Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Davis, Raymond, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Raymond, Jr., 1914–2006, American astrochemist, Ph.D. Yale Univ. 1942. Davis, who served in the Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946, was a researcher at Monsanto Chemical Company (1946–48) an...

observatory, orbiting

(Encyclopedia)observatory, orbiting, research satellite designed to study solar radiation, electromagnetic radiation from distant stars, the earth's atmosphere, or the like. Because the atmosphere and other aspects...

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory sāˈrō tōlōˈlō [key], astronomical observatory located on Cerro Tololo peak, Chile, with offices in La Serena, about 40 mi (64 km) to the west. Funded by ...

observatory

(Encyclopedia)observatory, scientific facility especially equipped to detect and record naturally occurring scientific phenomena. Although geological and meteorological observatories exist, the term is generally ap...

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena

(Encyclopedia)Friedrich Schiller University of Jena frēˈdrĭkh shĭlˈər, yāˈnə [key], at Jena, Germany; founded 1548 as an academy; became the Univ. of Jena 10 years later. The school gained an international...

Koshiba, Masatoshi

(Encyclopedia)Koshiba, Masatoshi, 1926–2020, Japanese physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1955. He was a professor at the Univ. of Tokyo from 1958 (emeritus from 1987) and at the Univ. of Tokai from 1987 to 1997...

Mitchell, Maria

(Encyclopedia)Mitchell, Maria, 1818–89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian. On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 ...

spectroscope

(Encyclopedia)spectroscope, optical instrument for producing spectral lines and measuring their wavelengths and intensities, used in spectral analysis (see spectrum). When a material is heated to incandescence it e...

Carruthers, George Richard

(Encyclopedia) Carruthers, George Richard, 1939-2020, African-American astrophysicist, b. Cincinnati, OH, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BS, 1961; MS, nuclear...

Orbiting Astronomical Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO), series of four orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1966 and 1972 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to...
 

Browse by Subject