1.
Constellation
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A constellation is formally defined as a region of the celestial sphere, with boundaries laid down by the International Astronomical Union. The constellation areas mostly had their origins in Western-traditional patterns of stars from which the constellations take their names, in 1922, the International Astronomical Union officially recognized the 88 modern constellations, which cover the entire sky. They began as the 48 classical Greek constellations laid down by Ptolemy in the Almagest, Constellations in the far southern sky are late 16th- and mid 18th-century constructions. 12 of the 88 constellations compose the zodiac signs, though the positions of the constellations only loosely match the dates assigned to them in astrology. The term constellation can refer to the stars within the boundaries of that constellation. Notable groupings of stars that do not form a constellation are called asterisms, when astronomers say something is “in” a given constellation they mean it is within those official boundaries. Any given point in a coordinate system can unambiguously be assigned to a single constellation. Many astronomical naming systems give the constellation in which an object is found along with a designation in order to convey a rough idea in which part of the sky it is located. For example, the Flamsteed designation for bright stars consists of a number, the word constellation seems to come from the Late Latin term cōnstellātiō, which can be translated as set of stars, and came into use in English during the 14th century. It also denotes 88 named groups of stars in the shape of stellar-patterns, the Ancient Greek word for constellation was ἄστρον. Colloquial usage does not draw a distinction between constellation in the sense of an asterism and constellation in the sense of an area surrounding an asterism. The modern system of constellations used in astronomy employs the latter concept, the term circumpolar constellation is used for any constellation that, from a particular latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon. From the North Pole or South Pole, all constellations south or north of the equator are circumpolar constellations. In the equatorial or temperate latitudes, the term equatorial constellation has sometimes been used for constellations that lie to the opposite the circumpolar constellations. They generally include all constellations that intersect the celestial equator or part of the zodiac, usually the only thing the stars in a constellation have in common is that they appear near each other in the sky when viewed from the Earth. In galactic space, the stars of a constellation usually lie at a variety of distances, since stars also travel on their own orbits through the Milky Way, the star patterns of the constellations change slowly over time. After tens to hundreds of thousands of years, their familiar outlines will become unrecognisable, the terms chosen for the constellation themselves, together with the appearance of a constellation, may reveal where and when its constellation makers lived. The earliest direct evidence for the constellations comes from inscribed stones and it seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC
2.
Canes Venatici
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Canes Venatici /ˈkeɪniːz vᵻˈnætᵻsaɪ/ is one of the 88 official modern constellations. It is a northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is Latin for hunting dogs, and the constellation is depicted in illustrations as representing the dogs of Boötes the Herdsman. The stars of Canes Venatici are not bright, in classical times, they were listed by Ptolemy as unfigured stars below the constellation Ursa Major in his star catalogue. In medieval times, the identification of these stars with the dogs of Boötes arose through a mistranslation, some of Boötess stars were traditionally described as representing the club of Boötes. When the Arabic text was translated into Latin, the translator Gerard of Cremona mistook the Arabic word كلاب for kilāb, meaning dogs. In 1533, the German astronomer Peter Apian depicted Boötes as having two dogs with him and these spurious dogs floated about the astronomical literature until Hevelius decided to specify their presence in the sky by making them a separate constellation in 1687. Hevelius chose the name Asterion for the dog and Chara for the southern dog, as Canes Venatici. In his star catalogue, the Czech astronomer Bečvář assigned the names Asterion to β CVn, Canes Venatici is bordered by Ursa Major to the north and west, Coma Berenices to the south, and Boötes to the east. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is CVn, the official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 14 sides. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 12h 06. 2m and 14h 07. 3m, while the coordinates are between +27. 84° and +52. 36°. Covering 465 square degrees, it ranks 38th of the 88 constellations in size, Canes Venatici contains no bright stars, α and β CVn being only of 3rd and 4th magnitude respectively. Flamsteed catalogued 25 stars in the constellation, labelling them 1 to 25 Canum Venaticorum, α CVn is the constellations brightest star, named by Sir Charles Scarborough in memory of King Charles I, the deposed king of Britain. Legend has it that α CVn was brighter than usual during the Restoration, cor Caroli is a wide double star, with a primary of magnitude 2.9 and a secondary of magnitude 5.6, the primary is 110 light-years from Earth. The primary also has an unusually strong variable magnetic field, β CVn is a yellow-hued main sequence star of magnitude 4.2,27 light-years from Earth. Its common name comes from the word for joy, Y CVn is a semiregular variable star that varies between magnitudes 5.0 and 6.5 over a period of around 158 days. It is a star and is being deep red in color. AM CVn, a blue star of magnitude 14, is the prototype of a special class of cataclysmic variable stars, in which the companion star is a white dwarf
3.
