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Möbius, Augustus Ferdinand

(Encyclopedia)Möbius, Augustus Ferdinand mōˈbēəs, Ger. möˈbēəs [key],(1790–1868), German mathematician and astronomer, b. Schulpforta, Saxony. A professor of astronomy at the Univ. of Leipzig, he made im...

Oceanus

(Encyclopedia)Oceanus ōsēˈənəs [key], in Greek mythology. 1 Circular stream that flows around the edge of the earth. The sun and moon rise from and descend into this stream; it is the source of all rivers. 2 P...

astrometry

(Encyclopedia)astrometry: see astronomy.

planet

(Encyclopedia)planet [Gr.,=wanderer], a large nonluminous body of rock, gas, or ice that orbits the sun or another star, has a rounded shape due to gravity, and has cleared its orbit of smaller objects. The term, o...

Ganesa

(Encyclopedia)Ganesa gənāˈsə [key], b. 1507, d. after 1564, Indian astronomer. As a boy of 13 in a village N of Mumbai, Ganesa wrote a treatise on astronomy, the Grahalaghava, which has often been reprinted and...

Cyclops

(Encyclopedia)Cyclops sīklōˈpēz [key], in Greek mythology, immense one-eyed beings. They appear in at least two distinct traditions. According to Hesiod the Cyclopes were smiths, the sons of Uranus and Gaea. Th...

Burnham, Sherburne Wesley

(Encyclopedia)Burnham, Sherburne Wesley, 1838–1921, American astronomer, b. Thetford, Vt. After serving as observer at Dearborn Observatory, Chicago (1877–81, 1882–84), and as astronomer at Lick Observatory (...

Reber, Gröte

(Encyclopedia)Reber, Gröte, 1911–2002, American radio engineer, b. Chicago, Ill. After graduating from the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1933, Reber worked for seve...

Lowell, Percival

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Percival, 1855–1916, American astronomer, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1876; brother of Abbott Lawrence Lowell and Amy Lowell. He visited Korea and Japan, where he acted as counselor and foreig...

Kuhn, Thomas Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Kuhn, Thomas Samuel, 1922–96, American philosopher and historian of science, b. Cincinnati, Ohio. He trained as a physicist at Harvard (Ph.D. 1949), where he taught the history of science from 1948 ...