.

tečný

entering and leaving the Earth's atmosphere

How many [orbital periods] are there in a year for an Earth-grazing satellite? Since the time of Sputnik (October 4, 1957), it has been familiar that a satellite in a low orbit revolves about the Earth in about 90 minutes. That period would be 84 minutes for the hypothetical Earth-grazing satellite.

1986, Julian Schwinger, Einstein's Legacy: The Unity of Space and Time (Scientific American Library Series; 16), New York, N.Y.: Scientific American Library, →ISBN, page 219:

The closest previous sighting of an Earth-grazing asteroid was in March of 1989. It was 330 feet in diameter and passed at 10 times the distance to the moon.

1991 January 27, Blaine P. Friedlander Jr., “Asteroid hurtled near Earth Jan. 18”, in The Washington Post:

The ‘Earth grazing’ asteroid Hermes was photographically discovered by [Karl Wilhelm] Reinmuth on October 28th 1937. It came to within nearly 500 000 miles (800 000 km) of the Earth which is less than double the distance that separates the Earth from the moon. On October 30th 1937 Hermes, which was of the 8th magnitude, sped path the Earth at an angular pace in the sky of 5° per hour, so fast that its distance could not be deduced by using the usual mathematical methods. Instead it had to be calculated from its parallax as seen from two different observatories. It was ‘lost’ in 1937.

2000, Fred W. Price, The Planet Observer's Handbook, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 192:

(astronomy) Approaching the Earth closely.


small Solar System body

small Solar System body (plural small Solar System bodies)

(astronomy) A body in the Solar System other than a planet, dwarf planet or natural satellite.


hot Neptune

(planetology) An exosolar planet whose characteristics are similar to the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, but which orbits its parent star much more closely and thus has higher temperatures.


lunar lifeboat

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-lunar lifeboat.wav

At 141 hours and 30 minutes, the Lunar Module, Aquarius, after successfully fulfilling its contingency role as a Lunar Lifeboat, was jettisoned in preparation for the final plunge into the Earth's atmosphere.

1970, Jim Lovell, "The Flight of Apollo 13—A Successful Failure," Society of Experimental Test Pilots Technical Review, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 130 (Google search result) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

As the "lunar lifeboat" neared the Earth, the hard problem loomed of how to separate the vehicles before they entered the atmosphere.

1970 Sept., Steven Morris, "How Blacks View Mankind's “GIANT STEP”," Ebony, p. 35 (Google preview) (retrieved 30 July 2015)

[T]he world held its collective breath as the astronauts of Apollo 13 climbed into their lunar lifeboat Aquarius and safely returned to earth.

2012 September 13, Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, “Sermon”, in Washington National Cathedral, retrieved 2015-07-30:

(space sciences) In the US Apollo moon program, a lunar module repurposed as a makeshift shelter for an astronaut crew returning to earth after a mishap necessitating cancellation of a moon landing; the emergency procedure of using the lunar module in this manner.


interstellar medium

(astronomy) The matter that exists in the space between star systems in a galaxy, including gas, dust, and cosmic rays.


acronical

From Ancient Greek ἄκρονυξ (ákronux, “nightfall”), one of the three poetic times for the rising and setting of stars, along with cosmical and heliacal.

matutine

of, related to, or occurring in the early morning

Bring the star again to the eastern and western parts of the horizon—observe the two points of the ecliptic then on the western edge of the horizon—and the two corresponding days, will be the days of the star's acronical rising and setting.

1829, William Field, An introduction to the use of the globes Fifth edition, page 134:

The moon in arctic regions is not acronical, as astronomers say; it does not rise at sunset or set at sunrise.

1947, Constance Helmericks, Harmon Helmericks, We Live in the Arctic, page 259:

Due to the revolution of the earth, heliacal and acronical phenomena are separated by six months of time for a given star.

The heliacal rising of this star group, that is its rising with the sun, heralded the summer season, while its acronical rising, when it rose as the sun set, marked the beginning of winter, and led to the association of the group with the rainy season, and with floods, so often mentioned by the poets.

2012, William Tyler Olcott, Star Lore: Myths, Legends, and Facts, →ISBN, page 415:

(astronomy) Alternative form of acronycal


astrometrician

The fact is there is no known portrait of either of the two astrometricians, and the information about their personal lives is scant.

2003, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, ACSM Bulletin, Issues 201-212, page 15:


coreshine

In the case of Rho Oph 9, we were unable to reliably disentangle the coreshine emission from background variations and the strong local PAH emission.

2015, J. Steinacker, M. Andersen, W.-F. Thi, R. Paladini, M. Juvela, A. Bacmann, V.-M. Pelkonen, L. Pagani, C. Lefèvre, Th. Henning, A. Noriega-Crespo, “Grain size limits derived from 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm coreshine”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) infrared light scattered by unusually large grains of dust in the denser core regions of molecular clouds


Antinous

/ænˈtɪnəʊəs/

From the Ancient Greek Ἀντίνοος (Antínoos).

(history, astronomy) A constellation created by the emperor Hadrian, now considered by astronomers to be a part of Aquila.


cosmic neutrino background

en-noun

cosmic neutrino background (uncountable)

2014, http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphy.2014.00030/full
The importance of detecting Cosmic Neutrino Background is that, although detailed studies of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and Cosmic Microwave Background give information of the early Universe at ~a few minutes old and ~300 k years old, respectively, observation of Cosmic Neutrino Background allows us to study the early Universe at ~1 s old.

2013, http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5632.
Information about earlier times can, in principle, be derived from the Cosmic Neutrino Background (relic neutrinos). The neutrinos decouple already about 1 second after the Big Bang at a temperature of around 1 MeV or 10^{10} Kelvin. Today their temperature is about 1.95 Kelvin. Registration of these neutrinos is an extremely challenging experimental problem, which can hardly be solved with the present technologies

(astronomy) The universe's background particle radiation composed of neutrinos.


plerion

Coined by Weiler & Panagia (1978), from Ancient Greek πλήρης (plḗrēs, “full”).

(astronomy) A nebula powered by the pulsar wind of a pulsar.


accelerating universe

accelerating universe (plural accelerating universes)

(astronomy, astrophysics) A theory that describes and seeks to explain the seemingly increasing rate of the expansion of the universe.


inner Oort Cloud

inner Oort Cloud (plural inner Oort Clouds)

(astronomy) A doughnut-shaped region of the Oort cloud located 2,000 to 20,000 AU from the sun. It is home to many minor planets, notably sednoids.


Rohini

(astronomy) A lunar mansion in Indian astronomy corresponding to Aldebaran.


orbitational

This great astronomer had discovered the orbitational periods of Jupiter and Mars.

(astronomy) Of, or related to an orbit or orbiting.


monoverse

(astronomy) A single universe of the multiverse.

(astronomy) A stand-alone universe; an autonomous universe.


