Columbia Encyclopedia
Search results
500 results found
Hess, Victor Francis
(Encyclopedia)Hess, Victor Francis, 1883–1964, American physicist, b. Austria, Ph.D. Univ. of Graz, 1906. After teaching at the universities of Graz and Innsbruck, he came to the United States in 1938 and was lat...Vulcan, in astronomy
(Encyclopedia)Vulcan, in astronomy, hypothetical planet whose existence was proposed by Le Verrier to explain part of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, not all of which could be accounted for by gravitation...retrograde motion
(Encyclopedia)retrograde motion, in astronomy, real or apparent movement of a planet, dwarf planet, moon, asteroid, or comet from east to west relative to the fixed stars. The most common direction of motion in the...sunspots
(Encyclopedia)sunspots, dark, usually irregularly shaped spots on the sun's surface that are actually solar magnetic storms. The spots are darker because the temperature of the spots is lower than that of the surro...Heliopolis, ancient city, Egypt
(Encyclopedia)Heliopolis hēlēŏpˈəlĭs [key] [Gr.,=city of the sun], ancient city, N Egypt, in the Nile delta, 6 mi (10 km) below modern Cairo. It was noted as the center of sun worship, and its god Ra or Re wa...Helios
(Encyclopedia)Helios hēˈlēŏs [key] [Gr.,=sun], in Greek religion and mythology, the sun god, son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Each morning he left a palace in the east and crossed the sky in a golden chari...gegenschein
(Encyclopedia)gegenschein gāˈgənshīnˌ [key] or counterglow, a slight brightening of the night sky in the region of the zodiac directly opposite the sun, i.e., 180° from the sun. Discovered by the Danish astro...Unification Church
(Encyclopedia)Unification Church, church founded (1954) in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon; officially the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification for World Christianity. Moon moved to the United States in 1971. ...Hyperion, in Greek religion and mythology
(Encyclopedia)Hyperion, in Greek religion and mythology, a Titan. He was the husband of his sister Theia and the father by her of Helios, Selene, and Eos. It is sometimes said that he was the original sun god. ...Baker, Russell
(Encyclopedia)Baker, Russell, 1925–2018, American journalist, author, humorist, and television personality, b. Loudon Co., Va., grad. John Hopkins (1947). He began as a night police reporter for The Baltimore Sun...Browse by Subject
- Earth and the Environment +-
- History +-
- Literature and the Arts +-
- Medicine +-
- People +-
- Philosophy and Religion +-
-
Places
+-
- Africa
- Asia
- Australia and Oceania
- Britain, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries
- Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Nations
- Germany, Scandinavia, and Central Europe
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Oceans, Continents, and Polar Regions
- Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Balkans
- United States, Canada, and Greenland
- Plants and Animals +-
- Science and Technology +-
- Social Sciences and the Law +-
- Sports and Everyday Life +-
