Word: nebular
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...known to be the full-fledged galaxy closest to our own in a universe that contains tens of billions of galaxies. "I do not know," Shapley wrote Hubble in a letter quoted by biographer Christianson, "whether I am sorry or glad to see this break in the nebular problem. Perhaps both." (Hubble was not entirely magnanimous in victory. To the end he insisted on using the term nebulae instead of Shapley's preferred galaxies...
...Nebular Dust. Actually, that business has a promising future. Besides illuminating the complex mechanisms of stellar evolution and the building of elements, it could yield important clues to the origin of the universe. By measuring the effect on interstellar molecules of the so-called background radiation* (believed to be the faint remnant of the "big bang" that, according to one theory, created the universe), astronomers may learn more about the primordial explosion. Most intriguing of all, the molecules could provide tantalizing evidence of lifebuilding far from earth...
Until the discovery of complex interstellar molecules, astronomers were convinced that ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays would quickly disintegrate any stray organic molecules that might form in deep space. Now they know that such molecules-which are essential to terrestrial life-can survive between the stars, apparently shielded by nebular dust. Indeed, Radio Astronomer David Buhl, one of those who found formaldehyde last year, thinks that organic molecules exist in considerable abundance in interstellar space. If so, he says, "life similar to ours" may well have evolved elsewhere among the 100 billion stars of the Milky...
Born in 1688, the son of a bishop in Sweden's state church, Swedenborg was a kind of Nordic Da Vinci. He invented a machine gun and a fire extinguisher, first explained to the world the phenomenon of phosphorescence and the function of the ductless glands, devised a nebular hypothesis to account for the origin of the universe. Metallurgist, physiologist and mathematician, he knew nine languages, and promoted fiscal reforms and liquor regulations as a member of Sweden's Diet...
Astronomy has been more successful in predicting the probable origin of plants, Gamow said. Working independently, Kant and Laplace formulated a "nebular hypothesis." According to this theory, matter with very high angular momentum formed into a ring around the sun. Subsequently, it condensed into the planets...