BHB

(astronomy) Abbreviation of blue horizontal branch.


Sagan's number

(astronomy) The total number of stars in the observable universe, often estimated to be in the sextillions.


Pan-STARRS

(astronomy, telescope) Acronym of Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (“an automatic telescope to discover and characterize Earth-approaching objects that might pose a danger”).


dead comet

(astronomy) A comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun.


WEG

(planetology) Abbreviation of Water Equivalent to a Global layer (how high a water level would be at 1 atm pressure, if the whole ice had melted)


ZAMS

(astronomy) Abbreviation of zero-age main sequence.


YSG

yellow supergiant
yellow supergiant#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of yellow supergiant.


BSG

BSG (countable and uncountable, plural BSGs)

(astronomy) Abbreviation of blue supergiant.


MaDCoWS

(astronomy) Acronym of Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey.


SIMP

strongly interacting massive particle#English

(physics, astronomy) Initialism of strongly interacting massive particle.


RAMBO

robust association of massive baryonic objects#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of robust association of massive baryonic objects.

Robust associations of massive baryonic objects


robust association of massive baryonic objects (plural robust associations of massive baryonic objects)

(astronomy) a low-luminosity cluster of brown dwarfs and white dwarfs

en:robust associations of massive baryonic objects


super weakly interacting massive particle (plural super weakly interacting massive particles)

weakly interacting massive particle
weakly interacting massive particle

(astronomy, physics) a type of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) that only interacts with normal particles through gravity, and not any other force, thus having extremely weak strength of interaction

the form that only interacts gravitationally

gravitationally interacting massive particle

superweakly interacting massive particle

super-weakly interacting massive particle


Sol IX

From its position as the ninth planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(astronomy, dated) An alternate name for the dwarf planet Pluto.


Sol X

From its position as the tenth planet out from the Sun (Sol).

(astronomy) An alternate name for a trans-Neptunian object.


ICME

(astronomy) Initialism of interplanetary coronal mass ejection: a disruption of the fast and slow solar winds


birthline

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

(astronomy) A predicted line on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram that relates the effective temperature and luminosity of pre-main-sequence stars at the start of their contraction.


proxigee

(astronomy) An unusually close perigee resulting from evection.


Lonely Star of Autumn

(astronomy, informal) The star Fomalhaut.


free-roaming

en-adj

free-roaming (comparative more free-roaming, superlative most free-roaming)

more free-roaming (comparative)
most free-roaming (superlative)

Microlensed double-image quasars have sent a consistent message that the baryonic dark matter consists of a dark population of free-roaming planet mass objects.

2005, Neil J C Spooner, Vitaly Kudryavtsev, The Identification of Dark Matter, →ISBN, page 183:

This would offer an explanation for some of the free-roaming planets that have been found and it could mean that more exist across the Milky Way.

2012, David Braun, National Geographic Tales of the Weird, →ISBN:

There are some suggestions that these free-roaming worlds may outnumber stars by several orders of magnitude, dominating the population of objects in the universe.

2013, David Stevenson, Under a Crimson Sun: Prospects for Life in a Red Dwarf System, →ISBN:

(astronomy) Not orbiting a gravitational center.


IGM

InterGalactic Medium
intergalactic medium#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of InterGalactic Medium.


ICM

intracluster medium
intracluster medium#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of intracluster medium.


IPM

en-noun

IPM (countable and uncountable, plural IPMs)

interplanetary medium
interplanetary medium#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of interplanetary medium.


Mira variable

(astronomy) Any of a class of pulsating variable stars characterized by very red colours, pulsation periods longer than 100 days, and amplitudes greater than one magnitude in infrared and 2.5 magnitude at visual wavelengths.


Schiaparelli

en-proper-noun

Schiaparelli (countable and uncountable, plural Schiaparellis)

(astronomy) Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer, who discovered canali, mistranslated as "canals", on Mars.


orphan star

From orphan + star from the star being separated (orphaned) from its parent galaxy.

(astronomy) a star that is not part of any galaxy, but exists in intergalactic space instead

rogue planet

analogous situation with planets without parent stars


RSL

recurrent slope linea
recurrent slope linea#English

(planetology) Initialism of recurrent slope linea.


Cassini Division

(astronomy) A 4,800 km (3,000 mi) wide region between the A Ring and B Ring in Saturn.


rubble pile

(astronomy) An astronomical object that is not a monolith, but rather consists of numerous pieces of rock that have coalesced under the influence of gravity.


head

my very educated mother just served us nachos

my very educated mother just served us noodles#English

(astronomy mnemonic) Alternative form of my very educated mother just served us noodles


my very educated mother just served us noodles

From the initial letters of the 8 planets' names.

(astronomy mnemonic) Used to remember the order and names of the eight planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.

mes vieilles tantes mangeaient jadis sur une nappe percée

mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unseren Nachthimmel

my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas

my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins


HZ

en-noun

HZ (countable and uncountable, plural HZs)

(astronomy, countable) Initialism of habitable zone.


short-period comet

short-period comet (plural short-period comets)

[…] comets. Depending on their orbital period, comets are classified as short or long period comets. Short period comets have periods less than 200 years. For example, Halley's Comet is a short period comet, because it has a period of 76 years.

2014, Panos Photinos, Visual Astronomy: A Guide to Understanding the Night Sky, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, →ISBN:

Some bodies in the Kuiper Belt will slowly evolve inwards, to Centaur orbits (as discussed in Section 7.3), from where they might evolve into short-period comet orbits under the influence of Jupiter (mainly) and Saturn. Thus orbital evolution […]

2004, Neil McBride with Iain Gilmour, An Introduction to the Solar System, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 273:

(astronomy) Any periodic comet with an orbital period of less than 200 years.


Milkomeda

(astronomy) The galaxy that would result from the predicted Andromeda–Milky Way collision.


supernova impostor

supernova impostor (plural supernova impostors)

(astronomy) An extremely energetic stellar flare event that is bright enough to be mistaken for a supernova, but through later spectral analysis is revealed to not be one.


Kirkwood gap

After American astronomer Daniel Kirkwood.

