The terms astronomy and astrology are commonly confused, which isn’t surprising, considering they both involve studying the stars and both begin with the combining form astro- (referring to stars or celestial bodies). However, only one of these star-gazing terms refers to a recognized branch of science. In this article, we will state the difference between astronomy and astrology, explain why only one is considered a …
Meteors, meteorites, meteoroids, asteroids, comets … that’s a lot of terms (and space objects) flying around! Not to mention shooting stars and meteor showers. Are they all the same thing? Even though some of them may appear pretty similar to us, the answer is no, they’re not the same thing—especially not to the scientists who study them and who use different terms for specific reasons (more …
Ingress and egress look and sound like they’re opposites, and they are. They’re primarily used in the context of entrances and exits, especially in architecture and other fields related to planning how people get in and out of places. You can probably guess from the in in ingress that it generally means “the act of going in” or refers to an entryway. But there’s a …
You’re in an arbitrary fight with your best friend over a misunderstanding, you got a flat tire on the way to work, and an important document you needed got lost in the mail, never arriving at its intended destination. You might chalk this series of unfortunate events up to luck (or rather, lack thereof), but some may take it a step further and blame it …
Whether or not you believe that the position and relationship of the sun, moon, stars, and planets have any bearing on your personality, you probably still know what your astrological sign is. The zodiac contains 12 constellations and is divided into 12 equal segments. Each astrological sign—Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces—represents one of the segments. These are …
What is Betelgeuse? No, it’s not the lovably creepy character played by Michael Keaton in the 1988 Tim Burton movie Beetlejuice, though many folks pronounce them roughly the same way. We’re talking about the red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. That Betelgeuse, and its 20 times more massive than the Sun and nearly 650 light-years away. That’s almost 4 quadrillion miles away. So, how did the …
For years, scientists have been on the hunt for a mysterious “Planet Nine” that may exist in our solar system with a massive orbit of thousands—or even millions—of years. In 2011, a provocative hypothesis posed by a duo of planetary astronomers from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette named its version of this mysterious planet Tyche. They proposed a planet estimated to be four times the size of …
Have you heard the story about a giant green blob discovered in a remote section of the universe? An intergalactic blob in and of itself isn’t an appropriate topic for a dictionary website, even if the blob has been shown to move and change color. The reason you are reading about this on Dictionary.com is the mouthful of a name: Hanny’s Voorwerp. The second word is pronounced “FOR-verp.” What …