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Tortosa

(Encyclopedia)Tortosa tōrtōˈsə [key], city (1990 pop. 29,970), Tarragona prov., NE Spain, in Catalonia, on the Ebro (Ebre) River. It has a fishing industry and light manufacturing, producing cement, clothing, a...

beech

(Encyclopedia)CE5 American beech Fagus grandifolia beech, common name for the Fagaceae, a family of trees and shrubs mainly of temperate and subtropical regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The principal genera�...

Hubble, Edwin Powell

(Encyclopedia)Hubble, Edwin Powell, 1889–1953, American astronomer, b. Marshfield, Mo. He did research (1914–17) at Yerkes Observatory, and joined (1919) the staff of Mt. Wilson Observatory, Pasadena, Calif., o...

Cook Islands

(Encyclopedia)Cook Islands, island group (2021 est. pop. 17,564), 90 sq mi (234 sq km), S Pacific, SE of Samoa; a self-governing state in free association with New Ze...

gravitation

(Encyclopedia)gravitation, the attractive force existing between any two particles of matter. The term gravitygravity is commonly used synonymously with gravitation, but in correct usage a definite distinction is...

Donati, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Donati, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä dōnäˈtē [key], 1826–73, Italian astronomer, b. Pisa. Serving as director of the Florence Observatory from 1864, he was a pioneer in the spec...

Airy, Sir George Biddell

(Encyclopedia)Airy, Sir George Biddell, 1801–92, English astronomer. The son of a poor farmer, he distinguished himself as Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, where he was elected fellow of Trinity College (1824) and a...

Amici, Giovanni Battista

(Encyclopedia)Amici, Giovanni Battista jōvänˈnē bät-tēsˈtä ämēˈchē [key], 1786–1863, Italian astronomer, mathematician, and naturalist. He became director of the observatory and professor of astronomy...

Meudon

(Encyclopedia)Meudon mödôNˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 46,173), Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, a suburb SW of Paris. Metal products, automobile bodies, and explosives are the chief manufactures. The astroph...

Bradley, James

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, James, 1693–1762, English astronomer. His discovery of the aberration of light, announced in 1728, provided an important line of evidence for the motion of the earth around the sun. In 1742...