(astronomy) A gap in the distribution of semi-major axes of asteroids in the main belt.


zodiacal dust

(astronomy) The dust that makes up the zodiacal cloud and gives rise to the zodiacal light


zodiacal cloud

(astronomy) A cloud of dust, lying in the plane of the ecliptic, that gives rise to the zodiacal light.


walled plain

(astronomy) A large impact crater that has a relatively flat floor, surrounded by a wall


visual magnitude

visual magnitude (plural visual magnitudes)

(astronomy) The apparent magnitude of a star in the central part of the spectrum of visible light


violent relaxation

violent relaxation (countable and uncountable, plural violent relaxations)

(astronomy) The dynamic change in the trajectory of the stars of a galaxy induced by the collective interactions of all the other stars.


vertical circle

vertical circle (plural vertical circles)

(astronomy) A great circle on the celestial sphere, perpendicular to the horizon, that passes through the zenith and nadir


velocity dispersion

velocity dispersion (plural velocity dispersions)

(astronomy) The statistical dispersion (about a mean) of the velocities of the stars in a galaxy (or galaxies in a cluster)


velocity curve

(astronomy) A graph of the orbital speeds of the stars of a galaxy with respect to their distance from the galaxy's centre


three body problem

three body problem (plural three body problems)

(astronomy) The problem of calculating the motion of three celestial bodies that interact with each other gravitationally


Ae star

(astronomy) A star of spectral type A that shows emission lines in its spectrum


Be star

(astronomy) A star of spectral type B that shows emission lines in its spectrum


Alphecca

(astronomy) a binary star in the constellation Corona Borealis, about 75 light years away


barium star

(astronomy) Any of a class of giant stars whose spectra show the presence of s-process elements (such as barium)


guide star

(astronomy) A reference star that is used to maintain the alignment and tracking of a telescope (as the Earth rotates)


reference star

(astronomy) A star whose identity, position and magnitude are accurately known.


runaway star

(astronomy) A star that has a relatively high velocity relative to its surroundings; typically the result of a supernova in a binary star system


shell star

(astronomy) A rapidly-rotating star that has an equatorial circumstellar disc of gas


Cru

(astronomy, constellations) Abbreviation of Crucis.

(astronomy, constellations) Abbreviation of Crux.


VLT

(astronomy) Initialism of Very Large Telescope a telescope array in northern Chile.


cryomagma

cryomagma (countable and uncountable, plural cryomagmas)

(planetology, geology, volcanology) Collectively, substances such as water, ammonia or methane that are found within some planets and are expelled by cryovolcanoes.


LPSC

w:Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

(planetology, space science) Initialism of Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.


Nice model

Named for the location of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, where it was initially developed, in Nice, France.

(astronomy) A scenario for the dynamical evolution of the Solar System, proposing the migration of the giant planets from an initial compact configuration into their present positions, long after the dissipation of the initial protoplanetary gas disk.


dark flight

(astronomy, meteorology, geology) The portion of the flight of a meteor, after its incandescent fireball phase, when the space rock has cooled down and slowed down, so that it is no longer glowing, but still in flight, and yet to crash onto the ground.


radioquiet

a radioquiet neutron star

(astronomy) Not producing radio emissions.


lasercom

The key elements of these telescopes have been studied applied to lasercom, reaching the conclusion that it could be an interesting strategy to include them in the future development of an optical deep-space network.

2016, Alberto Carrasco-Casado, Jose Manuel Sanchez-Pena, Ricardo Vergaz, “Ground-based gamma-ray telescopes as ground stations in deep-space lasercom”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) Communications by means of laser light.


dark fluid

(astronomy, cosmology) A linked phenomenon conjectured to explain dark matter and dark energy as different manifestations of the same underlying laws of gravity.


nocturnal arc

(astronomy) The arc of a circle described by the Sun, or a star, in the night.


nocturnal arch

nocturnal arch (plural nocturnal arches)

(astronomy) Archaic form of nocturnal arc.


Dog

The figurative sense "Newcastle Brown Ale" comes from the euphemism "I'm going to walk the dog" or "I'm going to see a man about a dog", meaning "I'm going to the pub for a drink". This was further popularised by a 1980s advertising campaign.

(astronomy, with definite article) The Dog Star; Sirius.


SDSS

Sloan Digital Sky Survey
w:Sloan Digital Sky Survey

(astronomy) Initialism of Sloan Digital Sky Survey: omnigalactic 3D mapping project


super spiral

superluminous spiral galaxy
superluminous spiral galaxy#English

(astronomy) Ellipsis of superluminous spiral galaxy.


superluminous spiral galaxy

superluminous spiral galaxy (plural superluminous spiral galaxies)

(astronomy) a type of supergiant spiral galaxy of the local universe that is much larger than most giant spiral galaxies, and whose stellar creation rate is much higher than typical spiral galaxies because it is more luminous


petaparsec

(astronomy) An astronomical unit of distance equal to 10¹⁵ parsecs.


starbirth

starbirth (countable and uncountable, plural starbirths)


Mons Mensae

(astronomy, historical) The constellation Mensa.


Lich

From lich, the supernatural entity. From being a neutron star, a "dead" star, a star that no longer contains a fusion core, but which is radiating away its stored energy.

Milky Way Galaxy
Milky Way Galaxy#English

(astronomy) A neutron star in Milky Way Galaxy, Virgo constellation; The first star, a pulsar, at which exoplanets were discovered.


Bharani

(astronomy) The second nakshatra in Hindu astronomy, corresponding to 35, 39, and 41 Arietis.


gravity-darkened

(physics, astronomy) Of a star, specifically its equator: darker due to gravity darkening.


gravity brightened

(physics, astronomy) Of a star, specifically its poles: brighter due to gravity brightening.


gravity darkening

(physics, astronomy) The phenomenon of a star rotating so rapidly that it is oblate, with a larger radius and thus lower surface gravity at the equator (which is thus cooler and darker: gravity-darkened), and higher surface gravity at the poles (which are hotter and brighter: gravity brightened).


limb-darkened

(physics, astronomy) Darkened by limb darkening.


limb-brightened

(physics, astronomy) Brightened by limb brightening.


limb brightening

(physics, astronomy) The optical effect where, when certain wavelengths (not in the spectrum of visible light) are examined, the edge of the disk of a star appears brighter than the center of the disk.


limb darkening

(physics, astronomy) The optical effect where the edge of the disk of a star appears darker than the center of the disk.


minihole

(astronomy) A very tiny black hole, small enough to be influenced by quantum effects.


grey night

(astronomy) A night that does not become completely dark because the sun does not go further than 18° below the horizon.


aponigricon

From apo- + Latin niger (“black”) + -icon, alternative form of -ion.

Indeed, the speed of, say, S2 at perinigricon is as large as 2.6 per cent of the speed of light, while at aponigricon it is 0.1 per cent of c.

2011 September, Lorenzo Iorio, “Long-term classical and general relativistic effects on the radial velocities of the stars orbiting Sgr A*”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society:

Fig. 1 indicates that close encounters are negligible at aponigricon and for inclinations in the range 60–90° in both prograde and retrograde orbits.

2013 June, R de la Fuente Marcos, C de la Fuente Marcos, “Colliding with G2 near the Galactic Centre: a geometrical approach”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society:

(astronomy) Apoapsis around a black hole.


apohermion

MESSENGER is in an orbit of 80° inclination, with apohermion occurring in the southern hemisphere at 7.1 R_M (R_M is the radius of Mercury) and perihermion in the northern hemisphere at 1.1 R_M, and the orbital period is 12h.

