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Wrangell–Saint Elias National Park and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Wrangell–Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, at the convergence of the Chugach, Wrangell, and St. Elias mts., SW Alaska. The park (8,323,618 acres/3,369,856 hectares) contains Mt. Saint Elias (1...

Yamasaki, Minoru

(Encyclopedia)Yamasaki, Minoru mĭnōˈro͞o yämäsäˈkē [key], 1912–86, American architect, b. Seattle. Yamasaki worked for prominent architectural firms in New York City from 1937 until 1949, when he formed ...

capacitance

(Encyclopedia)capacitance, in electricity, capability of a body, system, circuit, or device for storing electric charge. Capacitance is expressed as the ratio of stored charge in coulombs to the impressed potential...

adenosine monophosphate

(Encyclopedia)adenosine monophosphate (AMP) ədĕnˈəsēn mŏnˌəfŏsˈfāt [key], organic compound composed of an adenine base, the sugar ribose, and one phosphate unit. AMP is one of the possible products of th...

Lovell, Sir Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Lovell, Sir Bernard (Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell), 1913–2012, English radio astronomer, b. Oldland Common, Gloucestershire, England, Ph.D. Univ. of Bristol, 1936. He was a member of the cosmic...

dwarf planet

(Encyclopedia)dwarf planet, a nonluminous body of rock or gas that orbits the sun and has a rounded shape due to its gravity. Unlike a planet, a dwarf planet is not capable of clearing its orbit of smaller objects ...

Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

altitude

(Encyclopedia)altitude, vertical distance of an object above some datum plane, such as mean sea level or a reference point on the earth's surface. It is usually measured by the reduction in atmospheric pressure wit...

seeing

(Encyclopedia)seeing, in astronomy, the clarity with which stars and other celestial objects can be observed. It is primarily determined by the atmosphere of the earth. The most obvious phenomenon is twinkling, whe...

Newcomb, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Newcomb, Simon no͞oˈkəm, nyo͞oˈ– [key], 1835–1909, American astronomer, b. Nova Scotia, grad. Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, 1858. Living in the United States from 1853, he was appointe...