Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

287 results found

Grimaldi, Francesco Maria

(Encyclopedia)Grimaldi, Francesco Maria fränchāsˈkō märēˈä grēmälˈdē [key], 1618?–1663, Italian physicist and mathematician. A Jesuit and professor at Bologna, he studied in detail and named the dark ...

Bouguer, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Bouguer, Pierre pyĕr bo͞ogĕrˈ [key], 1698–1758, French mathematician and hydrographer. He made some of the first photometric measurements, calculating the intensity of the light of the sun as co...

Halley, Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Halley, Edmond hălˈē, hôˈlē [key], 1656–1742, English astronomer and mathematician. He is particularly noted as the first astronomer to predict the return of a comet and the first to point out...

Eris, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Eris, in astronomy, the largest known dwarf planet. Eris, whose highly eccentric elliptical orbit ranges from 38 AU to 97 AU and is inclined more than 44°, is the largest known object of the Kuiper b...

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan

(Encyclopedia)Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan, 1896–1953, American author, b. Washington, D.C., grad. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1918. She was a journalist until 1928, when she moved to the Florida backwoods, where most of he...

Lagoon Nebula

(Encyclopedia)Lagoon Nebula, bright, diffuse nebula in the southern constellation Sagittarius; cataloged as M8 or NGC 6526. It is visible to the naked eye and has an angular area larger than that of the full moon. ...

Menzel, Donald Howard

(Encyclopedia)Menzel, Donald Howard, 1901–76, American astrophysicist, b. Florence, Colo. From 1926 to 1932 he was with the Lick Observatory in Calif. In 1932 he joined the faculty at Harvard, where he became pro...

Dove, Arthur Garfield

(Encyclopedia)Dove, Arthur Garfield dŭv [key], 1880–1946, American painter, b. Canandaigua, N.Y. Early in his career he did commercial illustration in New York City. Following a European trip (1907–9), he adop...

Ballia

(Encyclopedia)Ballia bŭlˈyə [key], town, Uttar Pradesh state, N central India. Situated on a rich alluvi...

quadrature

(Encyclopedia)quadrature, in astronomy, arrangement of two celestial bodies at right angles to each other as viewed from a reference point. If the reference point is the earth and the sun is one of the bodies, a pl...