Right ascension
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Right ascension is the angular distance measured eastward along the celestial equator from the vernal equinox to the hour circle of the point in question. When combined with declination, these astronomical coordinates specify the direction of a point on the sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. Right ascension is the equivalent of terrestrial longitude. Both right ascension and longitude measure an angle from a direction on an equator. Right ascension is measured continuously in a circle from that equinox towards the east. Any units of measure could have been chosen for right ascension, but it is customarily measured in hours, minutes. Astronomers have chosen this unit to measure right ascension because they measure a stars location by timing its passage through the highest point in the sky as the Earth rotates. The highest point in the sky, called meridian, is the projection of a line onto the celestial sphere. A full circle, measured in units, contains 24 × 60 × 60 = 86 400s, or 24 × 60 = 1 440m. Because right ascensions are measured in hours, they can be used to time the positions of objects in the sky. For example, if a star with RA = 01h 30m 00s is on the meridian, sidereal hour angle, used in celestial navigation, is similar to right ascension, but increases westward rather than eastward. Usually measured in degrees, it is the complement of right ascension with respect to 24h and it is important not to confuse sidereal hour angle with the astronomical concept of hour angle, which measures angular distance of an object westward from the local meridian. The Earths axis rotates slowly westward about the poles of the ecliptic and this effect, known as precession, causes the coordinates of stationary celestial objects to change continuously, if rather slowly. Therefore, equatorial coordinates are inherently relative to the year of their observation, coordinates from different epochs must be mathematically rotated to match each other, or to match a standard epoch. The right ascension of Polaris is increasing quickly, the North Ecliptic Pole in Draco and the South Ecliptic Pole in Dorado are always at right ascension 18h and 6h respectively. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1,2000 at 12,00 TT, the prefix J indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to J2000.0, astronomers used the successive Besselian Epochs B1875.0, B1900.0, the concept of right ascension has been known at least as far back as Hipparchus who measured stars in equatorial coordinates in the 2nd century BC. But Hipparchus and his successors made their star catalogs in ecliptic coordinates, the easiest way to do that is to use an equatorial mount, which allows the telescope to be aligned with one of its two pivots parallel to the Earths axis
4.
Declination
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In astronomy, declination is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declinations angle is measured north or south of the celestial equator, the root of the word declination means a bending away or a bending down. It comes from the root as the words incline and recline. Declination in astronomy is comparable to geographic latitude, projected onto the celestial sphere, points north of the celestial equator have positive declinations, while those south have negative declinations. Any units of measure can be used for declination, but it is customarily measured in the degrees, minutes. Declinations with magnitudes greater than 90° do not occur, because the poles are the northernmost and southernmost points of the celestial sphere, the Earths axis rotates slowly westward about the poles of the ecliptic, completing one circuit in about 26,000 years. This effect, known as precession, causes the coordinates of stationary celestial objects to change continuously, therefore, equatorial coordinates are inherently relative to the year of their observation, and astronomers specify them with reference to a particular year, known as an epoch. Coordinates from different epochs must be rotated to match each other. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1,2000 at 12,00 TT, the prefix J indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to J2000.0, astronomers used the successive Besselian Epochs B1875.0, B1900.0, the declinations of Solar System objects change very rapidly compared to those of stars, due to orbital motion and close proximity. This similarly occurs in the Southern Hemisphere for objects with less than −90° − φ. An extreme example is the star which has a declination near to +90°. Circumpolar stars never dip below the horizon, conversely, there are other stars that never rise above the horizon, as seen from any given point on the Earths surface. Generally, if a star whose declination is δ is circumpolar for some observer, then a star whose declination is −δ never rises above the horizon, as seen by the same observer. Likewise, if a star is circumpolar for an observer at latitude φ, neglecting atmospheric refraction, declination is always 0° at east and west points of the horizon. At the north point, it is 90° − |φ|, and at the south point, from the poles, declination is uniform around the entire horizon, approximately 0°. Non-circumpolar stars are visible only during certain days or seasons of the year, the Suns declination varies with the seasons. As seen from arctic or antarctic latitudes, the Sun is circumpolar near the summer solstice, leading to the phenomenon of it being above the horizon at midnight
5.
Redshift
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In physics, redshift happens when light or other electromagnetic radiation from an object is increased in wavelength, or shifted to the red end of the spectrum. Some redshifts are an example of the Doppler effect, familiar in the change of apparent pitches of sirens, a redshift occurs whenever a light source moves away from an observer. Finally, gravitational redshift is an effect observed in electromagnetic radiation moving out of gravitational fields. However, redshift is a common term and sometimes blueshift is referred to as negative redshift. Knowledge of redshifts and blueshifts has been applied to develop several terrestrial technologies such as Doppler radar and radar guns, Redshifts are also seen in the spectroscopic observations of astronomical objects. Its value is represented by the letter z, a special relativistic redshift formula can be used to calculate the redshift of a nearby object when spacetime is flat. However, in contexts, such as black holes and Big Bang cosmology. Special relativistic, gravitational, and cosmological redshifts can be understood under the umbrella of frame transformation laws, the history of the subject began with the development in the 19th century of wave mechanics and the exploration of phenomena associated with the Doppler effect. The effect is named after Christian Doppler, who offered the first known physical explanation for the phenomenon in 1842, the hypothesis was tested and confirmed for sound waves by the Dutch scientist Christophorus Buys Ballot in 1845. Doppler correctly predicted that the phenomenon should apply to all waves, before this was verified, however, it was found that stellar colors were primarily due to a stars temperature, not motion. Only later was Doppler vindicated by verified redshift observations, the first Doppler redshift was described by French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau in 1848, who pointed to the shift in spectral lines seen in stars as being due to the Doppler effect. The effect is called the Doppler–Fizeau effect. In 1868, British astronomer William Huggins was the first to determine the velocity of a moving away from the Earth by this method. In 1871, optical redshift was confirmed when the phenomenon was observed in Fraunhofer lines using solar rotation, about 0.1 Å in the red. In 1887, Vogel and Scheiner discovered the annual Doppler effect, in 1901, Aristarkh Belopolsky verified optical redshift in the laboratory using a system of rotating mirrors. The word does not appear unhyphenated until about 1934 by Willem de Sitter, perhaps indicating that up to point its German equivalent. Beginning with observations in 1912, Vesto Slipher discovered that most spiral galaxies, Slipher first reports on his measurement in the inaugural volume of the Lowell Observatory Bulletin. Three years later, he wrote a review in the journal Popular Astronomy, Slipher reported the velocities for 15 spiral nebulae spread across the entire celestial sphere, all but three having observable positive velocities
6.