2013 June, Guan Le, Peter J Chi, Xochitl Blanco-Cano, Scott Boardsen, James A Slavin, Brian J Anderson, Haje Korth, “Upstream ultra‐low frequency waves in Mercury's foreshock region: MESSENGER magnetic field observations”, in Journal of Geophysical Resarch, volume 118, number 6:


apoareion

Taking advantage of the highly elliptical orbit (~400 km periareion' and ~70,000 km apoareion) of MOM, the scientific objective of MENCA is to radially profile the composition of the neutral exosphere of Mars starting from the MOM periareion.

2015 September, Anil Bhardwaj, S.V. Mohankumar, Tirtha Pratim Das, P. Pradeepkumar, P. Sreelatha, B. Sundar, Amarnath Nandi, Dinakar Prasad Vajja, M.B. Dhanya, Neha Naik, G. Supriya, R. Satheesh Thampi, G. Padma Padmanabhan, Vipin K. Yadav, A.V. Aliyas, “MENCA experiment aboard India's Mars Orbiter Mission”, in Current Science, volume 109, number 6:


aposaturnium

From apo- + Saturn + -ium, Latin form of -ion.

If they were exactly following such a periodic solution, then, at a conjunction of the two satellites, that is, when φ = 0, we would have l₁= 0, that is, Enceladus, which is on the inner of the two orbits, would be at perisaturnium, and alsol₂= π, so that Dione, which is on the outer of the two orbits, would be at aposaturnium.

2013, B.A. Steves, Archie E. Roy, The Dynamics of Small Bodies in the Solar System, →ISBN:


meta-universe

(physics, cosmology) Synonym of multiverse


solstitial colure

solstitial colure (plural solstitial colures)

(astronomy) A meridian on the celestial sphere where the sun crosses it on solstices.


equinoctial colure

equinoctial colure (plural equinoctial colures)

(astronomy) A meridian on the celestial sphere where the sun crosses it on equinoxes.


September equinox

September equinox (usually uncountable, plural September equinoxes)

(astronomy) The moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator while heading southward, occurring on September 22–23. That would be autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere and vernal equinox in the southern hemisphere.


March equinox

March equinox (usually uncountable, plural March equinoxes)

(astronomy) The moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator while heading northward, occurring on March 19–21. That would be vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere and autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere.


June solstice

June solstice (usually uncountable, plural June solstices)

(astronomy) The moment when the sun reaches the northernmost point of the sky, occurring on June 20–22. That would be summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and winter solstice in the southern hemisphere.


December solstice

December solstice (usually uncountable, plural December solstices)

(astronomy) The moment when the sun reaches the southernmost point of the sky, occurring on December 21–22. That would be winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and summer solstice in the southern hemisphere.


first point of Libra

(astronomy) A point on the celestial sphere where the sun crosses the celestial equator on September equinox.


first point of Capricorn

(astronomy) A point on the celestial sphere where the sun reaches the southernmost point on December solstice.


first point of Cancer

(astronomy) A point on the celestial sphere where the sun reaches the northernmost point on June solstice.


potato radius

From the appearance of smaller bodies looking like potatoes, + radius.

(informal, astronomy) The radius of a celestial body when it is long enough to allow gravity to transform the body into a globe, typically estimated at approximately 300 kilometres.


solar cycle

(astronomy) The nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity, measured from a minimum of activity to the next.


GMRT

Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
w:Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope

(astronomy, radio telescope) Initialism of Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (an array of thirty fully steerable parabolic radio telescopes of 45 metre diameter, observing at metre wavelengths near Pune, India)


ULP

ultra-luminous pulsar
ultra-luminous pulsar#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of ultra-luminous pulsar.


ETNO

extreme trans-Neptunian object
extreme trans-Neptunian object#English

(astronomy) Abbreviation of extreme trans-Neptunian object.


failed supernova

failed supernova (plural failed supernovae or failed supernovas)

failed supernovae (plural)
failed supernovas (plural)

(astronomy) An event that ends the fusion lifetime of a large and massive star. It is a partial type-II supernova, where the collapse process occurs, but no significant rebound occurs, and the nascent black hole swallows the incoming implosion resulting in no outbound explosion or subsequent light burst.


PHO

potentially hazardous object
potentially hazardous object#English

(astronomy, ecology, geology) Abbreviation of potentially hazardous object.


peribothron

From peri- + Ancient Greek βόθρος (bóthros, “pit”) + -(i)on.

af

(astronomy) The point in an elliptical orbit around a black hole where the orbiting body is closest to the black hole.


stardrift

(astronomy) The apparent shared motion of stars in the same cluster.


Achernar

(astronomy) The primary component of the binary system Alpha Eridani.


Shaula

To the north and east of Shaula and Lesuth, the twin stars in the uplifted sting, are two beautiful star clusters, about four degrees apart, known as 6 M. and 7 M. which can be very well seen with an opera glass.

1914, John Robert Kippax, The Call of the Stars, page 93:

(astronomy) Lambda Scorpii, a triple star system and the second-brightest object in the constellation of Scorpius.


Wezen

(astronomy) Delta Canis Majoris, the third-brightest star in the constellation of Canis Majoris.


Mirzam

From Arabic مِرْزَم (mirzam, “herald”), likely from its heliacal rising shortly preceding that of Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky.

Beta Canis Majoris
Beta Canis Majoris#English

(astronomy) Synonym of Beta Canis Majoris.


Northern Waggoner

By this the Northerne wagoner had set
His sevenfold teme° behind the stedfast starre,
That was in Ocean waves yet never wet,
But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farre
To all that in the wide deepe wandring arre:

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, , stanzas 1-5, page 1:

1613, Thomas Heywood, An Epithalamion, or Nuptiall Song, A Marriage Triumph on the Nuptials of the Prince Palatine, and the Princess Elizabeth, Daughter of James I, London: Reprinted for the Percy Society, 1842, p. 8,
The Northern Waggoner stands next in the roll,
Whom Perseus with his shield frights ’bout the pole,


Mirach

Perhaps a corruption of Arabic مِئْزَر (miʔzar).

[Mirach was described in the Alfonsine Tables of 1521 as super mirat, from which has been derived its present title, as well as the occasional forms Mirac, Merach, Mirar, Mirath, Mirax, etc.; mirat probably coming from the 1515 Almagest's super mizar, the Arabic mi'zar, a girdle or waist-cloth. Scaliger, the great critical scholar of the 15th century, adopted this Mizar as a title, and Riccioli followed him in its use, thus confounding the star with ζ Ursae Majoris.]

1899, Richard Hinckley Allen, Star-Names and Their Meanings, New York: G. E. Stechert, page 36:

(astronomy) A red giant, visible as a second-magnitude orange-red star marking the waist or girdle of the chained woman in the northern constellation of Andromeda.


