The Focusing Glossary
A short explanation of some astronomical and physical terms used in The Focusing Blur and Cosmic Genesis. I think it helps to explore the symbiosis between science and poetry in Vintersorg's lyrics.
Axis: Theoretical straight line through a celestial body, around which it rotates.
Black hole: An object whose surface gravity is so great that no radiation or matter can escape from it. Some black holes discussed in astronomy are collapsed stars, but much smaller ones are theoretically possible.
Blackbody: A body with ideal properties of radiation absorption and emission, against which less perfect actual stars and celestial objects can be measured. Black-body radiation has a continuous spectrum governed solely by the body's temperature: for any particular temperature there is a specific wavelength at which radiation emission is greatest.
Brown dwarf: A starlike object too small to achieve nuclear reactions in its center; any stellar object smaller than about 0.08 M.
Bivium (latin)- place where two ways meet.
Cluster of galaxies: A relatively close grouping of galaxies, often with some members coorbiting or interacting with each other.
Corona: The outermost atmosphere of the Sun, having a temperature of about 1 to 2 million kelvins
Dark Matter: Any nonluminous astronomical object or particle that is detected only by its gravitational influence. Examples include planets, black holes, white dwarfs (because they are low luminosity) and more exotic things like weakly interacting particles (WIMPs).
Dwarf Galaxy: Small, low luminosity galaxies that are associated with larger spiral galaxies and may make up part of a galactic halo.
Dwarf star: A star, which lies on the main sequence and is too small to be classified as a giant star or a super giant star. For example, the Sun is a yellow dwarf star.
Electron: A negatively charged particle commonly found in the outer layers of atoms. The electron has only 0.0005 the mass of the proton.
Frequency: Number of wave vibrations per second; 1 Hertz is one cycle per second (e.g., 1420 MHz = 1,420,000,000 vibrations per second).
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Italian scientist who first applied the telescope to observe other planets, discovering lunar craters, Jupiter's moons, and other celestial phenomena.
Gravitation equation: The universal ability of all material objects to attract each other ( F = Gm1m2 / r2 , where G represents the universal gravitational constant, m1 - the mass of object 1, m2 - the mass of object 2, d - distance separate the objects centers.)
Halo: The outer region of a galaxy containing globular clusters a few stray stars, and dark matter
Isaac Newton (1642-1727): English physicist who discovered the spectrum and laws of gravitation and motion; he also developed calculus and made other discoveries. Possibly the greatest physicist in history.
Magnitude: the measurement of the brightness of an object;
the lower the number, the brighter the object.
Absolute:
the apparent brightness an object would have if
it were 10 parsec(32.6 light-years) from Earth
Apparent:
the measure of the brightness of an object
as seen from Earth
Neutron Star: A small, extremely dense star made primarily of neutrons, with a radius of approximately 10 kilometers.
Nova: A star that abruptly increases in brightness by a factor of a million. A nova is caused in a binary star system where hydrogen-rich material is transferred to the surface of a white dwarf until sufficient material and temperatures exist to kindle explosive nuclear fusion.
Parallax: An angular shift in apparent position due to an observer's motion; more specifically, a small angular shift in a star's apparent position due to the Earth's motion around the Sun. Stellar parallax, used to measure stellar distance, is defined as the angle subtended by the radius of the Earth's orbit as seen from the star.
Phase: Angular distance between peaks or troughs of two wave forms of similar frequency.
Red Dwarf: Cool, low mass star on the lower main sequence.
Spectrum: A plot of the intensity of light at different frequencies. Or the distribution of wavelengths and frequencies.
Spiral galaxy: A disk-shaped galaxy with a spiral pattern, typically containing 1010-1012 M of stars, dust, and gas.
Stellar Wind: a steady or unsteady outflow of material from the surface of a star. In many classes of star hot coronae are observed and these are believed to be due to heating by waves generated in the upper layers of the star. This results in the outflow of mass in the form of a stellar wind.
Supernova: An extremely violent explosion of a star many times more massive than our Sun. During this explosion, the star may become as bright as all the other stars in a galaxy combined, and in which a great deal of matter is thrown off into space at high velocity and high energy. The remnant of these massive stars collapse into either a neutron star or a black hole.
White Dwarf: A dying star that has collapsed to approximately the size of the Earth and is slowly cooling.
sources:
http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_science/gallery/public/glossary.php#
http://www.astronomy-info.com/Glossary/Glossary_C.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/9097/
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Glossary/
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit1/SpTypes/index.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/ruh/handbook/node150.html
A short explanation of some astronomical and physical terms used in The Focusing Blur and Cosmic Genesis. I think it helps to explore the symbiosis between science and poetry in Vintersorg's lyrics.