Active galactic nucleus
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Such excess non-stellar emission has been observed in the radio, microwaves, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and gamma ray wavebands. A galaxy hosting an AGN is called an active galaxy, the radiation from an AGN is believed to be a result of accretion of matter by a supermassive black hole at the center of its host galaxy. Numerous subclasses of AGN have been defined based on their observed characteristics, early photographic observations of nearby galaxies detected some characteristic signatures of AGN emission, although there was not yet a physical understanding of the nature of the AGN phenomenon. Further spectroscopic studies by astronomers including Vesto Slipher, Milton Humason, in 1943, Carl Seyfert published a paper in which he described observations of nearby galaxies having bright nuclei that were sources of unusually broad emission lines. Galaxies observed as part of study included NGC1068, NGC4151, NGC3516. Active galaxies such as these are known as Seyfert galaxies in honor of Seyferts pioneering work, the development of radio astronomy was a major catalyst to understanding AGN. Some of the earliest detected radio sources are nearby active elliptical galaxies such as Messier 87, the 3C radio survey led to further progress in discovery of new radio sources as well as identifying the visible-light sources associated with the radio emission. In photographic images, some of these objects were nearly point-like or quasi-stellar in appearance, a major breakthrough was the measurement of the redshift of the quasar 3C273 by Maarten Schmidt, published in 1963. Shortly afterward, optical spectra were used to measured the redshifts of a number of quasars including 3C48. The enormous luminosities of these quasars as well as their unusual spectral properties indicated that their power source could not be ordinary stars, Accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole was suggested as the source of quasars power in papers by Edwin Salpeter and Yakov ZelDovich in 1964. Today, AGN are a topic of astrophysical research, both observational and theoretical. For a long time it has argued that an AGN must be powered by accretion of mass onto massive black holes. AGN are both compact and persistently extremely luminous, thus AGN-like characteristics are expected whenever a supply of material for accretion comes within the sphere of influence of the central black hole. In the standard model of AGN, cold material close to a black hole forms an accretion disc, dissipative processes in the accretion disc transport matter inwards and angular momentum outwards, while causing the accretion disc to heat up. The radiation from the accretion disc excites cold atomic material close to the black hole, a large fraction of the AGNs radiation may be obscured by interstellar gas and dust close to the accretion disc, but this will be re-radiated at some other waveband, most likely the infrared. Some accretion discs produce jets of twin, highly collimated, the direction of the jet ejection is determined either by the angular momentum axis of the accretion disc or the spin axis of the black hole. The jet production mechanism and indeed the jet composition on very small scales are not understood at present due to the resolution of astronomical instruments being too low, there exists a class of radiatively inefficient solutions to the equations that govern accretion. The most widely known of these is the Advection Dominated Accretion Flow, radiatively inefficient AGN would be expected to lack many of the characteristic features of standard AGN with an accretion disc
7.
Quasar
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A quasar is an active galactic nucleus of very high luminosity. A quasar consists of a black hole surrounded by an orbiting accretion disk of gas. As gas in the accretion disk falls toward the black hole, quasars emit energy across the electromagnetic spectrum and can be observed at radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. The most powerful quasars have luminosities exceeding 1041 W, thousands of greater than the luminosity of a large galaxy such as the Milky Way. Quasars are found over a broad range of distances. The peak epoch of quasar activity in the Universe corresponds to redshifts around 2, as of 2011, the most distant known quasar is at redshift z=7.085, light observed from this quasar was emitted when the Universe was only 770 million years old. Because quasars are distant objects, any light which reaches the Earth is redshifted due to the expansion of space. In early optical images, quasars appeared as point sources, indistinguishable from stars, with infrared telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, the host galaxies surrounding the quasars have been detected in some cases. These galaxies are normally too dim to be seen against the glare of the quasar, most quasars, with the exception of 3C273 whose average apparent magnitude is 12.9, cannot be seen with small telescopes. The luminosity of some quasars changes rapidly in the optical range, because these changes occur very rapidly they define an upper limit on the volume of a quasar, quasars are not much larger than the Solar System. This implies a high power density. The mechanism of brightness changes probably involves relativistic beaming of astrophysical jets pointed nearly directly toward Earth, the highest redshift quasar known is ULAS J1120+0641, with a redshift of 7.085, which corresponds to a comoving distance of approximately 29 billion light-years from Earth. Since light cannot escape the black holes, the energy is actually generated outside the event horizon by gravitational stresses. Central masses of 105 to 109 solar masses have been measured in quasars by using reverberation mapping. The matter accreting onto the hole is unlikely to fall directly in. Quasars may also be ignited or re-ignited when normal galaxies merge, in fact, it has been suggested that a quasar could form as the Andromeda Galaxy collides with our own Milky Way galaxy in approximately 3–5 billion years. More than 200,000 quasars are known, most from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, all observed quasar spectra have redshifts between 0.056 and 7.085. Applying Hubbles law to these redshifts, it can be shown that they are between 600 million and 28.85 billion light-years away
8.
