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Jones, Brian

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Brian, 1947–, British balloonist, b. Bristol. A former Royal Air Force pilot, he entered the world of ballooning in the 1980s, and in 1997 became an organizer for the attempt of the British-b...

Rømer, Olaus

(Encyclopedia)Rømer, Olaus or Ole ōläˈo͝os, ōˈlə römˈər [key], 1644–1710, Danish astronomer. He is noted for his discovery that light travels at a definite speed and does not move through space instant...

Rovaniemi

(Encyclopedia)Rovaniemi rôˈvänēˌĕmē [key], city (1996 pop. 57,389), capital of Lapland prov., N Finland, at the confluence of the Ounas and Kemi rivers. Commercial and agricultural fairs and winter sports ev...

aureole, in physics

(Encyclopedia)aureole ôrˈēōlˌ [key], in physics, luminous circle seen when the sun or other bright light is observed through a diffuse medium, i.e., smoke, thin cloud, fog, haze, or mist. It sometimes occurs a...

Spieghel, Hendrick Laurenszoon

(Encyclopedia)Spieghel, Hendrick Laurenszoon hĕnˈdrək louˈrənszōnˌ spēˈkhəl [key], 1549–1612, Dutch poet. In his cycle of spiritual songs Lieden Op't Vader Ons (modern ed. 1957), he was among the first ...

Stonehenge

(Encyclopedia)Stonehenge stōnˈhĕnjˌ [key], group of standing stones on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, S England. Preeminent among megalithic monuments in the British Isles, it is similar to an older and larger mon...

hour angle

(Encyclopedia)hour angle, in astronomy, a coordinate in the equatorial coordinate system. The hour angle of a celestial body is the angular distance, expressed in hours, minutes, and seconds (one hour equals 15 deg...

Orsay, Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, count d'

(Encyclopedia)Orsay, Alfred Guillaume Gabriel, count d' älfrĕdˈ gēyōmˈ gäbrēĕlˈ, dôrsāˈ [key], 1801–52, French dandy. The son of a Bonapartist general, he went to England in 1821, where he met Margue...

iceberg

(Encyclopedia)iceberg, mass of ice that has become detached, or calved, from the edge of an ice sheet or glacier and is floating on the ocean. Because ice is slightly less dense than water about one ninth of the to...

Challenger expedition

(Encyclopedia)Challenger expedition, British oceanographic expedition under the direction of the Scottish professor Charles Wyville Thompson and the British naturalist Sir John Murray. Taking place from 1872 to 187...