Axis: Theoretical straight line through a celestial body, around which it rotates.
Black hole: An object whose surface gravity is so great that no radiation or matter can escape from it. Some black holes discussed in astronomy are collapsed stars, but much smaller ones are theoretically possible.
Blackbody: A body with ideal properties of radiation absorption and emission, against which less perfect actual stars and celestial objects can be measured. Black-body radiation has a continuous spectrum governed solely by the body's temperature: for any particular temperature there is a specific wavelength at which radiation emission is greatest.
Brown dwarf: A starlike object too small to achieve nuclear reactions in its center; any stellar object smaller than about 0.08 M.
Bivium (latin)- place where two ways meet.
Cluster of galaxies: A relatively close grouping of galaxies, often with some members coorbiting or interacting with each other.
Corona: The outermost atmosphere of the Sun, having a temperature of about 1 to 2 million kelvins
Dark Matter: Any nonluminous astronomical object or particle that is detected only by its gravitational influence. Examples include planets, black holes, white dwarfs (because they are low luminosity) and more exotic things like weakly interacting particles (WIMPs).
Dwarf Galaxy: Small, low luminosity galaxies that are associated with larger spiral galaxies and may make up part of a galactic halo.
Dwarf star: A star, which lies on the main sequence and is too small to be classified as a giant star or a super giant star. For example, the Sun is a yellow dwarf star.
Electron: A negatively charged particle commonly found in the outer layers of atoms. The electron has only 0.0005 the mass of the proton.
Frequency: Number of wave vibrations per second; 1 Hertz is one cycle per second (e.g., 1420 MHz = 1,420,000,000 vibrations per second).
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642): Italian scientist who first applied the telescope to observe other planets, discovering lunar craters, Jupiter's moons, and other celestial phenomena.
Gravitation equation: The universal ability of all material objects to attract each other ( F = Gm1m2 / r2 , where G represents the universal gravitational constant, m1 - the mass of object 1, m2 - the mass of object 2, d - distance separate the objects centers.)
Halo: The outer region of a galaxy containing globular clusters a few stray stars, and dark matter
Isaac Newton (1642-1727): English physicist who discovered the spectrum and laws of gravitation and motion; he also developed calculus and made other discoveries. Possibly the greatest physicist in history.
Magnitude: the measurement of the brightness of an object;
the lower the number, the brighter the object.
Absolute:
the apparent brightness an object would have if
it were 10 parsec(32.6 light-years) from Earth
Apparent:
the measure of the brightness of an object
as seen from Earth
Neutron Star: A small, extremely dense star made primarily of neutrons, with a radius of approximately 10 kilometers.
Nova: A star that abruptly increases in brightness by a factor of a million. A nova is caused in a binary star system where hydrogen-rich material is transferred to the surface of a white dwarf until sufficient material and temperatures exist to kindle explosive nuclear fusion.
Parallax: An angular shift in apparent position due to an observer's motion; more specifically, a small angular shift in a star's apparent position due to the Earth's motion around the Sun. Stellar parallax, used to measure stellar distance, is defined as the angle subtended by the radius of the Earth's orbit as seen from the star.
Phase: Angular distance between peaks or troughs of two wave forms of similar frequency.
Red Dwarf: Cool, low mass star on the lower main sequence.
Spectrum: A plot of the intensity of light at different frequencies. Or the distribution of wavelengths and frequencies.
Spiral galaxy: A disk-shaped galaxy with a spiral pattern, typically containing 1010-1012 M of stars, dust, and gas.
Stellar Wind: a steady or unsteady outflow of material from the surface of a star. In many classes of star hot coronae are observed and these are believed to be due to heating by waves generated in the upper layers of the star. This results in the outflow of mass in the form of a stellar wind.
Supernova: An extremely violent explosion of a star many times more massive than our Sun. During this explosion, the star may become as bright as all the other stars in a galaxy combined, and in which a great deal of matter is thrown off into space at high velocity and high energy. The remnant of these massive stars collapse into either a neutron star or a black hole.
White Dwarf: A dying star that has collapsed to approximately the size of the Earth and is slowly cooling.
sources:
http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es/external/xmm_science/gallery/public/glossary.php#
http://www.astronomy-info.com/Glossary/Glossary_C.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Galaxy/9097/
http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Glossary/
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit1/SpTypes/index.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/ruh/handbook/node150.html
