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breakwater

(Encyclopedia)breakwater, offshore structure to protect a harbor from wave energy or deflect currents. When it also serves as a pier, it is called a quay; when covered by a roadway it is called a mole. In the Unite...

nucleus, in physics

(Encyclopedia)nucleus, in physics, the extremely dense central core of an atom. Following the discovery of radioactivity by A. H. Becquerel in 1896, Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radiation given off b...

Euratom

(Encyclopedia)Euratom: see European Atomic Energy Community. ...

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...

Freundlich, Erwin Finlay

(Encyclopedia)Freundlich, Erwin Finlay froindˈlĭkh [key], 1885–1964, German astronomer. Freundlich obtained a doctorate in mathematics at Göttingen, then joined the Royal Observatory at Berlin, where he worked...

Hulse, Russell Alan

(Encyclopedia)Hulse, Russell Alan, 1950–, American astrophysicist, b., New York City, Ph.D. Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1975. Hulse was a researcher at the Princeton's plasma physics laboratory from 1977 unt...

Horus

(Encyclopedia)Horus hôrˈəs [key], in Egyptian religion, sky god, god of light and goodness. One of the most important of the Egyptian deities, Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis. In a famous myth he avenged th...

Edison

(Encyclopedia)Edison, township (2020 pop. 107,588), Middlesex co., NE N.J., inc. 1870 as Raritan Township, renamed 1954. Edison's varied manufactures include chemical...

syzygy

(Encyclopedia)syzygy sĭzˈəjē [key], in astronomy, alignment of three bodies of the solar system along a straight or nearly straight line. A planet is in syzygy with the earth and sun when it is in opposition or...

heat

(Encyclopedia)heat, nonmechanical energy in transit, associated with differences in temperature between a system and its surroundings or between parts of the same system. The study of heat and its relationship ...