General astronomy

General astronomy

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General astronomy

ablation

Astronomy; General astronomy

The pieces of the meteorite turned into steam when it enters the atmosphere.

The theory that life spreads throughout the universe as DNA which travels via meteors. It implies that life on earth was seeded from a different planet. The theory is not held in high regard due to ...

elongation

Astronomy; General astronomy

Angular distance of a celestial object from the sun in the sky. In standard ephemerides, this is usually denoted by the Greek letter epsilon (or by the abbreviation "Elong."). A celestial (usually ...

declination

Astronomy; General astronomy

One element of the astronomical coordinate system on the sky that is used by astronomers. Declination, which can be thought of as latitude on the earth projected onto the sky, is usually denoted by ...

ecliptic

Astronomy; General astronomy

The apparent path of the sun against the sky background (celestial sphere); formally, the mean plane of the earth's orbit about the sun.

delta

Astronomy; General astronomy

The upper-case Greek letter used to denote an object's geocentric distance in ephemeris tables; see "ephemeris". (Note that lower-case delta is used to denote declination.)

degree

Astronomy; General astronomy

A unit used in the measurement of angles, heavily used particularly in astronomy. Due to ancient Babylonian mathematics, we still divide a circle into 360 even units of arc and call each of these ...