Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

space station

(Encyclopedia)space station or space platform, artificial earth satellite, usually manned, that is placed in a fixed orbit and can serve as a base for astronomical observations; zero-gravity materials processing; s...

space-time

(Encyclopedia)space-time, central concept in the theory of relativity that replaces the earlier concepts of space and time as separate absolute entities. In relativity one cannot uniquely distinguish space and time...

ISS

(Encyclopedia)International Space Station: see space exploration; space station. ...

Tiangong 1 & 2

(Encyclopedia)Tiangong, Chinese space station: see space exploration; space station. ...

Salyut

(Encyclopedia)Salyut, Soviet space station: see space exploration; space station. ...

Skylab

(Encyclopedia)Skylab: see space exploration; space station. ...

Ultima Thule

(Encyclopedia)Ultima Thule, in astronomy and space exploration, nickname for Arrokoth. ...

Sputnik

(Encyclopedia)Sputnik: see satellite, artificial; space exploration. ...

European Space Agency

(Encyclopedia)European Space Agency (ESA), multinational agency dedicated to the promotion, for exclusively peaceful purposes, of cooperation among European states in space research and technology. Member states in...

Hubble Space Telescope

(Encyclopedia)Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the c...