Apparent magnitude
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The apparent magnitude of a celestial object is a number that is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth. The brighter an object appears, the lower its magnitude value, the Sun, at apparent magnitude of −27, is the brightest object in the sky. It is adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere, furthermore, the magnitude scale is logarithmic, a difference of one in magnitude corresponds to a change in brightness by a factor of 5√100, or about 2.512. The measurement of apparent magnitudes or brightnesses of celestial objects is known as photometry, apparent magnitudes are used to quantify the brightness of sources at ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths. An apparent magnitude is measured in a specific passband corresponding to some photometric system such as the UBV system. In standard astronomical notation, an apparent magnitude in the V filter band would be denoted either as mV or often simply as V, the scale used to indicate magnitude originates in the Hellenistic practice of dividing stars visible to the naked eye into six magnitudes. The brightest stars in the sky were said to be of first magnitude, whereas the faintest were of sixth magnitude. Each grade of magnitude was considered twice the brightness of the following grade and this rather crude scale for the brightness of stars was popularized by Ptolemy in his Almagest, and is generally believed to have originated with Hipparchus. This implies that a star of magnitude m is 2.512 times as bright as a star of magnitude m +1 and this figure, the fifth root of 100, became known as Pogsons Ratio. The zero point of Pogsons scale was defined by assigning Polaris a magnitude of exactly 2. However, with the advent of infrared astronomy it was revealed that Vegas radiation includes an Infrared excess presumably due to a disk consisting of dust at warm temperatures. At shorter wavelengths, there is negligible emission from dust at these temperatures, however, in order to properly extend the magnitude scale further into the infrared, this peculiarity of Vega should not affect the definition of the magnitude scale. Therefore, the scale was extrapolated to all wavelengths on the basis of the black body radiation curve for an ideal stellar surface at 11000 K uncontaminated by circumstellar radiation. On this basis the spectral irradiance for the zero magnitude point, with the modern magnitude systems, brightness over a very wide range is specified according to the logarithmic definition detailed below, using this zero reference. In practice such apparent magnitudes do not exceed 30, astronomers have developed other photometric zeropoint systems as alternatives to the Vega system. The AB magnitude zeropoint is defined such that an objects AB, the dimmer an object appears, the higher the numerical value given to its apparent magnitude, with a difference of 5 magnitudes corresponding to a brightness factor of exactly 100. Since an increase of 5 magnitudes corresponds to a decrease in brightness by a factor of exactly 100, each magnitude increase implies a decrease in brightness by the factor 5√100 ≈2.512. Inverting the above formula, a magnitude difference m1 − m2 = Δm implies a brightness factor of F2 F1 =100 Δ m 5 =100.4 Δ m ≈2.512 Δ m
9.
Galactic coordinate system
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It uses the right-handed convention, meaning that coordinates are positive toward the north and toward the east in the fundamental plane. Longitude measures the distance of an object eastward along the galactic equator from the galactic center. Analogous to terrestrial longitude, galactic longitude is measured in degrees. Latitude measures the distance of an object perpendicular to a plane parallel to, but ~57 light years north of. For example, the north pole has a latitude of +90°. Analogous to terrestrial latitude, galactic latitude is usually measured in degrees, the first Galactic coordinate system was used by William Herschel in 1785. 5°. Longitude 0° is the great semicircle that originates from this point along the line in position angle 123° with respect to the equatorial pole, the galactic longitude increases in the same direction as right ascension. Galactic latitude is positive towards the north pole, with a plane passing through the Sun and parallel to the galactic equator being 0°. Based on this definition, the poles and equator can be found from spherical trigonometry and can be precessed to other epochs. Radio source Sagittarius A*, which is the best physical marker of the galactic center, is located at 17h 45m 40. 0409s. Rounded to the number of digits as the table, 17h 45. 7m, −29. 01°, there is an offset of about 0. 07° from the defined coordinate center. There are two major variations of galactic coordinates, commonly used for computing space velocities of galactic objects. In these systems the xyz axes are designated UVW, but the definitions vary by author
10.
Black hole
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A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. The theory of relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon, although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed. In many ways a black hole acts like a black body. Moreover, quantum theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Black holes were considered a mathematical curiosity, it was during the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality, black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings, by absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form. There is general consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies, despite its invisible interior, the presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Matter that falls onto a black hole can form an accretion disk heated by friction. If there are other stars orbiting a black hole, their orbits can be used to determine the black holes mass, such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars.3 million solar masses. On 15 June 2016, a detection of a gravitational wave event from colliding black holes was announced. The idea of a body so massive that light could not escape was briefly proposed by astronomical pioneer John Michell in a letter published in 1783-4. Michell correctly noted that such supermassive but non-radiating bodies might be detectable through their effects on nearby visible bodies. In 1915, Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, only a few months later, Karl Schwarzschild found a solution to the Einstein field equations, which describes the gravitational field of a point mass and a spherical mass. A few months after Schwarzschild, Johannes Droste, a student of Hendrik Lorentz, independently gave the solution for the point mass. This solution had a peculiar behaviour at what is now called the Schwarzschild radius, the nature of this surface was not quite understood at the time
11.
Solar mass
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The solar mass is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately 1.99 ×1030 kilograms. It is used to indicate the masses of stars, as well as clusters, nebulae. It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about two kilograms, M☉ = ×1030 kg The above mass is about 332946 times the mass of Earth. Because Earth follows an orbit around the Sun, its solar mass can be computed from the equation for the orbital period of a small body orbiting a central mass. The value he obtained differs by only 1% from the modern value, the diurnal parallax of the Sun was accurately measured during the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, yielding a value of 9″. From the value of the parallax, one can determine the distance to the Sun from the geometry of Earth. The first person to estimate the mass of the Sun was Isaac Newton, in his work Principia, he estimated that the ratio of the mass of Earth to the Sun was about 1/28700. Later he determined that his value was based upon a faulty value for the solar parallax and he corrected his estimated ratio to 1/169282 in the third edition of the Principia. The current value for the parallax is smaller still, yielding an estimated mass ratio of 1/332946. As a unit of measurement, the solar mass came into use before the AU, the mass of the Sun has been decreasing since the time it formed. This occurs through two processes in nearly equal amounts, first, in the Suns core, hydrogen is converted into helium through nuclear fusion, in particular the p–p chain, and this reaction converts some mass into energy in the form of gamma ray photons. Most of this energy eventually radiates away from the Sun, second, high-energy protons and electrons in the atmosphere of the Sun are ejected directly into outer space as a solar wind. The original mass of the Sun at the time it reached the main sequence remains uncertain, the early Sun had much higher mass-loss rates than at present, and it may have lost anywhere from 1–7% of its natal mass over the course of its main-sequence lifetime. The Sun gains a small amount of mass through the impact of asteroids. However, as the Sun already contains 99. 86% of the Solar Systems total mass, M☉ G / c2 ≈1.48 km M☉ G / c3 ≈4.93 μs I. -J. A Bright Young Sun Consistent with Helioseismology and Warm Temperatures on Ancient Earth and Mars
12.
