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

A population of neutral or partly ionized gas clouds in the → Galactic halo which are seen as high-altitude structures in the → atomic hydrogen  → 21 cm emission at high radial velocities (v_LSR > 100 km/sec). They have substantial neutral → column densities (> 10¹⁹ cm^-2) and their → metallicities range from 0.1 to about 1.0 times solar. The distances to the majority of them remain unknown. They may represent the continuing infall of matter onto the → Local Group. See also → compact high-velocity clouds.

→ high; → velocity; → cloud.

A mountainous or elevated region; → plateau.

→ high; → land.

Kuhsâr "mountainous, hilly area," from kuh, → mountain, + -sâr suffix denoting profusion, abundance, variant -zâr, → catastrophe.

A → chemical element that is → geochemically characterized as having a strong → affinity to partition into → metals relative to → silicates. The highly siderophile elements, → ruthenium (Ru), → rhodium (Rh), → palladium (Pd), → rhenium (Re), → osmium (Os), → iridium (Ir), → platinum (Pt), and → gold (Au), are of interest to planetary scientists because they give insights into the early history of → accretion and → differentiation. HSEs prefer to reside in the metal of planetary cores. Therefore, the HSEs found in planetary → mantles are considered to be overabundant relative to their known preferences for metal over silicate. Therefore, it has been inferred that processes other than → equilibrium partitioning have been responsible for establishing the abundances of → mantle siderophiles. A detailed understanding of the absolute → concentrations and relative abundances of the HSEs may therefore give important insights into the earliest history of a planet (Jones et al., 2003, Chemical Geology 196, 21).

From Gk. sidero-, from sideros "iron" + → -phile.

Âhandust, from âhan, → iron, + -dust, → -phile.

1) A long walk or march for recreational activity, military training, or the like.
2) To walk or march a great distance, especially through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like (Dictionary.com).

From E. dialectal hyke "to walk vigorously," maybe a Northern form of hitch "to move or draw (something) with a jerk," of unknown origin.

Vaniž, from Sangesari wəniž-/wəništ "to walk about, go round;" cf. Shughni näγ-, Roshani niγ-, naγên- "to turn round;" Book Pahlavi/Zoroastrian Mid.Pers. nâz-, nâž- "to roll, turn;" Mid.Pers. nâys- "be proud, delicate."

A generalization of Euclidean space in a way that extends methods of vector algebra from the two- and three-dimensional spaces to infinite-dimensional spaces.
Multi-dimensional space in which the eigenfunctions of quantum mechanics are represented by orthogonal unit vectors.

Named after the German mathematician David Hilbert (1862-1943), recognized as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries for his numerous contributions to various areas of mathematics; → space.

The asteroids found on the outer edge of the main asteroid belt in a 2:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter. The group is not an asteroid family since the members are not physically related. The group consists of asteroids with semi-major axes between 3.70 AU and 4.20 AU, eccentricities less than 0.30, and inclinations less than 20°. It is dominated by D- and P-type asteroids.

Named for the prototype 153 Hilda, discovered by Johann Palisa (1848-1925) on November 2, 1875, and named Hilda after a daughter of his teacher, the astronomer Theodor von Oppolzer (1841-1886); → asteroid.

A natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain.

M.E.; O.E. hyll, from P.Gmc. *khulnis (cf. M.Du. hille, Low Ger. hull "hill," O.N. hallr "stone," Goth. hallus "rock," O.E. holm "rising land, island"), from PIE base *kel- "to rise, to be prominent" (cf. Skt. kuta- "summit, peak;" Mod.Pers. kutal, kotal high hill, the skirts of a hill;" Tabari dialect keti "hill; top of the head; L. collis "hill," culmen "top, summit," cellere "raise," celsus "high;" Gk. kolonos "hill," kolophon "summit;" Lith. kalnas "mountain," kalnelis "hill").

Tappé "hill."

The spherical region around a → secondary in which the secondary's gravity is more important for the motion of a particle about the secondary than the tidal influence of the → primary. The radius is described by the formula: r = a (m/3M)^1/3, where, in the case of the Earth, a is the semi-major axis of the orbit around the Sun, m is the mass of Earth, and M is the mass of the Sun. The Hill sphere for the Earth has a radius of 0.01 → astronomical units (AU). Therefore the Moon, lying at a distance of 0.0025 AU, is well within the Hill sphere of the Earth.

Named for George William Hill (1838-1914), an American astronomer who described this sphere of influence; → sphere.

The condition for the stability of a → three-body system. Three-body systems exist widely in the → solar system and → extrasolar systems, including Sun-planet-moon systems, planets-star systems, and → triple star systems. This concept of stability was introduced by Hill (1878). He used the → Jacobi integral to construct bounds of motion for → conservative systems with time-independent → potentials, which was introduced to study the stability of the Moon in the Sun-Earth → restricted three-body problem. The stability is defined by the → zero-velocity surface based on the Jacobi integral. The concept of the Hill stability has been used by many researchers to study the stability of three-body systems. The studies include the Hill stability in the full → three-body problems, the hierarchical three body problems, and the restricted three body problems (See, e.g., S. Gong & J. Li, 2015, Astrophys Space Sci. 358,37).

Hill, G.W.: Researches in the lunar theory. Am. J. Math. 1(2), 129-147 (1878); → stability.

