An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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Fundamental constant, first calculated by Bohr, for the intrinsic magnetic moment of an electron. → Bohr magneton.

From → magnet + → -on.

An instability that arises from the action of a weak → poloidal magnetic field in a → differentially rotating system, such as a → Keplerian disk. The MRI provides a mechanism to account for the additional outward → angular momentum transport. To put it simply, the → frozen magnetic field line acts as a spring connecting two radially neighboring fluid parcels. In a Keplerian disk the inner fluid parcel orbits more rapidly than the outer, causing the spring to stretch. The magnetic tension forces the inner parcel to slow down reducing its angular momentum by moving it to a lower orbit. The outer fluid parcel is forced by the spring to speed up, increase its angular momentum, and therefore move to a higher orbit. The spring tension increases as the two fluid parcels grow further apart, and eventually the process runs away. The MRI was first noted in a non-astrophysical context by E. Velikhov in 1959 when considering the stability of → Couette flow of an ideal hydromagnetic fluid. His result was later generalized by S. Chandrasekhar in 1960. The MRI was rediscovered by Balbus and Hawley 1991 (ApJ 376, 214) who demonstrated that this instability does indeed manifest itself in → accretion disks, and could account for the turbulent mixing needed to explain the observed mass → accretion rates.

→ magneto-; → rotational; → instability.

The factor by which the angular diameter of an object is apparently increased when viewed through an optical instrument to that of the object viewed by the unaided eye.

Verbal noun of → magnify.

In the n x n → matrix , the entities a₁₁, a₂₂, ..., a_nn.

→ main; → diagonal.

A correction introduced into star counts distributed by apparent magnitude.

→ Malmquist bias; → correction.

1) An act of manifesting.
2) The state of being manifested.
3) Outward or perceptible indication; materialization.
4. A public demonstration, as for political effect (Dictionary.com).

Verbal noun of → manifest; → -tion.

The theory and method of transforming the features, geometry, and topology on a sphere surface (in particular the spherical Earth) onto a plane.

→ map; → projection.

A method for sampling from → probability distributions using → Markov chains. MCMC methods are widely used in data modeling for → Bayesian inference and numerical integration in physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, and computer science.

→ Markov chain; → Monte Carlo Method.

A region on the surface of the → Moon where the → gravitational attraction is slightly higher than normal due to the presence of dense rock.

Short for mass concentration; → mass; → concentration.

An emission arising from the → maser process.

→ maser; → emission.

A measure of the rate of absorption of radiation, expressed as the linear absorption coefficient divided by the density of the medium through which radiation is passing.

→ mass; → absorption; → coefficient.

An event in the history of life on Earth in which large numbers of species (sometimes more than 90% of some species) vanish in a relatively short period of time. In spite of controversy, it is generally recognized that there have been at least six major mass extinctions. These occurred in the late Cambrian (500 million years ago), in the late Ordovician (440 million years ago), in the late Devonian (365 million years ago), at the end of the Permian (245 million years ago), in the late Triassic (208 million years ago), and at the end of the Cretaceous (65 million years ago).

→ mass; → extinction.

The fractional amount (by mass) of a given → chemical element or → nuclide in a given → chemical composition. In chemical composition studies of astrophysical objects the mass fractions of → hydrogen, → helium, and all the remaining chemical elements are usually denoted by the parameter X, Y, and Z, respectively. Their sum is defined as X + Y + Z = 1. The parameter Z is usually referred to as → heavy elements or → metals.

→ mass; → fraction.

1) The number of a class of objects as a function of their mass. → initial mass function (IMF); → present-day mass function (PDMF).
2) A numerical relation between the masses of the two components of a → spectroscopic binary that provides information on the relative masses of the two stars when the spectral lines of only one component can be seen. If M_p is the mass of primary (whose spectrum is known), M_s is the mass of secondary, and i the → angle of inclination of the orbit, the mass function is given by: (M_s³. sin³i) / (M_p + M_s)².

→ mass; → function.

A consequence of the → dynamical relaxation process in a gravitationally → bound system, such as a → star cluster or a → globular cluster, where massive and low-mass members occupy different volumes. Massive members sink toward the center, while less massive members tend to move farther away from the center.

→ mass; → segregation.

The famous equation proposed by Einstein as a consequence of his special theory of relativity describing the equivalence of mass and energy: E = mc², where E is energy, m is the equivalent amount of mass, and c is the velocity of light.

→ mass; → energy; → relation.

A relationship between luminosity and mass for stars that are on the main sequence, specifying how bright a star of a given mass will be. Averaged over the whole main sequence, it has been found that L = M^3.5, where both L and M are in solar units. This means, for example, that if the mass is doubled, the luminosity increases more than 10-fold.

→ mass; → luminosity; → relation.

A correlation between the → stellar mass (or → luminosity) and the → gas metallicity of → star-forming galaxies (Lequeux et al. 1979) according to which massive galaxies have higher gas metallicities. Several large galaxy surveys, such as the → Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), have confirmed that galaxies at all → redshifts with higher stellar masses retain more metals than galaxies with lower stellar masses. Besides the dependence on stellar mass, other studies have found further dependences of gas metallicity on other physical properties at a given mass, such as → specific star formation rate, → star formation rate, and stellar age. These higher dimensional relations could provide additional constraints to the processes that regulate the metal enrichment in galaxies. In addition to gas metallicity, also the → stellar metallicity of galaxies is found to correlate with the stellar mass, suggesting the mass-metallicity relation already existed at early epochs of galaxy evolution (Lian et al., 2017, MNRAS 474, 1143, and references therein).

→ mass; → metallicity; → relation.

The relation between the → stellar mass and the physical size of a galaxy. Studies show that the sizes increase with stellar mass, but that the relation weakens with increasing → redshift. Separating galaxies by their → star formation rate, model simulations show that → passive galaxies are typically smaller than → active galaxies at a fixed stellar mass. These trends are consistent with those found in observations; the level of agreement between the predicted and observed size-mass relations is of the order of 0.1 dex for redshifts < 1 and 0.2-0.3 dex from redshift 1 to 2. Known also as the → luminosity-size relation (Furlong et al., 2016, MNRAS 465, 722, and references therein).

→ mass; → size; → relation.

The act or process of materializing.

Verbal noun of → materialize.