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Head, Edith

(Encyclopedia)Head, Edith, 1907–81, American costume designer, b. Los Angeles, Calif. She began to design costumes for the motion pictures in the early 1930s, working at Paramount for most of her career and movin...

ecliptic coordinate system

(Encyclopedia)ecliptic coordinate system, an astronomical coordinate system in which the principal coordinate axis is the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun through the heavens. The ecliptic poles are the two p...

sidereal year

(Encyclopedia)sidereal year, time required for the earth to complete an orbit of the sun relative to the stars. The sidereal year is 365 days, 6 hr, 9 min, 9.5 sec of mean solar time (see solar time). It is 20 min ...

Posidonius

(Encyclopedia)Posidonius pōsēdōˈnēəs [key], c.135–c.51 b.c., Greek Stoic philosopher, b. Apamea, Syria. He settled in Rhodes after extensive travels. Noted for his learning, Posidonius gave new life to Stoi...

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...

Oort, Jan Hendrik

(Encyclopedia)Oort, Jan Hendrik ōrt [key], 1900–1992, Dutch astronomer. He confirmed (1927) Bertil Lindblad's theory of the Milky Way galaxy's rotation. In the 1950s he and his colleagues used radio astronomical...

Caso, Alfonso

(Encyclopedia)Caso, Alfonso älfōnˈsō käˈsō [key], 1896–1970, Mexican archaeologist. An authority on the ancient high civilizations of Mexico, he directed explorations at Mitla and Monte Albán during the 1...

megapode

(Encyclopedia)megapode mĕgˈəpōdˌ [key], common name for large, stout-bodied, long-tailed, terrestrial, nonmigratory birds comprising six genera in the family Megapodiidae. Members of the family have large, str...

Bode's law

(Encyclopedia)Bode's law [for J. E. Bode], also known as Titius's law or the Titius-Bode law, empirical relationship between the mean distances of the planets from the sun. If each number in the series 0, 3, 6, 12,...

Gibeon

(Encyclopedia)Gibeon gĭbˈēən [key], ancient town, 5 mi (8 km) NNW of Jerusalem. The Book of Joshua relates that its inhabitants established a treaty with the invading Israelites, resulting in their servitude to...