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

An → adaptive optics instrument at the → European Southern Observatory (ESO) → Very Large Telescope (VLT) in service since 2001. It provides adaptive optics assisted imaging, imaging polarimetry, and → coronagraphy (only L) in the 1-5 μm range. It consists of two components: NAOS (Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System) and CONICA (COudé Near Infrared CAmera). The adaptive optics system, NAOS, is equipped with both → visible and → infrared→ wavefront sensors. It contains five → dichroic filters which split the light from the telescope between CONICA and one of the NAOS wavefront sensors. CONICA is the → infrared camera and → spectrometer attached to NAOS and equipped with an Aladdin 1024 × 1024 pixel InSb array detector. It possesses several wheels carrying masks/slits (including focal plane coronagraphic masks), filters, polarizing elements, → grisms and several cameras allowing → diffraction-limited sampling across the full wavelength range.

NaCo, from NAOS (→ Nasmyth, → adaptive; → optics; → system) + CONICA (→ coude; → near-infrared; → camera).

The most stable carbon compound with an average particle size of about 5 → nanometers (50 Å). Nanodiamonds are synthesized by detonation of → T.N.T. and then gathering the soot that remains from the explosion.

→ nano-; → diamond.

The outer region of a → quasar or an → active galactic nucleus displaying narrow spectral lines. Also called Type II AGN. See also → obscuring torus.

→ narrow; → line; → region.

A consonant produced with air escaping through the → nose. For this to happen the → soft palate is lowered and at the same time the mouth passage blocked at some point, so that all the air is pushed out of the nose. Examples of this sound include the English sounds [m], [n], and [ng].

→ nasal; → consonant.

A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state. → national, → international.

Nation, from O.Fr. nacion, from L. nationem (nom. natio) "nation, stock, race," literally "that which has been born," from natus, p.p. of nasci "to be born;" cognate with Pers. zâdan, → generate.

Nafân, from Av. nāfaēna- "family," hama.nāfaēna- "of the same family," related to nāfa- "near relationship, family, navel," napāt- "grandson" (Mod.Pers. navé "grandson"); cf. Mid.Pers. nâf "family," nâfag "navel," naft "descendant, " Parthian nap "family" (Mod.Pers. nâf "navel"); Sogd. nâf "country;" Sorani Kurd. natawa (Kurmanji Kurd. netewe) "family, race, nation," from *nafata (with metathesis); cf. Skt. nábhi- "nave, navel, central part; home, origin;" Gk. anepsios "cousin, sister's son;" L. nepos "grandchild; descendant;" O.Lithuanian neputis "grandson; nephew;" O.H.G. nabalo "navel;" Ger. Nabel "navel;" O.E. nefa "grandson; descendant;" + -ân suffix denoting family relationship, as in Bâbakân "family of Bâbak."

Of, involving, or relating to a nation as a whole. → National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

→ nation; → -al.

A federal agency of the United States government founded in 1958 for civil aeronautical research and space exploration, superseding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Its goals include improving human understanding of the universe, the solar system, and Earth and establishing a permanent human presence in space. NASA is headquarted at Washington, D.C., and operates several research, development, and test facilities, as follows alphabetically: 1) Ames Research Center; 2) Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards, California, used for flight testing and as a landing site for the Space Shuttle; 3) Glenn Research Center at Cleveland, Ohio, concerned with aircraft and rocket propulsion; 4) Goddard Space Flight Center; 5) Jet Propulsion Laboratory; 6) Johnson Space center; 7) Kennedy Space Center; 8) Langley Research Center at Hampton, Virginia, which carries out research in aeronautics and space technology; 9) Marshall Space Flight Center; 10) the Space Telescope Science Institute; 11) Stennis Space Center, near Bay St Louis, Mississippi, for testing rocket engines; and 12) Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, which manages NASA's sounding rocket and scientific balloon programs.

