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Venus, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Venus, in astronomy, 2d planet from the sun; it is often called the evening star or morning star and is brighter than any object in the sky except the sun and the moon. Because its orbit lies between ...

Mercury, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Mercury, in astronomy, nearest planet to the sun, at a mean distance of 36 million mi (58 million km); its period of revolution is 88 days. Mercury passes through phases similar to those of the moon a...

Mars, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Mars, in astronomy, 4th planet from the sun, with an orbit next in order beyond that of the earth. Mars has two natural satellites, discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. The innermost of these, Phobos...

Uranus , in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Uranus yo͝orāˈnəs, yo͝orˈə– [key], in astronomy, 7th planet from the sun, at a mean distance of 1.78 billion mi (2.87 billion km), with an orbit lying between those of Saturn and Neptune; its...

rocket, in aeronautics

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Relative positions of the components of the Saturn V rocket, the U.S. space vehicle used in the moon missions rocket, any vehicle propelled by ejection of the gases produced by combustion of s...

Taylor, Joseph Hooton, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Joseph Hooton, Jr., 1941–, American astrophysicist, b. Philadelphia, Ph.D. Harvard, 1968. Taylor was a professor at the Univ. of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1969 to 1980, when he joined th...

Harvard College Observatory

(Encyclopedia)Harvard College Observatory, astronomical observatory located in Cambridge, Mass., operated by Harvard (Harvard College at the time of the observatory's founding in 1839). Its equipment includes a 61-...

Lederman, Leon Max

(Encyclopedia)Lederman, Leon Max lĕdˈərmən [key], 1922–2018, American physicist, Ph.D. Columbia, 1951. He was a professor at Columbia until he became director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in B...

Anaxagoras

(Encyclopedia)Anaxagoras ănˌəksăgˈərəs [key], c.500–428 b.c., Greek philosopher of Clazomenae. He is credited with having transferred the seat of philosophy to Athens. He was closely associated with many f...

Pluto, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Pluto, in astronomy, a dwarf planet and the first Kuiper belt, or transneptunian, object (see comet) to be discovered (1930) by astronomers. Pluto has an elliptical orbit usually lying beyond that of ...