White dwarf
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A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense, its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, a white dwarfs faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy, no fusion takes place in a white dwarf wherein mass is converted to energy. The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years, there are currently thought to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred star systems nearest the Sun. The unusual faintness of white dwarfs was first recognized in 1910, the name white dwarf was coined by Willem Luyten in 1922. The universe has not existed long enough to experience a white dwarf releasing all of its energy as it will take many billions of years. If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the temperatures, around 1 billion K, required to fuse carbon. After such a star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, it will leave behind a core, usually, white dwarfs are composed of carbon and oxygen. If the mass of the progenitor is between 8 and 10.5 solar masses, the temperature will be sufficient to fuse carbon but not neon. Stars of very low mass will not be able to fuse helium, hence, the material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result, it support itself by the heat generated by fusion against gravitational collapse. A carbon-oxygen white dwarf that approaches this limit, typically by mass transfer from a companion star. A white dwarf is very hot when it forms, but because it has no source of energy, it will gradually radiate its energy and this means that its radiation, which initially has a high color temperature, will lessen and redden with time. Over a very time, a white dwarf will cool. The stars low temperature means it will no longer emit significant heat or light, and it will become a cold black dwarf. Because the length of time it takes for a dwarf to reach this state is calculated to be longer than the current age of the universe. The oldest white dwarfs still radiate at temperatures of a few thousand kelvins, the pair 40 Eridani B/C was discovered by William Herschel on 31 January 1783, p.73 it was again observed by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve in 1825 and by Otto Wilhelm von Struve in 1851. In 1910, Henry Norris Russell, Edward Charles Pickering and Williamina Fleming discovered that, despite being a dim star,40 Eridani B was of spectral type A, or white. In 1939, Russell looked back on the discovery, p.1 I was visiting my friend and generous benefactor and this piece of apparently routine work proved very fruitful—it led to the discovery that all the stars of very faint absolute magnitude were of spectral class M
13.
Galactic plane
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The galactic plane is the plane in which the majority of a disk-shaped galaxys mass lies. The directions perpendicular to the galactic plane point to the galactic poles. Most often, in usage, the terms galactic plane and galactic poles are used to refer specifically to the plane and poles of the Milky Way. Some galaxies are irregular and do not have any well-defined disk, even in the case of a barred spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, defining the galactic plane is slightly imprecise and arbitrary since the stars are not perfectly coplanar. 282s, Dec 27° 07′42. 01″. This position is in Coma Berenices, near the bright star Arcturus, likewise, the zero of longitude of galactic coordinates was also defined in 1959 to be at position angle 123° from the north celestial pole. Thus the zero point on the galactic equator was at 17h 42m 26. 603s, −28° 55′00. 445″ or 17h 45m 37. 224s, −28° 56′10. 23″. The galactic center is located at position angle 31. 72° or 31. 40° east of north, galactic coordinate system Reid, M. J. Brunthaler, A. The Proper Motion of Sagittarius A*, the Mass of Sagittarius A*, The Astrophysical Journal,616, 872–884, arXiv, astro-ph/0408107, Bibcode, 2004ApJ.616. 872R, doi,10. 1086/424960. See appendix for the numbers listed above
14.
Milky Way
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The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. The descriptive milky is derived from the appearance from Earth of the galaxy – a band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610, until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies, the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter between 100,000 light-years and 180,000 light-years. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars, there are probably at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way. The Solar System is located within the disk, about 26,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, on the edge of one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas. The stars in the inner ≈10,000 light-years form a bulge, the very center is marked by an intense radio source, named Sagittarius A*, which is likely to be a supermassive black hole. Stars and gases at a range of distances from the Galactic Center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second. The constant rotation speed contradicts the laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests much of the mass of the Milky Way does not emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation. This mass has been termed dark matter, the rotational period is about 240 million years at the position of the Sun. The Milky Way as a whole is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to frames of reference. The oldest stars in the Milky Way are nearly as old as the Universe itself, the Milky Way has several satellite galaxies and is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which is a component of the Virgo Supercluster, which is itself a component of the Laniakea Supercluster. The Milky Way can be seen as a band of white light some 30 degrees wide arcing across the sky. Dark regions within the band, such as the Great Rift, the area of the sky obscured by the Milky Way is called the Zone of Avoidance. The Milky Way has a low surface brightness. Its visibility can be reduced by background light such as light pollution or stray light from the Moon. The sky needs to be darker than about 20.2 magnitude per square arcsecond in order for the Milky Way to be seen and it should be visible when the limiting magnitude is approximately +5.1 or better and shows a great deal of detail at +6.1
15.