Naos

(astronomy) Zeta Puppis, a star in the constellation of Puppis.


Aspidiske

(astronomy) Iota Carinae, a star in the constellation of Carina.


Almach

From Arabic العَنَاقُ الأَرْض (al-ʕanāqu l-ʔarḍ, “caracal, desert lynx”).

der

العَنَاقُ الأَرْض

[This is Alamac in the Alfonsine Tables and 1515 Almagest; Riccioli's Alamak; Flamsteed's Alamech; now Almach, Almak, Almaack, and Almaac or Almaak; all from Al 'Anāḳ al 'Arḍ, a small predatory animal of Arabia, similar to a badger, and popularly known there as Al Barīd.]

(astronomy) A second-magnitude quadruple star, telescopically visible as an apparent double star composed of an orange bright giant and a fifth-magnitude blue-white triple star, marking the left foot of the chained woman in the northern constellation of Andromeda.

(astronomy, specifically) The brightest star of the aforementioned star system.


Caph

From Arabic كَفّ (kaff, “palm (of the hand)”).

uder

(astronomy) A Delta-Scuti variable giant, visible as a second-magnitude white star in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, a part of the constellation's prominent W asterism.


astroseismic

(astronomy) relating to the seismic activity of a star


AAO

Australian Astronomical Observatory
w:Australian Astronomical Observatory

(astronomy) Initialism of Australian Astronomical Observatory, formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory.


Algieba

(astronomy) Gamma Leonis, a binary star system in the constellation of Leo.


Winter Hexagon

(astronomy) An asterism with vertices at Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius.


Merak

(astronomy) Beta Ursae Majoris, a star in the constellation of Ursa Major.


nucleogenesis

(physics, astronomy) The formation of nuclei; nucleosynthesis.


VST

"The combination of large field of view, excellent image quality, and the very efficient operations scheme of the VST will produce an enormous wealth of information that will advance many fields of astrophysics," said Konrad Kuijken, head of the OmegaCAM consortium.

2011 June 8, Ian Sample, quoting Konrad Kuijken, “Brand new telescope captures Omega Nebula in all its glory”, in The Guardian, retrieved 2021-07-21:

VLT Survey Telescope
w:VLT Survey Telescope

(astronomy) Initialism of VLT Survey Telescope.


large quasar group

en-noun

large quasar group (plural large quasar groups)

(astronomy) An implied cosmological scale alignment of matter. An assemblage of quasars that appear to form a structure, having them closely grouped in the sky in terms of redshift and lateral placement, implying an outline of a dimmer more massive structure in which the quasars are embedded.


light minute

Rick: We got some business to attend to a few light minutes south of here.

2015, "Mortynight Run", season 2, episode 2 of Rick and Morty [Rick and Morty are travelling in a spaceship]

(astronomy, physics) A unit of length equal to the distance light travels in one minute.


barlens

barred spiral galaxy
barred spiral galaxy

(astronomy) A lens-like component of a barred spiral galaxy whose extent along the bar major axis is shorter than the bar


mmag

Evolution of E(B-V) over the redshift range 2.1 < z < 4.0 is limited to <2.5 mmag per unit redshift (1-sigma), consistent with the known, mild DLA metallicity evolution.

2015, Michael T. Murphy, Martin L. Bernet, “The dust content of damped Lyman-alpha systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) Abbreviation of millimagnitude.


precover

en-verb

precover (third-person singular simple present precovers, present participle precovering, simple past and past participle precovered)

precovers (present singular third-person)
precovering (participle present)
precovered (participle past)
precovered (past)

(astronomy) To find an older image of an object in archived images after it has been discovered.


photocentric

We find that the photocentric orbit has a period P#61;633.0#92;pm 1.7 days, somewhat longer than previous results, with eccentricity of e#61;0.42#92;pm 0.03, and we estimate that the semi-major axis of the orbit of the primary is a#95;1#92;approx 0.32 AU, consistent with previous results.

2015, Seth C. Koren, Cullen H. Blake, Conard C. Dahn, Hugh C. Harris, “The Low-Mass Astrometric Binary LSR1610-0040”, in arXiv:


super-Jovian

(astronomy) More massive than the planet Jupiter; relating to a super-Jupiter


super-Jupiter

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-super-Jupiter.wav

(astronomy) Any astronomical object (especially an exoplanet) that is more massive than Jupiter.


wim

en-noun

wim (countable and uncountable, plural wims)

Confirming and strengthening our conclusions in Papaderos et al. (2013) we argue that ETGs span a broad continuous sequence with regard to the properties of their wim, and they can be roughly subdivided into two characteristic classes.

2015, J.M. Gomes, P. Papaderos, C. Kehrig, J.M. Vílchez, M.D. Lehnert, CALIFA collaboration, “Extended nebular emission in CALIFA early-type galaxies”, in arXiv:

warm ionized medium
warm ionized medium#English

(astronomy) Initialism of warm ionized medium.


warm ionized medium

warm ionized medium (plural warm ionized media)

(astronomy) A cloud of ionized gas surrounding a galaxy


gravoturbulent

As opposed to gravoturbulent fragmentation theories, we consider the dense core growth and demonstrate that the power law core mass function emerges independently of the initial distribution of density fluctuations by mass.

2015, Andrei Klishin, Igor Chilingarian, “Explaining the stellar initial mass function with the theory of spatial networks”, in arXiv:

gravitational collapse
gravitational collapse

(physics, astronomy) Relating to turbulence during the gravitational collapse of a star


gyrochronological

We derive rotation periods, photometric activity indices, flaring energies, mass loss rates, gyrochronological ages, X-ray luminosities and consider implications for the planetary magnetospheres and habitability.

2015, D. J. Armstrong, C. E. Pugh, A.-M. Broomhall, D. J. A. Brown, M. N. Lund, H. P. Osborn, D. L. Pollacco, “The Host Stars of Keplers Habitable Exoplanets: Superflares, Rotation and Activity”, in arXiv:


protogroup

(astronomy) A number of galaxies that become a galaxy group over time


kilolambda

kilolambda (plural kilolambdas or kilolambda)

kilolambdas (plural)
kilolambda (plural)

Archival ALMA observations at 820 micron on baselines up to 410 kilolambda are compared to parametrized disk models to determine the surface-brightness profile.

2015, Michiel R. Hogerheijde, David Bekkers, Paola Pinilla, Vachail N. Salinas, Mihkel Kama, Sean M. Andrews, Chunhua Qi, David J. Wilner, “Steepening of the 820 micron continuum surface-brightness profile signals dust evolution in TW Hya's disk”, in arXiv:


nuclearite

After a short discussion on nuclearites, the result of a nuclearite search with the gravitational wave bar detectors Nautilus and Explorer is reported.

