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

A function whose value at each point is n-dimensional, as compared to a scalar function, whose value is one-dimensional.

→ vector; → function.

Any particle of unit spin, such as the W boson, the photon, or the rho meson.

→ vector; → meson.

The perturbation in the → primordial Universe plasma caused by → vorticity. These perturbations cause → Doppler shifts that result in → quadrupole anisotropy.

→ vector; → perturbation.

1) All the plants or plant life of a place.
2) (Botany) Plant life as a whole, especially the plant life of a particular region.
3) The act or process of vegetating.

Verbal noun from → vegetate.

The → standard deviation of a velocity → distribution. It indicates how objects of the sample move relative to one another. Objects with similar velocities have a small velocity dispersion, whereas objects with very different velocities have a large velocity dispersion.

→ velocity; → dispersion.

The linear relation wherein all galaxies are moving away from one another, with velocities that are greater with increasing distance of the galaxy. Same as → Hubble's law.

→ velocity; → distance; → relation.

The location in a → fluid stream where the → cross section of the → stream is at a minimum, and fluid velocity is the highest, such as in the case of a → jet issuing out of a → nozzle.

L. vena "channel;" contracta, "contracted," → contract.

Šâre-gozar "fluid passage," → fluid; → passage, terengidé, → contracted.

The → sidereal rotation period of Venus, or its → sidereal day, is 243.025 Earth days (retrograde). The length of a → solar day on Venus (that is one entire day-night period) is 116.75 Earth days, that is significantly shorter than the sidereal day because of the retrograde rotation. One Venusian year is about 1.92 Venusian solar days.

→ Venus; → rotation.

The act of verifying. The state of being verified.
The process of research and examination required to establish correctness, authenticity, or validity.

Verbal noun of → verify.

A particular form or variant of something.
An account of something, given from a specific point of view.

M.E., from M.Fr. version, from M.L. versionem (nominative versio) "a turning," from p.p. stem of L. vertere "to turn;" cognate with Pers. gardidan "to change," as below.

Gardâk, present stem of gardidan "to change, to turn" (Mid.Pers. vartitan "to change, to turn;" Av. varət- "to turn, revolve;" cf. Skt. vrt- "to turn, roll," vartate "it turns round, rolls;" L. vertere "to turn;" O.H.G. werden "to become;" PIE base *wer- "to turn, bend") + -âk noun suffix.

A technique in radio interferometry in which the individual telescopes are not directly connected together, but instead make their observations separately with very accurate timings. The data are later sent to a central correlator to be combined. With this technique the individual telescopes can be arbitrarily far apart, and so the technique provides the highest resolution images in astronomy, typically down to a few milliarcseconds.

→ very; → large; → baseline; → interferometry.

1) The act of vibrating. The state of being vibrated.
2) A continuing → periodic  → oscillation relative to a fixed reference point or → equilibrium state.

Verbal noun from → vibrate.

Of or pertaining to → vibration. → vibrational mode.

→ vibration; → -al.

The energy due to the vibration of the molecules making up atoms (→ molecular vibration). A molecule in space can have energies in various forms: → rotational energy, vibrational energy, or electronic energy. These energies of molecules are → quantized and a particular molecule can exist in different rotational and vibrational → energy levels. The molecules can move from one level to another level only by a jump involving a finite amount of energy. → Quantum mechanics predicts that any molecule can never have zero vibrational energy, that is atoms can never be completely at rest relative to each other. The harmonically oscillating molecules can undergo vibrational changes determined by simple selection rules obtained from → Schrödinger equation.

→ vibrational; → energy.

The frequency at which the atoms in a molecule vibrate. The frequencies of → molecular vibrations in diatomic molecules are in the order of 10^-12 to 10^-14 Hz. In such molecules, the only → vibrational mode available is along the bond. More complicated molecules have many types of vibration and stretching modes.

→ vibrational; → frequency.

Any of the ways in which a → molecule vibrates. Each vibrational mode has a different → frequency frequency. The number of vibrational modes of a molecule is determined by the number of atoms in it. The number of vibrational modes for a non-linear molecule is 3N - 6, where N is the number of atoms making up the molecule. For a linear molecule it is 3N - 5.

→ vibrational; → mode.

A transition between two → quantized  → levels of a → molecule that have different vibrational energies.

→ vibrational; → transition.

A slight change in the → energy level of a → molecule due to → vibrational transition and/or → rotational transition.

→ vibrational; → rotational; → transition.

The act of violating. The state of being violated. → parity violation

Verbal noun from → violate.

A description of the interstellar medium justified by the presence of supersonic shock waves, massive star winds, turbulence, supernova explosions, etc.

→ violent; → interstellar; → environment.