Spectrum
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A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without steps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light after passing through a prism, as scientific understanding of light advanced, it came to apply to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrum has since been applied by analogy to topics outside of optics, thus, one might talk about the spectrum of political opinion, or the spectrum of activity of a drug, or the autism spectrum. In these uses, values within a spectrum may not be associated with precisely quantifiable numbers or definitions, such uses imply a broad range of conditions or behaviors grouped together and studied under a single title for ease of discussion. Nonscientific uses of the spectrum are sometimes misleading. For instance, a single left–right spectrum of opinion does not capture the full range of peoples political beliefs. Political scientists use a variety of biaxial and multiaxial systems to accurately characterize political opinion. In most modern usages of spectrum there is a theme between the extremes at either end. This was not always true in older usage, in Latin spectrum means image or apparition, including the meaning spectre. Spectral evidence is testimony about what was done by spectres of persons not present physically and it was used to convict a number of persons of witchcraft at Salem, Massachusetts in the late 17th century. The word spectrum was used to designate a ghostly optical afterimage by Goethe in his Theory of Colors and Schopenhauer in On Vision. The prefix spectro- is used to form words relating to spectra, for example, a spectrometer is a device used to record spectra and spectroscopy is the use of a spectrometer for chemical analysis. In the 17th century the word spectrum was introduced into optics by Isaac Newton, soon the term referred to a plot of light intensity or power as a function of frequency or wavelength, also known as a spectral density plot. The term spectrum was expanded to apply to other waves, such as sound waves that could also be measured as a function of frequency, frequency spectrum and power spectrum of a signal. The term now applies to any signal that can be measured or decomposed along a variable such as energy in electron spectroscopy or mass to charge ratio in mass spectrometry. Spectrum is also used to refer to a representation of the signal as a function of the dependent variable. Devices used to measure an electromagnetic spectrum are called spectrograph or spectrometer, the visible spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be seen by the human eye. The wavelength of light ranges from 390 to 700 nm
16.
McDonald Observatory
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The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with facilities on Mount Fowlkes. The observatory is part of the University of Texas at Austin and it is an organized research unit of the College of Natural Sciences. The provision of the will was challenged by McDonalds relatives, but after a legal fight. The then-unnamed Otto Struve Telescope was dedicated on May 5,1939, McDonald Observatory was operated under contract by the University of Chicago until the 1960s, when control was transferred to the University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Harlan J. Smith. Directors Otto Struve Gerard Peter Kuiper Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren William Wilson Morgan Harlan James Smith Frank N and it works closely with the astronomy department of the University of Texas at Austin while maintaining administrative autonomy. The high and dry peaks of the Davis Mountains make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the region, the Otto Struve Telescope, dedicated in 1939, was the first large telescope built at the observatory. It is located on Mt. Locke at an altitude of 2,070 m, the summit of Mt. Locke, accessed by Spur 78, is the highest point on Texas highways. The Harlan J. Smith Telescope, also on Mt. Locke, was completed in 1968, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, dedicated in late 1997, is located on the summit of Mt. Fowlkes at 2,030 m above sea level. It is operated jointly by the University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, as of 2012, the HET is tied with the similar Southern African Large Telescope as the fifth largest telescope in the world. However, its cost was about 20% that of other similarly-sized telescopes in use due to its optimization for spectrography. The McDonald Laser Ranging System operates a 0.76 m telescope on Mt. Fowlkes to perform satellite laser ranging, a 0.5 m Ritchey-Chretien reflector owned by Boston University on Mt. Locke is used for optical aeronomy. The 0.4 m Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment reflector on Mt. Fowlkes is used to search for the signature of gamma-ray bursts. The 4.9 m Millimeter Wave Observatory radio telescope operated on Mt. Locke until 1988, MWO was a joint project between the UT Department of Astronomy and the Department of Electrical Engineering. The site of the antenna is now occupied by the BLOOMhouse, the UT School of Architectures entry in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. The observatory experiences a climate with cool, dry winters and hot. Coordinates,30. 70528°N104. 02333°W /30.70528, bash Visitors Center, located between Mt. Locke and Mt. Fowlkes, includes a café, gift shop, and interactive exhibit hall. The Visitors Center conducts daily live solar viewings in a large theater, special viewing nights, during which visitors can stay on-site and view directly through eyepieces on the 0.9 m, Struve, or Smith telescopes, are held on a reservation-only basis
17.
Spectral line
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Spectral lines are often used to identify atoms and molecules from their characteristic spectral lines. Spectral lines are the result of interaction between a system and a single photon. When a photon has about the amount of energy to allow a change in the energy state of the system. A spectral line may be observed either as a line or an absorption line. Which type of line is observed depends on the type of material, an absorption line is produced when photons from a hot, broad spectrum source pass through a cold material. The intensity of light, over a frequency range, is reduced due to absorption by the material. By contrast, a bright, emission line is produced when photons from a hot material are detected in the presence of a spectrum from a cold source. The intensity of light, over a frequency range, is increased due to emission by the material. Spectral lines are highly atom-specific, and can be used to identify the composition of any medium capable of letting light pass through it. Several elements were discovered by means, such as helium, thallium. Mechanisms other than atom-photon interaction can produce spectral lines, depending on the exact physical interaction, the frequency of the involved photons will vary widely, and lines can be observed across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays. In other cases the lines are designated according to the level of ionization by adding a Roman numeral to the designation of the chemical element, so that Ca+ also has the designation Ca II. Neutral atoms are denoted with the roman number I, singly ionized atoms with II, more detailed designations usually include the line wavelength and may include a multiplet number or band designation. Many spectral lines of hydrogen also have designations within their respective series. A spectral line extends over a range of frequencies, not a single frequency, in addition, its center may be shifted from its nominal central wavelength. There are several reasons for this broadening and shift and these reasons may be divided into two general categories – broadening due to local conditions and broadening due to extended conditions. Broadening due to conditions is due to effects which hold in a small region around the emitting element. Broadening due to extended conditions may result from changes to the distribution of the radiation as it traverses its path to the observer
18.