2015, M.Bassan, E.Coccia, S.D'Antonio, V.Fafone, G. Giordano, A. Marini, Y.Minenkov, I. Modena, G. V. Pallottino, G.Pizzella, A. Rocchi, F. Ronga, M. Visco, “Dark Matter searches using gravitational wave bar detectors: quark nuggets and newtorites”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) An aggregate of quarks when in collision with the Earth


cosmokinematics

In this work we use cosmography to alleviate the degeneracy among cosmological models, proposing a way to parameterize matter and dark energy in terms of cosmokinematics quantities.

2015, Orlando Luongo, Giovanni Battista Pisani, Antonio Troisi, “Cosmological degeneracy versus cosmography: a cosmographic dark energy model”, in arXiv:

(physics, astronomy) The study of the motion or the universe


heliolongitude

Recent modelling of solar energetic particles (SEPs) propagation through the heliospheric turbulence, also discussed in this workshop, has investigated the role of the pitch-angle scattering and the perpendicular transport in spreading particles in heliolongitude, as shown by multi-spacecraft measurements (STEREO A/B, ACE, SOHO, etc.) at 1 AU in various energy ranges.

2015, F. Fraschetti, “Cross-field transport and pitch-angle anisotropy of solar energetic particles in MHD turbulence”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) A longitude described in terms of solar coordinates.


photogravitational

The case of the planar circular photogravitational restricted three-body problem where the more massive primary is an emitter of radiation is numerically investigated.

2015, Euaggelos E. Zotos, “Unveiling the influence of the radiation pressure in nature of orbits in the photogravitational restricted three-body problem”, in A&SS, volume 2015:

(physics, astronomy) Describing the effects of light radiation on the gravitational attraction to a star


Thorne-Zytkow object

Thorne-Zytkow object (plural Thorne-Zytkow objects)

From Thorne + Zytkow + object. Named after American astrophysicist Kip Thorne and Named after Polish astrophysicist Anna Żytkow.

named-after

(astronomy) A star that contains a core made from another star. It is formed when a neutron star collides with a star, typically a red giant or supergiant, and the neutron star is swallowed by the red giant star.


photoeccentric

Thus, the long transits are likely due to the photoeccentric effect and our transit fits hint at an eccentric orbit.

2016, Joshua E. Schlieder, Ian J. M. Crossfield, Erik A. Petigura, Andrew W. Howard, Kimberly M. Aller, Evan Sinukoff, Howard T. Isaacson, Benjamin J. Fulton, David R. Ciardi, Mickael Bonnefoy, Carl Ziegler, Timothy D. Morton, Sebastien Lepine, Christian Obermeier, Michael C. Liu, Vanessa P. Bailey, Christoph Baranec, Charles A. Beichman, Denis Defrere, Thomas Henning, Philip Hinz, Nicholas Law, Reed Riddle, Andrew Skemer, “Two Small Temperate Planets Transiting Nearby M Dwarfs in K2 Campaigns 0 and 1”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) Relating to the light from a star partially obscured by a planet with an eccentric orbit


superbounce

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superbounce.wav

Particularly, we shall study the matter bounce scenario, the singular bounce, the superbounce and a symmetric bounce scenario.

2016, S. Nojiri, S.D. Odintsov, V.K. Oikonomou, “The bounce universe history from unimodular F(R) gravity”, in arXiv:

(cosmology) The recreation of an expanding universe through a Big Bang after the universe has completely collapsed due to gravity, as opposed to a cosmological bounce in which the universe bounces back into expansion after a contraction which is not complete.


darkside

en-noun

darkside (countable and uncountable, plural darksides)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

From dark + side. Sense 2.1 (“side that is evil”) was popularized by the film Star Wars (1977; later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) where the term was used to describe the aspect of a metaphysical power called the Force which could be used to act aggressively and perpetrate evil.

He did not give a damn; he had his own problems and considerations and, besides, the BUTTON and he would settle this once and for all on the fifth go-round and then he would press the BUTTON, on the darkside, let them sweat out this one and think they were getting through to him and the two of them would head back for Earth and a generation of peace and celebration.

1971, Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg, chapter XX, in The Falling Astronauts, London: Hachette UK, published 2011, →ISBN:

Also shown at the bottom [of Figure 1] is the trajectory during the first encounter on 29 March 1974, which was a darkside pass with a closest approach distance from the surface of 723 km. […] The third encounter on 16 March 1975 was similar to the first, being a very close approach towards the darkside near the north polar region at a miss distance of 327 km.

1977 January, Norman F[rederick] Ness, “The Magnetic Field of Mercury”, in Edith A[lice] Müller, editor, Highlights of Astronomy, volume 4, part I, Dordrecht, South Holland: D. Reidel for the International Astronomical Union, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-04-26, page 180:

On the lighter side, Cassini should be coming out of darkside soon and run smack-dab into the distress siren.

2002, Carl Rafala, “Soul Solution”, in Wildflower, Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 2:

Synonym of farside (“the side of a moon that faces away from the planet that it orbits”)

farside

Terraport would be in darkside now, and her great lights would be fused into a single tiny eye winking mockery at him – if he chose to slide back his porthole screen.

1950 fall, Charles L[eonard] Harness, “Heritage”, in Robert P[ark] Mills, editor, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume I, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Fantasy House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 100:

The vehicle, in an equatorial orbit of 300 nautical miles, has a period of 2.1 hours establishing 0.7 hours of darkside operation and 1.4 hours of sunlight operation.

1963, Engineering Problems of Manned Interplanetary Exploration: A Volume of Technical Papers Presented Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 1963, New York, N.Y.: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, →OCLC, page 78, column 2:

In the case of Copernicus [a lunar crater], during an eclipse three maxima in the brightness temperature were observed within the crater, whereas with the same resolution, only one maximum was seen 16 hours after sunset. Thus a careful comparison of darkside and eclipse infrared mapping may show differences which, in the case of the rock hypothesis, could be due to variations in the size distribution.

1966 December, J[ohn] M[atthew] Saari, R[ichard] W. Shorthill, Review of Lunar Infrared Observations […] (Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories Document; D1-82-0586), Seattle, Wash.: Geo-astrophysics Laboratory, Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories, →OCLC, page 18:

But that air was at its coldest—aphelion was the chilliest season everywhere on this chill and temperate world—and the mountains of that limb were lower. Currents of darkside air would begin to flow through the low passes into the relative warmth of the marsh country, and the ponderous wheel of air would roll again.

1988 September, M[ary] J[ane] Engh, “[Preface to ‘The Second Turn’]”, in Wheel of the Winds, 1st mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, Tom Doherty Associates, published October 1989, →ISBN, pages 273–274:

NOAA-lO is a terminator orbital satellite which leads WFOVSW channel to only a few days of darkside data in a whole year.

