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continent

(Encyclopedia)continent, largest unit of landmasses on the earth. The continents include Eurasia (conventionally regarded as two continents, Europe and Asia), Africa, North America, South America, Australia, and An...

Orbiting Solar Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO), series of eight orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1962 and 1971 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study...

Logan, Sir William Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Logan, Sir William Edmond, 1798–1875, Canadian geologist. Educated in England, he managed (1831–38) coal mines and a copper smelter in Wales. In addition to making studies of clays underlying coal...

Jansky, Karl Guthe

(Encyclopedia)Jansky, Karl Guthe, 1905–50, American radio engineer; b. Norman, Okla. After graduating (1927) from the Univ. of Wisconson, he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories. While trying to determine the c...

King, Clarence

(Encyclopedia)King, Clarence, 1842–1901, American geologist, b. Newport, R.I., grad. Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, 1862. After serving as a volunteer assistant in the California state geological survey (1863...

Alfonso X, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso X (Alfonso the Wise), 1221–84, Spanish king of Castile and León (1252–84); son and successor of Ferdinand III, whose conquests of the Moors he continued, notably by taking Cádiz (1262). ...

Telesto

(Encyclopedia)Telesto təlĕsˈtō [key], in astronomy, one of the named moons, or natural satellites, of Saturn. Also known as Saturn XIII (or S13), Telesto is an irregularly shaped (nonspherical) body measuring a...

red shift

(Encyclopedia)red shift or redshift, in astronomy, the systematic displacement of individual lines in the spectrum of a celestial object toward the red, or longer wavelength, end of the visible spectrum. The effect...

Young, Charles Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Young, Charles Augustus, 1834–1908, American astronomer, b. Hanover, N.H., grad. Dartmouth, 1853. He discovered the reversing layer of the solar atmosphere and proved the gaseous nature of the sun's...

Doppler effect

(Encyclopedia)Doppler effect, change in the wavelength (or frequency) of energy in the form of waves, e.g., sound or light, as a result of motion of either the source or the receiver of the waves; the effect is nam...