Accretion disk
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An accretion disk is a structure formed by diffused material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star, gravity causes material in the disk to spiral inward towards the central body. Gravitational and frictional forces compress and raise the temperature of the material, the frequency range of that radiation depends on the central objects mass. Accretion disks of stars and protostars radiate in the infrared. The study of modes in accretion disks is referred to as diskoseismology. Accretion disks are a phenomenon in astrophysics, active galactic nuclei, protoplanetary disks. These disks very often give rise to astrophysical jets coming from the vicinity of the central object, jets are an efficient way for the star-disk system to shed angular momentum without losing too much mass. The most spectacular accretion disks found in nature are those of active galactic nuclei and of quasars, as matter enters the accretion disc, it follows a trajectory called a tendex line, which describes an inward spiral. The loss of angular momentum manifests as a reduction in velocity, at a slower velocity, as the particle falls to this lower orbit, a portion of its gravitational potential energy is converted to increased velocity and the particle gains speed. Thus, the particle has lost energy even though it is now travelling faster than before, however, the large luminosity of quasars is believed to be a result of gas being accreted by supermassive black holes. Elliptical accretion disks formed at tidal disruption of stars can be typical in galactic nuclei, Accretion process can convert about 10 percent to over 40 percent of the mass of an object into energy as compared to around 0.7 percent for nuclear fusion processes. A gas flow then develops from the star to the primary. Angular momentum conservation prevents a straight flow from one star to the other, Accretion disks surrounding T Tauri stars or Herbig stars are called protoplanetary disks because they are thought to be the progenitors of planetary systems. The accreted gas in this case comes from the molecular cloud out of which the star has formed rather than a companion star, in the 1940s, models were first derived from basic physical principles. In order to agree with observations, those models had to invoke a yet unknown mechanism for angular momentum redistribution, if matter is to fall inwards it must lose not only gravitational energy but also lose angular momentum. In other words, angular momentum should be transported outwards for matter to accrete and this prevents the existence of a hydrodynamic mechanism for angular momentum transport. On one hand, it was clear that viscous stresses would eventually cause the matter towards the center to heat up, on the other hand, viscosity itself was not enough to explain the transport of angular momentum to the exterior parts of the disk. Turbulence-enhanced viscosity was the thought to be responsible for such angular-momentum redistribution
19.
Galaxy
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A galaxy is a gravitationally bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias, literally milky, Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with just a few billion stars to giants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxys center of mass. Galaxies are categorized according to their morphology as elliptical, spiral. Many galaxies are thought to have holes at their active centers. The Milky Ways central black hole, known as Sagittarius A*, has a four million times greater than the Sun. Recent estimates of the number of galaxies in the observable universe range from 200 billion to 2 trillion or more, most of the galaxies are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter and separated by distances on the order of millions of parsecs. The space between galaxies is filled with a gas having an average density of less than one atom per cubic meter. The majority of galaxies are organized into groups, clusters. At the largest scale, these associations are generally arranged into sheets and filaments surrounded by immense voids. In Greek mythology, Zeus places his son born by a mortal woman, the infant Heracles, on Heras breast while she is asleep so that the baby will drink her divine milk and will thus become immortal. Hera wakes up while breastfeeding and then realizes she is nursing a baby, she pushes the baby away, some of her milk spills and. In the astronomical literature, the capitalized word Galaxy is often used to refer to our galaxy, the Milky Way, to distinguish it from the other galaxies in our universe. The English term Milky Way can be traced back to a story by Chaucer c. 1380, See yonder, lo, the Galaxyë Which men clepeth the Milky Wey, For hit is whyt. However, the word Universe was later understood to mean the entirety of existence, so this expression fell into disuse and the objects instead became known as galaxies. Tens of thousands of galaxies have been catalogued, but only a few have well-established names, such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and the Sombrero Galaxy. Astronomers work with numbers from certain catalogues, such as the Messier catalogue, the NGC, the IC, the CGCG, all of the well-known galaxies appear in one or more of these catalogues but each time under a different number. For example, Messier 109 is a galaxy having the number 109 in the catalogue of Messier, but also codes NGC3992, UGC6937, CGCG 269-023, MCG +09-20-044. One of the arguments to do so is that these impressive objects deserve better than uninspired codes, for instance, Bodifee and Berger propose the informal, descriptive name Callimorphus Ursae Majoris for the well-formed barred galaxy Messier 109 in Ursa Major
20.
Balmer series
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The Balmer series or Balmer lines in atomic physics, is the designation of one of a set of six named series describing the spectral line emissions of the hydrogen atom. The Balmer series is calculated using the Balmer formula, an empirical equation discovered by Johann Balmer in 1885, there are several prominent ultraviolet Balmer lines with wavelengths shorter than 400 nm. The number of lines is an infinite continuum as it approaches a limit of 364.6 nm in the ultraviolet. The Balmer series is characterized by the electron transitioning from n ≥3 to n =2, where n refers to the radial quantum number or principal quantum number of the electron. The transitions are named sequentially by Greek letter, n =3 to n =2 is called H-α,4 to 2 is H-β,5 to 2 is H-γ, and 6 to 2 is H-δ. Although physicists were aware of atomic emissions before 1885, they lacked a tool to predict where the spectral lines should appear. The Balmer equation predicts the four visible lines of hydrogen with high accuracy. The familiar red H-alpha spectral line of gas, which is the transition from the shell n =3 to the Balmer series shell n =2, is one of the conspicuous colours of the universe. It contributes a bright red line to the spectra of emission or ionisation nebula, like the Orion Nebula, in true-colour pictures, these nebula have a distinctly pink colour from the combination of visible Balmer lines that hydrogen emits. Later, it was discovered that when the lines of the hydrogen spectrum are examined at very high resolution. This splitting is called fine structure and it was also found that excited electrons could jump to the Balmer series n =2 from orbitals where n was greater than 6, emitting shades of violet when doing so. Balmer noticed that a number had a relation to every line in the hydrogen spectrum that was in the visible light region. When any integer higher than 2 was squared and then divided by itself squared minus 4 and his number also proved to be the limit of the series. The Balmer equation could be used to find the wavelength of the lines and was originally presented as follows. B is a constant with the value of 3. 6450682×10−7 m or 364.50682 nm, M is equal to 2 n is an integer such that n > m. In 1888 the physicist Johannes Rydberg generalized the Balmer equation for all transitions of hydrogen, where λ is the wavelength of the absorbed/emitted light and RH is the Rydberg constant for hydrogen. The Rydberg constant is seen to be equal to 4/B in Balmers formula, other characteristics of a star that can be determined by close analysis of its spectrum include surface gravity and composition. Because the Balmer lines are seen in the spectra of various objects
21.