→ national; → aeronautics; → space; administration, verbal noun of administer, from M.E. amynistre, from O.Fr. aministrer, from L. administrare "to serve, carry out, manage," from → ad- "to" + ministrare "to serve," from minister "servant, priest's assistant," from minus, minor "less," hence "subordinate," + comparative suffix *-teros.

Sâzmân, → organization; fazâyi pertaining to fazâ, → space; Âmrikâ "United State of America."

Loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially: a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups (Merriam-Webster.com).

→ national; → -ism.

1) National status; specifically: a legal relationship involving allegiance on the part of an individual and usually protection on the part of the state b : membership in a particular nation.
2) Membership in a particular nation (Merriam-Webster.com).

→ national; → -ity.

The transfer of a major branch of industry or commerce from private to state ownership or control (OxfordDictionaries.com)

→ nationalize; → -tion.

1) To bring under the ownership or control of a nation, as industries and land (Dictionary.com).

→ national; → -ize.

A resonance such that the period of the driving force is the same as the natural period of the system.

→ natural; → resonance.

The branch of practical astronomy concerned with the determination of position and direction on sea by observation of celestial objects.

Nautical, from M.Fr. nautique, from L. nauticus "pertaining to ships or sailors," from Gk. nautikos, from nautes "sailor," from naus "ship," from PIE *nau- "boat;" cf. Pers. nâv "ship;" O.Pers./Av. *nāv-, O.Pers. nāviyā- "fleet;" Skt. nau-, nava- "ship, boat;" → astronomy.

Axtaršenâsi→ astronomy; daryâ-navardik, relating to daryâ-navardi "sea navigation," from daryâ "sea" (Mid.Pers. daryâp variant zrah; O.Pers. drayah-; Av. zrayah- "sea;" cf. Skt. jráyas- "expanse, space, flat surface") + navardi, noun of navardidan, navardan "to travel, walk, pass by and over" + -ik, → -ic.

One of a set of → differential equations that describes the motion of a → fluid as a function of → pressure, → density, total external force, and → viscosity. See also → Euler equation.

Named after Claude-Louis Navier (1785-1836), a French engineer and physicist, and George Gabriel Stokes, → stokes; → equation.

Same as → nautical astronomy.

Navigational, adj. of navigation, from L. navigationem (nom. navigatio), from navigatus, p.p. of navigare "to sail, steer a ship," from navis "ship," cognate with Pers. nâv "ship," as below, + root of agere "to drive," → act; → astronomy.

Axtaršenâsi→ astronomy; nâvrâni "navigation," from nâv "ship;" O.Pers./Av. *nāv-, O.Pers. nāviyā- "fleet;" cf. Skt. nau-, nava- "ship, boat" + râni verbal noun of rândan "to drive, to cause to go," causative of raftan "to go, walk, proceed" (present tense stem row-, Mid.Pers. raftan, raw-, Proto-Iranian *rab/f- "to go; to attack").

The part of a nebular object's → spectrum that is created by → free-free emission.

→ nebular; → continuum.

If event A must occur for event B to occur, then it is said that A is → necessary for B. If event A may cause B but there could be some other cause as well, then it is said that A is sufficient to cause B. See also → if and only if (iff).

→ necessary; → and; → sufficient; → condition.

1) The act of denying; → denial.
2) The absence or → opposite of something that is actual, positive, or affirmative.
3) A → negative statement, idea, doctrine; a contradiction, refutation, or rebuttal.
4) Logic: If p is a → proposition, then the statement "not p," denoted ¬ p, is the negation or opposite of p. If p is "It is sunny," then ¬ p is "It is not sunny." If p is → true, then ¬ p is → false, and vice versa.

Verbal noun of → negate.

A correlation between two variables such that as one variable's values tend to increase, the other variable's values tend to decrease.

→ negative; → correlation.

A type of polarization in which the direction of polarization becomes reversed.

→ negative; → polarization.