nightside

[nahyt-sahyd]

noun

1. Journalism.,  the night shift of a newspaper.

2. Astronomy.,  the dark side of a planet or moon.

Word History and Origins

Origin of nightside¹

1840–50 for an earlier sense; night + side ¹

Example Sentences

While currents of lava can carry some heat around to the nightside, they cannot move it efficiently enough to explain the cooling effect.

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With such a tight orbit, the planet is also likely to be tidally locked, with a dayside that faces the star at all times and a nightside in perpetual darkness.

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"This is a very strong indication that energy is being distributed from the dayside to the nightside, most likely by a volatile-rich atmosphere."

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"With Hubble, we could clearly see that there is water vapor on the dayside. Both Hubble and Spitzer suggested there might be clouds on the nightside," explained Taylor Bell, researcher from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute and lead author of a study published today in Nature Astronomy.

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Precise brightness measurements over a broad spectrum of mid-infrared light, combined with 3D climate models and previous observations from other telescopes, suggest the presence of thick, high clouds covering the nightside, clear skies on the dayside, and equatorial winds upwards of 5,000 miles per hour mixing atmospheric gases around the planet.

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