A process in which a → close encounter between a → tightly bound binary star system and a → supermassive black hole causes one binary component to become bound to the black hole and the other to be ejected at very high velocities, up to 4,000 km s^-1. → hypervelocity star.

Hills, J. G, "Hyper-velocity and tidal stars from binaries disrupted by a massive Galactic black hole," Nature 331, 687; → mechanism.

The tenth of Jupiter's known satellites, 186 km in diameter revolving at a mean distance of 11,480,000 km from Jupiter. Discovered in 1904 by the Argentine-American astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine (1867-1951).

Himalia was a nymph of the island of Rhodes. She was seduced by the god Zeus (Jupiter).

Same as → Indian numeral system.

→ numeral; → system.

O.E. hype "hip," akin to Du. heup, O.H.G. huf, Ger. Hüfte, Swed. höft, Goth. hups "hip," of uncertain origin.

Šanj (Dehxodâ) "hip, buttock, thigh, haunch," of unknown origin.

A → European Space Agency satellite, which was launched in August 1989 and operated until March 1993. It was the first space mission devoted to → astrometry with an unprecedented degree of accuracy. The telescope on Hipparcos had a main mirror of diameter 29 cm. Calculations from observations by the main instrument generated the Hipparcos Catalogue of 118,218 stars charted with the highest precision (published in 1997) containing positions, distances, → parallaxes, and → proper motions. An auxiliary star mapper pinpointed many more stars with lesser but still unprecedented accuracy, in the Tycho Catalogue of 1,058,332 stars. The Tycho 2 Catalogue, completed in 2000, brings the total to 2,539,913 stars, and includes 99% of all stars down to magnitude 11. → Gaia.

Hipparcos, acronym for → High  → Precision  → Parallax  → Collecting → Satellite, chosen for its similarity to the name of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Nicaea (c. 190-125 BC), one of the most influential astronomers of antiquity, who compiled an extensive star catalogue in which he gave the positions of over 1,000 stars and also classified them according to their magnitude (on a scale of 1 to 6, brightest to faintest). Ptolemy later incorporated this information into his → Almagest. In addition, he discovered the → precession of the equinoxes.

The smallest known moon orbiting the planet → Neptune, discovered in 2013. Hippocamp has an estimated diameter of only about 34 km and orbits close to → Proteus, the outer and the second largest of Neptune's moons. The orbital → semi-major axes of the two moons differ by only 10%. Hippocamp is probably an ancient fragment of Proteus. Billions of years ago a comet collision would have chipped off a chunk of Proteus. Images from the Voyager 2 space probe from 1989 show a large → impact crater on Proteus, whose size compares with Hippocamp's (Showalter et al., 2019, Nature 566, 350).

Formerly known as S/2004 N 1, Hippocamp is named after the sea creatures in Greek and Roman mythology. The mythological Hippocampus possesses the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish. The Roman god Neptune would drive a sea-chariot pulled by Hippocampi.

A curve described by the → polar equation  r² = 4b (a - b sin²θ), where a and b are positive constants. For appropriate values of a and b, the curve looks like the infinity symbol, ∞. See also → spheres of Eudoxus.

Hippopede, literally "a horse's foot," denoting a "horse fetter (hobble)," from Gk. hippos, → horse, + -pede variant of -ped, combining form of pos,→ foot.

A type of graphical representation, used in statistics, in which frequency distributions are illustrated by rectangles.

Histogram, from Gk. histo-, a combining form meaning "tissue," from histos "mast, loom, beam, warp, web," literally "that which causes to stand," from histasthai "to stand," from PIE *sta- "to stand" (cf. Pers. ist-, istâdan "to stand;" O.Pers./Av. sta- "to stand, stand still; set;" Skt. sthâ- "to stand;" L. stare "to stand;" Lith. statau "place;" Goth. standan); → -gram.

Nemudâr, → diagram + sotuni "column-like," from sotun "column," from Mid.Pers. stun, from O.Pers. stênâ "column," Av. stuna-, Skt. sthuna- "column."

Of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of → history or past events (Dictionary.com). → historical supernova.

→ history; → -al.

A supernova event recorded in the course of history before the invention of the telescope. The well recorded supernovae of this small group are SN 185, SN 1006, SN 1054 (→ Crab Nebula), SN 1181, SN 1572 (→ Tycho's star), and SN 1604 (→ Kepler's star).

→ historical; → supernova.

1) The branch of knowledge dealing with past events.
2) The record and explanation of past events and times, especially in connection with a particular people, country, period, person, etc. See: → star formation history, → historical supernova.

History, from M.E. histoire, historie, from O.Fr. estoire, histoire, from L. historia "narrative, tale, story," from Gk. historia "a learning or knowing by inquiry, record, account," from historein "to inquire," from histor "one who knows or sees, wise man, " from PIE *wid-tor-, from base *weid- "to know; to see;" cf. Pers. bin- "to see" (present stem of didan); Mid.Pers. wyn-; O.Pers. vain- "to see;" Av. vaēn- "to see;" Skt. veda "I know." Related to Gk. idein "to see," and to eidenai "to know," → idea.

Târix, from Ar., itself, according to Abu Rayhân Biruni (973-1048, in Athar al-Baqqiya), loan from Mid.Pers. mâhrôz "date," first Arabicized as murux, from which the infinitive taurix, and then târix.