1989 March, Nesim Halyo, Dhirendra K. Pandey, Deborah B. Taylor, Modeling and Characterization of the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) Nonscanner and Scanner Sensors (NASA Contractor Report; 181818), Hampton, Va.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC:

Synonym of nightside (“the side of a planet that faces away from the sun around which it orbits”)


agegraphic

Our numerical result show the effects of the interaction and anisotropic on the evolutionary behaviour the holographic and new agegraphic scalar field models.

2016, Hossien Hossienkhani, Ali Aghamohammadi, “Interacting holographic and new agegraphic scalar fields models of dark energy in non-isotropic universe”, in arXiv:

(cosmology) Related to the age of the universe


dark light

Blend of dark matter + light. From being a force found in the dark sector that acts on dark matter, analog to light in the "light sector" (the part of the universe that is not part of the dark sector) that acts on "light matter" (ordinary matter that interacts electromagnetically, thus visibly).

(astrophysics, cosmology, astronomy, physics) A hypothetical force of nature that acts on dark matter to allow dark matter to interact with itself.


clustocentric

The average SFRs of star-forming cluster galaxies show a trend of decreasing SFR with clustocentric radius.

2016, Rebecca J. Allen, Glenn G. Kacprzak, Karl Glazebrook, Kim-Vy H. Tran, Lee R. Spitler, Caroline M. S. Straatman, Michael Cowley, Themiya Nanayakkara, “Differences in the structural properties and star-formation rates of field and cluster galaxies at z~1”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) centred on a galactic cluster


scintillometry

We study the possibility to measure such an effect by space-based interferometers such as LISA and BBO, and also by astrophysical interferometers such as pulsar scintillometry..

2016, Darsh Kodwani, Ue-Li Pen, I-Sheng Yang, “Supernova energy measurement with longitudinal gravitational memory effect”, in arXiv:

(astronomy) The use of scintillation to infer properties of a lens or a source


protobulge

While we have produced box-shaped models (figure 6), the protobulges used were already somewhat box-shaped, and did not resemble elliptical galaxies.

1984, Joshua Edward Barnes, On the Origin of Galactic Bulges, the Evolution of Groups, and the Distribution of Abell Clusters:

(astronomy) A group of stars that accumulate into a galactic bulge.


Sothic year

(astronomy) The span of time between successive heliacal risings of the star Sirius, equivalent to almost precisely 365¼ days.


Sothic cycle

(astronomy) The roughly 1460-year cycle between successive alignments of the first days of the Egyptian civil calendar and the observational Sothic year.


Sothic period

(astronomy) The roughly 1460-year period of time between successive alignments of the first days of the Egyptian civil calendar and the observational Sothic year.


Chironean

(astronomy) Alternative form of Chironian


Chironian

(Greek mythology, astronomy) Pertaining to Chiron.


secondary planet

secondary planet (plural secondary planets)

From secondary + planet from being the planet of a planet (a satellite of a planet).

(astronomy, obsolete, archaic) A moon of a planet.


primary planet

From primary + planet from being the planet of a star.

(astronomy, obsolete, archaic) A planet; a natural satellite of a sun.


Vestal

(astronomy) Synonym of Vestan (Pertaining to the asteroid Vesta)


low mass star

(astronomy) A fully-convective red dwarf or M dwarf star


SHA

sidereal hour angle
sidereal hour angle#English

(astronomy) Initialism of sidereal hour angle.


Aludra

Ultimately from Arabic العَذْرَاء (al-ʕaḏrāʔ, “the virgin”).

der

(astronomy) A star in the constellation of Canis Majoris.


Scheat

From Arabic السَاعِد (as-sāʕid, literally “the forearm”).

[This is the Scheat of Tycho, the Palermo Catalogue, and modern lists generally, either from Al Sā'id the Upper Part of the Arm, or, as Hyde suggested, from the early Sa'd appearing in the subsequent three pairs of stars. Bayer had Seat Alpheras; Chilmead, Seat Alfaras; Riccioli, Scheat Alpheraz; and Schickard, Saidol-pharazi.]

1899, Richard Hinckley Allen, Star-Names and Their Meanings, New York: G. E. Stechert, page 325:

(astronomy) A semiregular variable red giant, visible as a second-magnitude orange-red star in the northern constellation of Pegasus, one of four stars in the asterism of the Great Square of Pegasus.


Segin

(astronomy) A main-sequence star, visible as a third-magnitude blue star in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, a part of the constellation's prominent W asterism.


LST

(astronomy, navigation) Initialism of Local Sidereal Time.

(astronomy, navigation) Initialism of Local Standard Time.


Pointers

(astronomy) The stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, which point to the Southern Cross.

(astronomy) The stars Alpha Ursae Majoris (Dubhe) and Beta Ursae Majoris (Merak), which point to Polaris.


Carmean

(astronomy) Of or relating to the irregular Jovian moon named for Carme.


Sgr

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Sagittarius. (the modern IAU constellation)


Sgr

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Sagittarii. (the genitive form of the IAU constellation Sagittarius)


Hoth

en:Hoth
en:Hoth (disambiguation)
en:Star Wars (franchise)
en:The Empire Strikes Back

Named after the fictional ice planet of Hoth from the 1980 U.S. science fiction film Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, due to its extremely cold surface temperature.

(planets) A planet in OGLE-2005-BLG-390L star system, Milky Way Galaxy, Scorpius contellation


Planet 9

(astronomy) A theoretical ninth planet in the Solar system, the gravitational effects of which would explain the improbable orbital configuration of a group of trans-Neptunian objects that orbit mostly beyond the Kuiper belt.


Lal.

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Lalande. Abbreviated prefix for stars under Lalande designations


thalassogen

(astronomy, science fiction) A substance capable of forming a planetary ocean.


Sun-like

en-adj

Sun-like (comparative more Sun-like, superlative most Sun-like)

more Sun-like (comparative)
most Sun-like (superlative)

(astronomy) Alternative form of sunlike (like our Sun)


light month

(astronomy, physics) A unit of length equal to the distance light travels in one month.


Hubble flow

From Hubble (“Edwin Hubble”) + flow. From the flowing/movement of galaxies in the Universe under the influence of Hubble expansion.