Gravity
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Gravity, or gravitation, is a natural phenomenon by which all things with mass are brought toward one another, including planets, stars and galaxies. Since energy and mass are equivalent, all forms of energy, including light, on Earth, gravity gives weight to physical objects and causes the ocean tides. Gravity has a range, although its effects become increasingly weaker on farther objects. The most extreme example of this curvature of spacetime is a hole, from which nothing can escape once past its event horizon. More gravity results in time dilation, where time lapses more slowly at a lower gravitational potential. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental interactions of nature, the gravitational attraction is approximately 1038 times weaker than the strong force,1036 times weaker than the electromagnetic force and 1029 times weaker than the weak force. As a consequence, gravity has an influence on the behavior of subatomic particles. On the other hand, gravity is the dominant interaction at the macroscopic scale, for this reason, in part, pursuit of a theory of everything, the merging of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics into quantum gravity, has become an area of research. While the modern European thinkers are credited with development of gravitational theory, some of the earliest descriptions came from early mathematician-astronomers, such as Aryabhata, who had identified the force of gravity to explain why objects do not fall out when the Earth rotates. Later, the works of Brahmagupta referred to the presence of force, described it as an attractive force. Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th and this was a major departure from Aristotles belief that heavier objects have a higher gravitational acceleration. Galileo postulated air resistance as the reason that objects with less mass may fall slower in an atmosphere, galileos work set the stage for the formulation of Newtons theory of gravity. In 1687, English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton published Principia, which hypothesizes the inverse-square law of universal gravitation. Newtons theory enjoyed its greatest success when it was used to predict the existence of Neptune based on motions of Uranus that could not be accounted for by the actions of the other planets. Calculations by both John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier predicted the position of the planet. A discrepancy in Mercurys orbit pointed out flaws in Newtons theory, the issue was resolved in 1915 by Albert Einsteins new theory of general relativity, which accounted for the small discrepancy in Mercurys orbit. The simplest way to test the equivalence principle is to drop two objects of different masses or compositions in a vacuum and see whether they hit the ground at the same time. Such experiments demonstrate that all objects fall at the rate when other forces are negligible
22.
ArXiv
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In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all scientific papers are self-archived on the arXiv repository. Begun on August 14,1991, arXiv. org passed the half-million article milestone on October 3,2008, by 2014 the submission rate had grown to more than 8,000 per month. The arXiv was made possible by the low-bandwidth TeX file format, around 1990, Joanne Cohn began emailing physics preprints to colleagues as TeX files, but the number of papers being sent soon filled mailboxes to capacity. Additional modes of access were added, FTP in 1991, Gopher in 1992. The term e-print was quickly adopted to describe the articles and its original domain name was xxx. lanl. gov. Due to LANLs lack of interest in the rapidly expanding technology, in 1999 Ginsparg changed institutions to Cornell University and it is now hosted principally by Cornell, with 8 mirrors around the world. Its existence was one of the factors that led to the current movement in scientific publishing known as open access. Mathematicians and scientists regularly upload their papers to arXiv. org for worldwide access, Ginsparg was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002 for his establishment of arXiv. The annual budget for arXiv is approximately $826,000 for 2013 to 2017, funded jointly by Cornell University Library, annual donations were envisaged to vary in size between $2,300 to $4,000, based on each institution’s usage. As of 14 January 2014,174 institutions have pledged support for the period 2013–2017 on this basis, in September 2011, Cornell University Library took overall administrative and financial responsibility for arXivs operation and development. Ginsparg was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education as saying it was supposed to be a three-hour tour, however, Ginsparg remains on the arXiv Scientific Advisory Board and on the arXiv Physics Advisory Committee. The lists of moderators for many sections of the arXiv are publicly available, additionally, an endorsement system was introduced in 2004 as part of an effort to ensure content that is relevant and of interest to current research in the specified disciplines. Under the system, for categories that use it, an author must be endorsed by an established arXiv author before being allowed to submit papers to those categories. Endorsers are not asked to review the paper for errors, new authors from recognized academic institutions generally receive automatic endorsement, which in practice means that they do not need to deal with the endorsement system at all. However, the endorsement system has attracted criticism for allegedly restricting scientific inquiry, perelman appears content to forgo the traditional peer-reviewed journal process, stating, If anybody is interested in my way of solving the problem, its all there – let them go and read about it. The arXiv generally re-classifies these works, e. g. in General mathematics, papers can be submitted in any of several formats, including LaTeX, and PDF printed from a word processor other than TeX or LaTeX. The submission is rejected by the software if generating the final PDF file fails, if any image file is too large. ArXiv now allows one to store and modify an incomplete submission, the time stamp on the article is set when the submission is finalized
. Bibcode:2004ApJ...614..547S. doi:10.1086/423607. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
