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interstellar matter

(Encyclopedia)interstellar matter, matter in a galaxy between the stars, known also as the interstellar medium. The interstellar gas, which constitutes about 99% of the interstellar matter, consists mostly of hyd...

Hough, George Washington

(Encyclopedia)Hough, George Washington hŭf [key], 1836–1909, American astronomer, b. Montgomery co., N.Y., grad. Union College, 1856. He discovered 627 double stars and made systematic studies of the surface of ...

Barnard, Edward Emerson

(Encyclopedia)Barnard, Edward Emerson, 1857–1923, American astronomer, b. Nashville, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ., 1887. From 1887 to 1895 he was astronomer at Lick Observatory in California, and from 1895 he wa...

Clark, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Dick,, 1929-2012, American radio and TV broadcaster and producer, b. Bronxville, N.Y., as Richard Wagstaff Clark; Syracuse Univ. (B.A., 1951). Be...

Terkel, Studs

(Encyclopedia)Terkel, Studs, 1912–2008, American writer, social historian, and radio and television personality, b. the Bronx, N.Y., as Louis Terkel, grad. Univ. of Chicago (Ph.B. 1932, J.D. 1934). Terkel, who mo...

astrophysics

(Encyclopedia)astrophysics, application of the theories and methods of physics to the study of stellar structure, stellar evolution, the origin of the solar system, and related problems of cosmology. The distinctio...

Flammarion, Camille

(Encyclopedia)Flammarion, Camille kämēˈyə flämäryôNˈ [key], 1842–1925, French astronomer and author. He served for some years at the Paris Observatory and the Bureau of Longitudes, and in 1883 he set up a...

Branly, Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Branly, Édouard ādwärˈ bräNlēˈ [key], French physicist and physician. He was professor of physics at the Catholic Institute, Paris, from 1875. He developed (1890) a coherer for the detection of...

occultation

(Encyclopedia)occultation ŏkˌəltāˈshən [key], in astronomy, eclipse of one celestial body by another, e.g., when the moon lies between a star and the earth. Occultations of stars by the moon are important in ...

static

(Encyclopedia)static, term formerly use to describe electrical noise in radio reception, especially noise that originates outside a transmitter and receiver, e.g., in the atmosphere or in human-made devices. In gen...