(astrophysics, cosmology) The motion of galaxies due to the expansion of the universe


zenith sector

zenith telescope
zenith telescope#English


zenith telescope

en-noun

zenith telescope (plural zenith telescopes)

(astronomy) A telescope that can point vertically at the zenith


Briseis

Borrowing from Ancient Greek Βρισηΐς (Brisēḯs, “daughter of Briseus/Brises”).

bor

(astronomy) The minor planet 655 Briseïs.


yellow supergiant

en-noun

yellow supergiant (plural yellow supergiants)

(astronomy) A supergiant star, of spectral type F or G, that is smaller than a red supergiant


spectroscopic binary

(astronomy) A binary star in which the component stars are close together and can only be resolved via spectroscopy.


contact binary

contact binary (plural contact binaries)

Contact binary (small Solar System body)

(astronomy) A binary star whose component stars are in physical contact (share an upper atmosphere).

small Solar System body
small Solar System body

(astronomy) A bilobated small Solar System body formed from two bodies that gravitated together and fused into one.


stellar nova

stellar nova (plural stellar novas or stellar novae)

stellar novas (plural)
stellar novae (plural)


recurrent nova

recurrent nova (plural recurrent novas or recurrent novae)

recurrent novas (plural)
recurrent novae (plural)

(astronomy) A type of nova in which the sudden brightening and gradual diminishing is repeated (for any of several reasons)


Tail

(Chinese astronomy) A Chinese constellation coinciding with the tail of Scorpius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and the tail of Azure Dragon.


multi-messenger astronomy

electromagnetic radiation
electromagnetic radiation

(astronomy) astronomy based on the coordinated observation of two or more of electromagnetic radiation, gravitational waves and subatomic particles such as cosmic rays or neutrinos


astronomical transient

astronomical transient (plural astronomical transients)

From astronomical + transient. From being a traditional astronomical source (optical astronomy, and star-like) of an ephemeral nature.

(astronomy) A localized discrete transient optical spectrum event at astronomical distances.


areoid

From areo- (“Mars”) + -oid (“like”). From Ancient Greek Ἄρης (Árēs, “Ares”), the Greek God of War, equivalent to the Roman God of War Mars (“Mars”), synonymous use for the Red Planet; and Ancient Greek -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-oid”) suffix. Coined in analogy to geoid, the equivalent for planet Earth.

(astronomy, geology, planetology) The analogue of the geoid for the planet Mars; the Martian geoid. The gravitational and rotational equipotential surface for Mars. The surface that provides the datum line (the equivalent for sea level) for Mars.


aphroditoid

From aphrodito- (“Venus”) + -oid (“like”). From Ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτη (Aphrodítē, “Aphrodite”), the Greek Goddess of Love, equivalent to the Roman Goddess of Love Venus (“Venus”), synonymous use for the planet; and Ancient Greek -ειδής (-eidḗs, “-oid”) suffix. Coined in analogy to geoid, the equivalent for planet Earth.

uder

(astronomy, geology, planetology) The analogue of the geoid for the planet Venus; the Venusian geoid. The gravitational and rotational equipotential surface for Venus. The surface that provides the datum line (the equivalent for sea level) for Venus.

aphroid

uses the shorter prefix aphro- instead of the longer aphrodito-


Xiangliu

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 相柳 (Xiāngliǔ).

(astronomy) The moon of the dwarf planet Gonggong.


recurrent slope linea

en-noun

recurrent slope linea (plural recurrent slope lineae)

From recurrent + slope + linea. From being a line-like marking found on sloped terrain that has occurred multiple times on the same slope area.

(aerology, aerography, planetology) An ephemeral dark linear feature found on slopes that recurs seasonally.


CFHQS

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope High-z Quasar Survey.


ULAS

(astronomy) Abbreviation of UKIDSS Large Area Survey.


UKIDSS

(astronomy) Abbreviation of "UK"IRT "I"nfrared "D"eep "S"ky "S"urvey.


UKIRT

(astronomy) Abbreviation of UK Infrared Telescope.


(astronomy) Acronym of Two-Micron All-Sky Survey.


CLASS

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor.

(astronomy) Abbreviation of Cosmology Large Angular Scale Survey.


colongitude

The colongitude is the longitude of the terminator, that is the location of the separation between the lunar day and night. As the Moon rotates around the Earth with respect to the Sun, the terminator slides westward by 0.5° per hour (“westward” stands here for selenographic coordinates, lunar West is on our left hand if we observe the Moon from the northern hemisphere).

2016, Nicolas Dupont-Bloch, Shoot the Moon: A Complete Guide to Lunar Imaging, page 16:

(astronomy) The longitude of the morning terminator (division between illuminated and dark regions) on the Moon, as measured in degrees westward from the prime meridian.


perigalacticum

During the late Cenozoic glaciation, high-latitude glaciation started in the Miocene 14 m.y. ago, and the sun is presently 8 + 4 m.y. from the perigalacticum.

1981, George Ellis Williams, Megacycles: Long-term Episodicity in Earth and Planetary History:

(astronomy) The closest point in a star's orbit around the centre of a galaxy (the galactic periapsis).


solifugal

From Latin sōl (“sun”) + fugiō (“to flee”) + -al.

(astronomy, rare) Moving away from the sun.


solipetal

From Latin sōl (“sun”) + petō, petere (“seek, aim”) + -al.

(astronomy, rare) Moving towards the sun.


geopetal

geofugal

antonym(s) of “moving towards the ground, moving towards the Earth”

(astronomy, rare) Moving towards the Earth.


geofugal

(astronomy, rare) Moving away from the Earth.


rogue planet

(planetology) A planet that flies through interstellar space and lacks a star to encircle.


line of apsides

line of apsides (plural lines of apsides)

(geometry, astronomy) Synonym of apse line


apse line

(astronomy) An imaginary line defined by an orbit's eccentricity vector. For such orbits the apse line is found: for elliptical orbits – between the orbit's periapsis and apoapsis (also known as the major axis) for parabolic and hyperbolic orbits – between the orbit's periapsis and focus.


Schwarzschild's method

Named after German-American astrophysicist Martin Schwarzschild (1912–1997).

named-after

This is because in Schwarzschild's method we seek to match the distribution of matter only in configuration space but we ignore the velocity distribution which is an outcome of the method for any particular solution w#95;o.

2008, Daniel Benest, Topics in Gravitational Dynamics:

(astrophysics, astronomy) A method to develop triaxial equilibrium kinematic models of actual galaxies (without knowledge of the motions of the component elements of the actual galaxies) using a grid and assigning masses and orbits, simulating gravitational evolution with the resulting estimated distributions, to compare with the actual galaxy, until a model results in similarity with the actual galaxy.

Schwarzschild model

a model built by using the Schwarzschild's method


Schwarzschild model

en-noun

Schwarzschild model (plural Schwarzschild models)

From Schwarzschild + model, from being a model developed using Schwarzschild's method.

Schwarzschild's method
Schwarzschild's method

(astrophysics, astronomy) A triaxial equilibrium kinematic model of an actual galaxy built using Schwarzschild's method.


Cygnus X-1

From Cygnus + X + 1. From being the first discovered discrete astronomical X-ray source (an X-ray star) located in the constellation of Cygnus.

(astronomy, physics) The first generally accepted and confirmed black hole. A black hole in a high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) with a blue supergiant companion (HD 226868), located in the constellation Cygnus.

high-mass X-ray binary
high-mass X-ray binary

(astronomy, physics) The high-mass X-ray binary star system containing this black hole and blue supergiant star.